Peninsula Prep Baseball
Ted Mathias, Peninsula Prep Baseball correspondent
SAN CARLOS – Long before Serra outfielder Aaron Minton was climbing prospect lists as one of the top-ranked juniors in Northern California, he was climbing trees in his San Carlos neighborhood.
Oak trees, laurel trees and walnut trees. None were safe from his aerial assault, which seems perfectly natural in a town that named its downtown streets after trees.
If you visited the Mintons' house back in those days, you might see Aaron perched high atop a branch on their tree-lined street. The athletic skills were evident from the start. The quick bursts up the trees, the agility and balance shifting from branch to branch, and the strength to move from tree to tree.
One might guess that young Aaron would someday be on ESPN, being a lumberjack in the Great Outdoor Games would be more likely than appearing in the College World Series.
He's a kid of many talents besides baseball and tree climbing, including chess.
“Climbing trees was just this random thing I enjoyed,” he said. “I liked sports as well, but it was nice to be different from the other kids and have hobbies like chess. It made me feel unique and let me chart my own course.”
His own course – his way of doing things – has always worked. Keep in mind this is a kid who capped his final year in the San Carlos Little League with a three-homer game, something that ranks high on his highlight reel of snack-shack memories.
“That was up there,” he said matter-of-factly, as if multi-home run games were commonplace.
Growing up in a place where childhood heroes are everywhere – from World Series champions like Buster Posey and Hunter Pence to NBA titlists like Steph Curry – Minton, the younger brother of recent Serra graduate Davis Minton, has never had to look far to find his.
That would be his grandfather, Steve Mikulic.
“My grandfather is the most humble person I know, which is amazing considering all the incredible things he has accomplished,” Minton said.
Mikulic was a three-sport athlete with a 4.0 GPA at Thornridge High in suburban Chicago. The Kansas City Athletics drafted him in 1967, but after being accepted by Dartmouth, Mikulic chose to forego professional baseball to get an Ivy League education.
Mikulic was the quarterback at Dartmouth, but eventually the warmer weather and the chance to compete for a baseball national championship lured him to the University of Arizona, where he enrolled as a pre-med major.
After starting his Wildcats career as a backup infielder, Mikulic forced his way into the starting lineup in 1970. That season, he hit .393 (still fifth all time in Wildcats history), broke the NCAA record with 91 hits, was selected as a first-team All-American, and led the Wildcats to the 1970 College World Series. Mikulic was drafted again in 1971, this time in the third round by the Cleveland Indians.
In 2019, Steve Mikulic was inducted into the Arizona Wildcats Sports Hall of Fame.
Today, Mikulic works at a dental practice in Foster City, with Aaron and the entire Minton family as his patients. And the word on the street is that you still can’t sneak a fastball (or a cavity) by him.
“We attended his Arizona Hall of Fame induction ceremony," Minton said. "We learned so much about him and all the amazing things he accomplished, things which he never even told us about. We were like, ‘Grandpa did what?’ It was really an incredible experience to be there for his special moment.”
The baseball bloodlines run deep in Aaron’s family. Steve Mikulic is Aaron’s maternal grandfather, the father to Jen, his mother. And John Minton, Aaron’s father, also has an impressive baseball resume.
John and Jen met as students at UC-Santa Barbara. John was a pitcher for the Gauchos from 1994-97. The right-hander is still the all-time career saves leader for the Gauchos but might be better known for his unique pitching delivery.
He would start his delivery from the extreme right side of the rubber and then fall off the mound like he had just tripped over a sprinkler head. He also had a three-quarters arm-slot release with wicked stuff, all of which made him a nightmare for right-handed hitters.
How would Aaron have fared against his father? It makes for an interesting game of what-if.
Instead of just blurting out, “I would have taken him yard,” Aaron was reflective. You could see the wheels turning as the chess master thought through the fictitious at-bat, calculating the best approach for successful outcome. The best way to get a hit, he said, is to be patient, to wait for a pitch up in the zone, don’t try to do too much with it, and look to drive it up the middle or opposite field.
“The thing my dad taught me most about baseball is work ethic, patience, and persistence,” he said. “Just keep working hard, be patient, and good things will happen. My dad never forced baseball on me when I was a kid. When he would go to the cages with Davis, he always asked if I wanted to join them, but never forced me. This gave me the space to love baseball in my own time. And I eventually did.”
In a game where failure is the norm, a game that will break your heart on a regular basis, learning to be patient is more important in baseball than any other sport. In his seventh grade, Aaron’s resolve was put to the test. He was playing baseball in a circuit called “The League,” and was in the throes of a bad slump.
That's where his dad's lessons of work ethic, patience and persistence paid off. Aaron doubled down on his hard work and finally fought his way through the funk. Instead of breaking him, it made him stronger.
