Veteran Bruin baseball team expects success

The Bruins, guided by second year Coach Mike Muehlbauer and assistant coach Chad Myers are hoping that they’ll achieve their goal and reach the state playoffs this year. The Bruins  finished in fourth place in the six-team Trico League and advanced to district playoffs but just came up short of qualifying for state.  

“We lost a couple of key guys to graduation last year, but the sophomores on this year’s squad should be adequate replacements for the seniors who we lost,” said Muehlbauer.  “We’re definitely going to have a very solid and more competitive team than we had last year. Practice has been going a whole lot better this year than it did last year too.”

The Bruins will be led by the trio of returning 2022 Trico League All League award winners Bryson Sauter (Second Team All League), junior Wesley White (First Team All League) and sophomore Sawyer Muehlbauer (Second Team All League).

The Bruins will rely on their top hitters Sauter (over .300 batting average last year) and sophomores Muehlbauer (coach’s son), White and Wyatt Stelma to help lead their offense and drive in runs.

The Bruins have a solid five-man pitching rotation led by Sauter, White, sophomore Kai Brasuell, Muehlbauer and Stelma. Bruin players also expected to help make key contributions offensively and defensively include senior first baseman Porter Haskell, junior catcher Che Tillinghast and sophomores Deegan Bryan, Jaden Wang, Seth White, Bryce Wang and Ben Borton.

“We have a lot of guys who are capable of hitting well and so we have the potential to have a more explosive offense than we had a year ago,” said Mike Muehlbauer. “Prior to last season, most of these kids didn’t even play baseball for about a year and a half because of COVID, so they really had a long time away from the game. So this year’s team has a lot more experience than last year’s squad, because we also played a summer league season as well last year. This team has had a lot more practice, they’re all a year older and we have more upperclassmen (two seniors, four juniors).”

Following Friday’s game, the Bruins will continue playing on the road as they’ll travel to Boardman for a Mar. 21 4 p.m. nonleague contest against the Class 3A Riverside High Pirates. The Bruins play their opening home game Mar. 24 at 6 p.m. versus Montesano at Columbia High School in White Salmon. Columbia begins its 15-game Trico League schedule Mar. 28 on the road in 3 p.m. doubleheader against the La Center High Wildcats.