By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
MEDFORD, Ore.– It wasn’t the ending to the season that they wanted, falling to Eugene 14-0 in six innings on Sunday morning at Harry and David Field to close out the season 6-20, but the Salem Wellcare Dodgers have come a long way this season as a program.
They snapped their 62-game losing streak, winning their first game since the 2023 season. They won their first Area-3 league series since 2023. They got to their first State Playoff appearance since that year, 2023, as well.
And when they got to the playoffs, they pushed the Barbers, a team that got to the American Legion Triple-A World Series, to the limit. Falling to the Barbers 6-3 before running out of gas against the Challengers on Sunday.
It felt like the re-emergence of a program that’s slowly rebooting as the respected Legion program that they were a few short years ago.
For 2025 South Salem-grad Tanner Antone, in his final game as a Dodger after playing with the program for three years and going through those two winless seasons, it was an amazing feeling to be a part of a season like this one. He, Jeff Bloom (Sprague), Owen Wood (West Albany) and Ryan Hummert (Sprague) have been part of the dark years the last two years and were part of this journey this year.
“It felt great to watch the growth. We have the returners and watching them grow as players and people, it’s really cool to see,” said Antone. “I love to play baseball, I love being here and it feels good having fun with it. Do what I could do for the boys.”
“It was a really long ride, well-deserved. We came down from the lows and we came up to the high’s. We reached our goals, no one expected us to get to State and I’m glad that I got to be a part of this team to make it that far,” adds Sprague’s Jaxson Redel.
Redel, a Chemeketa-Commit for baseball, bridged his senior year with the Olympians into his freshmen year with the Storm. The Outfielder/Pitcher pitched the first five innings of the game, striking out three batters.
“I’m so happy to have the chance to play Legion ball. I get to see college pitchers, I get to see college bats and it’s really going to improve my game next year,” said Redel.
The Dodgers had some promising talent with their squad this year. Jackson Olson (West Salem), Evan High (Western Christian), Chess Lewer (Santiam Christian) and Damon Lawrence (Sweet Home) all return to their High School programs in the Spring. Lawrence and Lewer were All-State selections for their respective teams, Lawrence was a third-team selection for the 4A Huskies with Lewer an Honorable Mention selection for the 3A Eagles.
“I looked at it as an opportunity to come in. Historically this team has been really good and they’ve had a down couple of years and I just wanted to come and help comeback, do whatever I could to help get it back to the program it used to be,” said Lewer. “It looks like it’s going to be an upward trend and hopefully in the next couple years we can build back to what it was.”
Olson had the lone hit for the Dodgers in their playoff finale.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