“Aaron is very dedicated to being the best baseball player he can be," Mikulic said. "He works hard at it. I provide moral support, remind him how hard the game is, how unfair it can be. We talk about mental toughness, not letting the highs and lows of your performance affect your attitude during a game. I’m there for him to bounce anything off me, to get my take on it. I feel blessed to be able to closely follow Aaron’s progress all these years.”
It’s not every day that a freshman gets the call to play varsity baseball, especially for one of the best baseball schools in California. But Aaron Minton joined Serra's varsity roster several times in 2024, including a call up during the playoffs.
“We brought him in specifically to pinch-run," said Serra coach Mat Keplinger. "We didn’t want to put too much on his plate his freshman year, but he did a great job for the role we needed him in."
This spring, the sophomore was called on for more responsibility. He started in right fielder for a Serra team that went 28-7 and made it to the NorCal-Division I championship game.
It was the first time he and Davis played together since their last year in the San Carlos Little League, when 10-year-old Aaron shared the field with his 12-year-old brother.
“Davis pushes me harder than anyone else, but in a supportive and encouraging way," Aaron said. "Like when I just got back from a tournament in Georgia, I was tired and didn’t want to do anything, and Davis was pushing me to go to the gym with him. As for playing on the same team as him, it was a bit weird at first, but it was also awesome. And I know this was probably the last time we will ever play on the same team together, so it was extra special.”
Davis capped off an amazing career at Serra as a two-way player, hitting .340 with 3 HR’s, 23 RBIs and a 1.26 ERA on the mound. He also threw a no-hitter for good measure. Davis was named first-team All-WCAL for the second time in his career. He will be continuing his baseball and academic pursuits for Chapman College in Southern California in August.
The 2025 season didn't begin well for Aaron, who got off to a 2-for-27 start and lost his job.
“My first at bat to start the season was a ball I thought was a home run, but it was like a foot short," he said. "I started to think that should have been a home run, but it wasn’t, and then I began to try too hard to make up for that, and things spiraled from there.”
Despite the rocky start, Keplinger never considered sending him down to the junior varsity.
“Aaron got off to a slow start, but the quality of the practices were tremendous. And we believe in process over results. The results will come," Keplinger said.
Keplinger said Davis Minton and Ian Josephson, Peninsula Prep Baseball's top Prime 31 player this year, deserve much of the credit for Aaron's turnaround.
"I credit the seniors for helping Aaron during this difficult time, particularly Ian Josephson and Davis, who were also on varsity as sophomores," Keplinger said.
There were others, too, Aaron Minton said. Richie Calderon, Tyler Harrison, Evan Bradshaw and Jack Armstrong were supportive.
"I started to realize that getting a hit wasn’t the only thing I could do to help the team," he said. "I could steal a base, make a great defensive play, lay down a great bunt. It was about doing anything possible to help the team win that day.
"Once that became the goal and the mindset, it relaxed me, and things started to change.”
Aaron caught fire once WCAL conference play began. He hit .367 in league with two homers, 2 triples, and 13 RBIs. He made the All-WCAL's first team.
But his pinnacle moment came in the CCS-Division I championship game against Valley Christian. Serra was down 2-0 with runners on second and third d in the fourth inning. Facing WCAL pitcher of the year and Stanford commit Brock Ketelsen, Aaron doubled down the left-field line to tie the score and later scored on Bradshaw's infield single to give the Padres a 3-2 lead they would hold onto to win their first CCS crown single 2009.
Aaron will head into his junior season as one of the top baseball prospects in Northern California. He’s 6-foot-1 and might still have a growth spurt or two left in him.
“Aaron has a really high ceiling, and with his strong work ethic, he’s only just scratching the surface of his potential,” Keplinger said. “We think he’s going to take on a bigger leadership role during his junior season. He also might shift over to centerfield and will hit higher in the lineup.”
All signs point to another solid Serra squad in 2026.
"This is a culture where we grind and work hard, and we know the recipe for success," Minton said. " We have enough talent coming back and new talent that will emerge to make another run”.
The junior season is usually the most important year in picking a college baseball destination. Aaron has already been invited to the prestigious Area Code Games. This is one of the premier showcases in the country, where a select group of the top high school baseball prospects gather in front of coaches and scouts.
Academics will come into play in his decision, says Minton, who is interested in math, science, and finance. He is excited to see where his college journey takes him and is open to the idea of going any place where he can further his education and also get a great baseball experience.
Ted Mathias is a local businessman who has been a longtime advocate of youth baseball on the Peninsula. This is his debut report for PeninsulaPrepBaseball.com, and we look forward to many more.
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