By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Post 58 Crushers Triple-A squad brought the energy on Friday in their American Legion Area-3 League Doubleheader against the Wellcare Dodgers at Sprague High School.
The dugout was loud with energy and the energy carried over to the field. The Crushers needed these two games after going down one game to none after Thursday’s 11-0 defeat to the Dodgers at Regis High School.
Brody Panuke (Kennedy) and Jake Bohnke (Regis) threw complete games with Isaac Meeker (Stayton) and Ryland Thiessan (Stayton) anchoring the offense. Meeker collected a team-high four hits in Game 1 with Thiessan driving in a team-high 5RBI’s in Game 2 as Post 58 took the games 9-5 and 15-4 in five innings.
“It’s a big one, espically with dugout energy, it was the highest its ever been and that’s nice to see entering a long stretch of games. Everything was on today, pitching was great. Brody and Jake threw great games. The offense, they produced. We cut errors down a lot in the field and all of that leads into a win,” said Meeker.
The series win was the first of the year for the Crushers, who were coming off a tough Area-3 series defeat to Mid-Coast earlier this week.
For Wellcare, it was a bummer to see their two-game winning streak come to an end. Monday was their first victory since the 2023 American Legion State Playoffs, snapping a 62-game losing streak before picking up their first League Victory since that 2023 season. But for a program looking to be on the mend, a 2-2 week isn’t all too bad. A wake-up call for sure, points Dodger Head Coach Easton Bennett.
Sprague’s Cole Bartels (five strikeouts) and Brandon Rowell (four strikeouts) pitched well in the opening game of the doubleheader on Friday, Sweet Home’s Damon Lawrence led the Wellcare offense with two hits with four different Wellcare batters drove in runs in the second game
“We just need to, as players and coaches, to focus a little bit more on the small things of the game like being in the dugout, being loud and having that good energy. Baseball is a long game, it’s a long season and a lot to play out. You can’t have this one day let you down, you have to keep moving forward,” said Bennett. “I think going forward, that’s the expectation. They know that they’re better than they put out on the field today and we’re going to continue to move forward and continue to improve as a ball club and try to win in all the aspects of the game.”
Wellcare will head to the Eugene Tournament on July 1 while the Post 58 Crushers will play host to Central Linn’s D1 program on Monday.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
