By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
STAYTON, Ore.–It’ll be a new look for the Post 58 Crushers entering this season.
Of their 17 players on their roster this Summer, three return from their 2025 American Legion Qualifying Squad that went 1-2 up in Portland. Those three include Myles Emmert (Stayton), Brody Panuke (Kennedy) and Triston Garton (Scio) to lead a fresh-look squad that features seven Stayton players, four Regis players and a player each from North Salem (Luke Ostler), McNary (Rayden Bryant) and St. Paul (Jack Gregory).
“We did lose a lot of our talent from last year, but I think this team will be special and do good things. I think we got a chance in making it to State and potentially making a good run at it at State,” starts Garton, one of two Loggers on the team. “Last year helped me, Sawyer (Enderle), (Wyatt) Post(iwalt), Cash (Martin), Bryson (Nygren) really showed me that baseball can be fun and big influential people on me and it was a great experience. Coming in this year, I’m just ready to come in and have some fun playing Summer Baseball and getting reps.”
The squad’s Day 2 win in the Triple-A postseason last July against Roseburg was the first State Playoff win for the squad since they won State in 2013, and the last few seasons under former Head Coach Kyle Baker has established the Crushers as a respectable program at the Legion Level. Casey Lulay, who came in as Head Coach entering this season, knows the standard that Baker has built and is looking forward to carrying it forward.
Lulay is familiar with some of the players in the program entering this year coming from coaching the Junior Crusher program the last two years.
“I’m really excited, I think we have a good mix of different players from different schools, I’m excited for the Summer. We’re ready,” starts Lulay. “I think the biggest thing now is to see where everyone will play and how they’ll play together. I’ve coached a lot of these kids the last couple of years with the Junior Crushers. Even though we’re a young team, I think we’ll be ready to compete.”
The Post 58 squad will kickoff the season on Friday with a non-league game with the R9 Prep squad before hosting the Hillsboro Wet Soxs on Saturday. All three games will be at Regis High School.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
