‘We were horrible’: From winless to being a postseason contender, Salmon is having an impressive season

SALMON – The town of Salmon has typically been known for being one of the state’s top outdoor recreation destinations, highlighted by spectacular scenery, river rafting, and fishing.

No one would ever confuse the area as a hotbed for baseball.

Could that change?

Well, hotbed is a strong description, but for this season at least, the Salmon baseball team is definitely getting attention.

Salmon leads the Nuclear Conference standings at 6-0, and is off to its best start in program history after starting the season 14-1.

Prior to this season, Salmon’s top win total had been seven games.

They’re averaging nearly 15 runs per game and have a team earned run average of 1.53.

It’s the kind of balance that’s proven hard to beat as the second half of the season heats up.

Coach Mike Lane helped start the program in 2019.

“It was tough,” Lane said of the first couple of seasons. “No one likes losing.”

Salmon was 0-10 in its first varsity season in 2019.

Several players who had competed in area youth leagues and T-ball, weren’t sure what to expect when they finally moved up to the high school level.

“When we were in minors and majors we had some good teams,” said senior Clayton Allen, who is batting .617 with four homers and 22 RBIs. “We felt we could have a good team in high school.”

But that turned out to be a challenge.

“We had seven kids sign up,” Allen said of freshman season. “We had to beg other kids to come out and play. We were horrible. We weren’t even close to winning a game.”

That was in 2023.

The team finished 0-10-1.

“We didn’t have many seniors, there was no consistency,” Lane said of the early years. “There weren’t a lot of sophomores … I think what we were lacking was the confidence to really win, even though we had the talent.”

Setting a foundation is difficult.

Salmon was a respectable 7-10-1 in 2024, and was 5-10-1 last season.

Lane and the coaching staff got the team involved in playing summer ball, where players could compete in an additional 20 to 30 games outside of the high school season.

“That helped us grow,” Lane said.

“We were decent last year, but we just flipped that switch this year,” said Eli Pakuer, who is 4-1 with a 0.95 ERA. “We have a winning mindset … That first game we realized that we can be that team if we want to be. We have to keep working on it.”

Patience was the key, both for the coaches and players.

“We knew it was going to be a couple rough years,” Allen said. “We were really young, but we knew we could build up our program junior and senior years.”

From the outside looking in, the results still looked like a program that was struggling.

Cody Cox recently moved to the area from Stockton, California. Last season prior to moving, he kept an eye on the team through a baseball app, checking scores, stats, and anything he could find on his soon-to-be new team.

Coming from a good team in California, he said he wasn’t really sold on a Salmon program that finished 5-10 the previous year and didn’t have a winning history.

But that changed.

“Right when I got here these kids started inviting me to their house and hitting in the cage … this is the most excited I’ve been to play baseball,” he said. “I didn’t know if they were committed just by looking at their schedule … then when I came here I knew they wanted it really bad.”

Despite the team’s new-found success, Lane is quick to point out that “We haven’t done anything yet.”

He noted that the schedule will get tougher and the focus needs to be on getting better and being able to perform with the postseason on the horizon.

Conference foes Firth, North Fremont and Challis-Mackay all have postseason experience.

After last week’s convincing win at North Fremont, Lane said the team will likely be tested down the stretch.

Salmon got that test on Friday as South Fremont, which leads the 4A Mountain Rivers Conference, beat Salmon 7-0 for its first loss of the season.

Salmon still has two games coming up against Firth, which could determine the Nuclear Conference regular-season champion.

They’ll also face Filer and Teton, two good 4A teams.

“We’re going to face tough teams in the second half,” Lane said. “We want to really sharpen our skills before districts and keep it going.”

As for the team’s turnaround, Lane said he’s envisioned this type of season when the program was started, even if he knew it wouldn’t be easy. He credited contributions from Bo Kaufman and Keith Director for the current surge.

“(Players) struggled through the beginning and now they’re seeing some success coming around,” he said. “They’ve grown from it. I couldn’t ask for a better group, especially the seniors who had to go through that, and even the juniors.”