WHITE SALMON – The Columbia High School baseball team made the 2026 WIAA Class 1A District 4 tournament for the first time since 2022, losing 23-0 at top-seeded Seton Catholic on May 11 and losing 1-0 at Castle Rock on May 12 to end the season for Columbia.
The fifth-seeded Bruins (8-15) couldn’t get anything going against the top-ranked Cougars (19-5) but were able to keep things within striking distance against the Rockets (14-8) a day later.
Junior Kellen Olson led the charge for the Bruins on the mound, pitching six innings with ten strikeouts, giving up three hits and one run. Despite the effort, the Bruins came up just short, finishing the game with the tying run on second base.
Coach William Gross said: “I’ve mentioned this before, but going into this year, we weren’t sure what we were going to get, mostly due to graduating nine seniors at the end of last year. We knew we would be young, and we knew we had a lot of potential.
“The start of the year showed that we had a lot of young talent and that they were ready to compete for significant varsity roles from the jump.”
Junior infielder Olson and freshman catcher Ryder Graves earned first-team all-league Trico selections. Junior outfielder Brody Landgren was second-team all-league, and freshman Sam Knott was an honorable mention.
Gross said: “We had many ups and downs on the year, including a huge 10-3 win against King’s Way Christian, a series sweep against rival Stevenson, and of course, a 4-3 win over Hoquiam to send us to the district playoffs for the first time in five seasons.”
Looking to next year, the Bruins return nearly all their production as they look to take the next step in the program’s history.
“Although we thought we could’ve played better in the district playoffs, I am very proud of this group and was clear with them that they are a huge part of taking the next step as a program,” said Gross. “We have been slowly climbing for the last three seasons, and to not take a step back with such a young roster is exciting and promising. We will return nearly the same roster as this season, which makes this offseason a big one for our players and our program.”
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