By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– It’s been an interesting off-season for the Chemeketa Baseball team. as they started practice this month.
Having to float between facilities, the Vencer facility, The Farm where the Marion Berries are located, Stayton High School, Mount Angel even, wherever they can find to start their season as their turf project finishes up over the coming weeks. But, they’ve taken it in stride.
It’s just a way to connect with the community as they look at it as they prepare for the season ahead.
“It’s been really cool to work with a variety of people in the community and being able to go out to Stayton High School, being able to go out to Mount Angel, being able to go out to Vencer and Boys and Girls Club and The Farm, it’s been a big community effort. It forced us to be more efficient with our time and our space because we are a little bit limited, but at the same time it’s been a good thing,” said Storm Head Coach Gerhett Moser.
“As a team, with how much we’ve had to travel to different spots and having an unpredictable schedule, it’s been kind of tough for the team, but at the same time the facilities we do have around us have allowed us to maintain the workload off the field without having the turf we have now. I think the guys have adapted well to find new spots to get to get the reps in, to get the work in while maintaining the team chemistry that we do have,” adds Wyatt Hooper, a Stayton-grad.
Hooper, one of seven players that are still around from Moser’s 2023 recuritment class, joining Robert Campbell (Franklin), Slater Tsuma (Westview), Julius Bolstad (Phoenix), Joel Spencer (West Salem), Joe Vaccaro (Mountain View) and Dylan Hanson (Kamehameha High School in Hawaii). All have experience, some during the 2023-2024 season and other’s in the 2024-2025 season.
For Hooper, who graduated from 4A Stayton High School, stepped up big as catcher as a redshirt freshman, playing in 43 games in 35 in NWAC South Region play with a fielding percentage of .979 and 211 put-outs while catching 12 runners out.
“It was pretty big for me. It was a pretty big workload, but I did it for the boys behind me and the guys I’m playing for. I knew that they trust me and I trust them too and it was easy with the guys around me and I’m looking forward to a good season this year,” Hooper said.
Two of the pitchers he’ll be catching this Spring include Andrew Yost, a West Albany-grad, and Max Eaton, a Regis-grad.
Yost was kind of a jack-of-all-trades kind of pitchers last year as a freshman. He started four games and appeared in another 14, going 4-3 with two saves with an ERA of 3.48 in 44 innings pitched for Chemeketa. The Storm went 28-22 in 2025, reaching the NWAC Super Regionals before falling to Columbia Basin last May.
“I just wanted to play with the team. I love the chemistry that we had last year and I just wanted to do well,” starts Yost. “Pitching was just my calling, I just took it up and executed it. Since the Spring, I’ve improved tremendously over the Summer and the Fall. I’ve gained a lot of velocity.”
Eaton made the move to 2A ball to JuCo ball pretty smoothly. The Regis-grad saw some action as a freshman with 13 appearances, going 2-0 on the year with a save while bolstering an 2.92 ERA with 14 strikeouts in 24.2 Innings pitched.
“It was cool to be able to come up and show the Northwest that 2A can represent and being able to perform in those clutch situations and help the team towards our end goal was super special to me to be able to have that experience,” said Eaton.
Chemeketa opens the season on February 14 at Treasure Valley.
