CRESWELL – Kevin Feist won three state baseball titles at Burns before stepping down after 17 years as coach in 2016 to spend a few years watching his son play in college.
Feist moved to Eugene in 2022 when his wife, Toni, got a job as a nurse practitioner. When he decided to get back into coaching, he landed at Creswell, a school that did not have a championship pedigree to match his resume.
“I applied for a couple of jobs and then Creswell opened up and I said ‘What the heck’,” Feist said.
Creswell had not even made the postseason since 2009, but Feist got the Bulldogs back into the playoffs last year and now has them contending for their first state title, which would be the fourth for the coach. “My hope was that we would sneak into the playoffs as a young team in our second year and then win league our third year,” Feist said, listing off a couple goals that have already been accomplished. “We have had a great progression with the kids and we have a lot of kids coming back next year. But this year, you always strive to be your best and be state champions and if you aren’t, at least you made progress. These guys are not satisfied with making the playoffs, they want to be the best team in 3A and they are believing that now.”
Creswell went 5-17 in 2023, but that didn’t worry Feist, who inherited a similar situation at Burns before leading the Hilanders to their first state title in 2007. Burns repeated as 3A champs in 2008 before claiming the 2A/1A title in 2016.
“Burns was down as a program when I took over so when the Creswell opportunity came open, I thought I’d give it a shot and see if I could get in and make some changes and turn things around,” Feist said. “I knew there were good young kids here. Part of the interview process was how there was a good group of kids who loved baseball so I knew we could do something with that. There was a supportive parent group as well. In the first year, I was trying to get the kids to believe they could compete and set some expectations and raise the bar. It was a work-in-progress that year, getting a new culture and putting expectations in place that we could compete and win games.”
Junior Jaxon Pelham, a first-team, all-conference pitcher, was among the class that arrived at Creswell the same year as Feist.
“I came in excited knowing that our freshman class was probably one of the best that has been here in a while and with a good coach, we could really do something,” he said.
Creswell went 7-16 in 2024 before improving to 16-13 last season. The Bulldogs finished second in the Mountain Valley Conference at 10-5 and defeated Joseph 3-2 in the first round of the playoffs before losing to state runner-up Cascade Christian, 10-4, in the second round.
With seven returning starters, Creswell is 21-5 this season and won won their first 13 conference games before taking the Mountain Valley title at 14-1. The Bulldogs are ranked third in 3A as they prepare to open the playoffs next week.
“Our class won several championships growing up in Babe Ruth leagues against bigger schools so I thought eventually we would have a chance to win it all,” all-conference senior infielder Kayden Roberts said. “I was super excited after growing up with all these guys and the community that backed us, I knew we could be successful. The best part is that everyone has each other’s back, we all want the best for each other. We take the ‘We over Me’ mentality every day and focus on the little things.”
The Bulldogs have succeeded despite being without all-state senior Matthew Jenkins for most of the season. The lefty was expected to be the anchor of the pitching staff and play in the outfield, but has only played defense in a few games due to a back injury. Feist is hopeful that Jenkins may be able to return to the mound for the playoffs, but he almost certainly won’t be able to hit.
Pelham has been the ace of the pitching staff after earning all-conference honors for the second year in a row. Juniors Landon Vaughn, a transfer from Cottage Grove, and Zak Hermansen, a transfer from Lowell, have added depth to the staff along with juniors Colton Hartman and Colden Clark.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that understand pitching,” Feist said. “They can hit their spots and change speeds well. We scout our opponents well and have reports on hitters and our pitchers are able to execute. It also helps that we are good on defense.”
Well-rounded roster
Vaughn hits at the top of the order followed by Roberts and Hartman and Clark. Sophomore Gavin Crowl hits fifth followed by Hermansen and Pelham. Senior catcher Cody Winn and sophomore Braden Hartman round out the lineup that averaged 9.8 runs per game in conference play.
“We are pretty tough throughout the lineup,” Feist said. “We have improved a lot from the beginning of the year. We were hitting in the low .200s and now we are around .300 so we have improved a lot.”
One of the reasons that Creswell got off to a slow start offensively was an aggressive schedule set up by Feist that included losses to Marist and Junction City, who are both ranked in the top-four in Class 4A, and Horizon Christian, ranked No. 10 in 3A.
“I knew we had almost all of our kids back so I built an extremely competitive schedule,” Feist said. “We were battle tested. Against Marist, we were ahead 2-1 before giving up 10 runs in one inning so those games were all close and competitive.”
Creswell also played at Taft, which is ranked No. 2 in 3A at 24-1 led by University of Oregon signee Zack Hankins on the mound. The Tigers beat Creswell 1-0 in a pitchers duel that took about 75 minutes to complete.
A rematch could be coming in the state title game on June 6th.
“We saw their guy, Hankins, and they saw Jaxon and it was 1-0,” Feist said. “Their coach said to me afterwards ‘Let’s do this again in June for the last game of the year’ and I told him ‘That would be awesome’.”
