King’s Way puts stop to Bruin baseball win streak

But King’s Way Christian rode the momentum of Makani Geisen’s pitching gem to propel the Vancouver school to a three-game Trico League sweep of the Bruins this past week.

Geisen struck out 15 Columbia batters and walked none to lead King’s Way to a 5-3 win March 29 in the first game of a doubleheader in White Salmon. Geisen added three hits and four RBI in the nightcap, as the Knights completed the sweep with a 17-3 victory.

“Was a rough week against a pretty solid team,” Coach Mike Muehlbauer said. “The first game was a tight one and we played well with some pretty solid pitching and some timely hitting.”

Freshmen Garrett Kock and Sawyer Muehlbauer accounted for all five Columbia hits; Kock had three singles and Muehlbauer two, one of them a double.

The second game was within reach until the seventh inning, when King’s Way scored eight runs to blow things wide open. Nate Roth had two hits, followed by Wyatt Stelma, Porter Haskell, William Shute, and Bryson Sauter with one hit apiece.

Stelma started the game on the mound, throwing three innings before giving way to Shute in the fourth. Sauter and Kock combined to finish the eventful seventh inning.

Three days later, Columbia (4-4 overall, 0-3 Trico) traveled to Vancouver, where King’s Way won 10-2 at Luke Jenson Sports Park. The Bruins managed four hits in the third game; Roth had two and Kai Brasuell and Wesley White added one apiece. Sauter pitched the final three innings in relief of Brasuell, and allowed just one run, but the Knights already had nine runs by that point.

The young Bruin team had started the season 4-1, including a four-game win streak heading into the King’s Way series. But Coach Muehlbauer had said at the start of the season that Columbia would experience some growing pains this spring — against some of the better, more experienced Trico teams.

Columbia was scheduled to play two games during spring break this week: Monday at home against Sherman (1-1) and Tuesday at unbeaten Dufur. The Bruins resume Trico League play April 12 with a doubleheader at Castle Rock. The Rockets were 0-8 heading into the break, having lost their first three league games to Seton Catholic.