By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

STAYTON, Ore.– After a rough start to their doubleheader to the Portland Eastside Saturday afternoon, the Post 58 Crushers responded well with a 12-8 victory over the Area-2 team following their 11-2 defeat to start the day.

Western Christian’s Owen Stalnaker led the offense with 4RBI’s and Stayton’s Cody Leming drove in another 3RBI’s as the Crushers swung momentum into their favor for their biggest series of the season on Sunday.

“Going into the first game, we went into it way too confident and thought we could play more laxisdiascial.  Going into the second game, we had a real shot against these guys so we were more focused and that let us to the win we needed,” Leming said of the switch.

Post 58 and the Post 20 Dirtbags of Independence are tied for third-place in the Area-3 standings with a lot at stake going into the play-in rounds for the start of next weekend’s State Playoffs.  Lose all three games over Sunday and Tuesday, they play Wednesday for a chance to get into Friday’s Play-in Game in Roseburg.  Win one, they’re the fourth-seed.  Win two and they’re fighting for third in the league.  Sweep the Dirtbags and they’re knocking on the door of finishing second in the league standings.

“It was really important, I think every baseball player knows…present or former, that going into an important series with a loss is never the best feeling.  So going in with teh confidence of a win carrying over into a league game is going to be super important ,” Leming said.  “And I know if we play great defense like we can and we hit the ball like we can, we got a real good chance at least against the Dirtbags.”

Aiden Goff (Silverton) pitched four innings and Gaven Lyon (Santiam) pitched the final three innings of the Game 2 victory.  

Game 1 of the doubleheader is slated for 2pm Sunday at Regis.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald