By Zach Thummel
Columbia Gorge News
WHITE SALMON — The Columbia High School baseball team enters the 2026 season with a younger roster after graduating nine seniors. Despite the turnover, the Bruins return a strong junior class, which has them and head coach William Gross aiming for a district playoff spot.
“We graduated nine seniors last year, so we have a fairly young team,” Gross told Columbia Gorge News. “But we have a pretty strong junior class this year.”
Among those juniors is Kellen Olson, who is expected to play a key role both on the mound and at shortstop. Olson earned honorable mention all-league honors last season and has continued to develop in the offseason, Gross said.
“He’s going to play a lot of shortstop for us and be one of our biggest contributors on the mound, as well,” said Gross. “He gained about 20 pounds of muscle in the offseason and has been working super hard, so we expect him to break out.”
Trenton Boydston is slated to start at first base and will be entering his first full season on varsity, while Brody Landgren returns after seeing varsity action last year as a sophomore and will patrol center field.
The Bruins will also lean on senior Deegan Bearden, one of the team’s lone upperclassmen. Bearden is expected to contribute on the mound after pitching significant innings during the summer. “Those guys are going to be big contributors for us,” said Gross.
With a young roster, several underclassmen are also expected to play key roles for Columbia this season. Freshmen Ryder Graves and Samuel Knott both earned varsity spots after playing summer baseball with the Columbia Gorge River Bandits program. Graves is expected to see time behind the plate, while Knott will contribute in the outfield.
“Ryder will catch a lot of innings for us, and Samuel will play in the outfield,” the coach said. “We knew that with having a young team, there were going to be some younger guys who would be full-time varsity contributors.”
As the Bruins enter Gross’s third season at the helm, he said the foundation of the team culture is beginning to take shape. “It’s cool to see now that almost all of our players in the program have only played under me,” said Gross. “When you come into a program, it takes a few years to build it the way you want.”
Columbia narrowly missed the playoffs last season, finishing one game shy of a postseason berth after losing a play-in contest to Elma.
“Our goal is still to compete for a district playoff spot,” said Gross. “Even though we lost a lot of age, these guys are super hungry.
“It’s refreshing to have a bunch of young guys that want to compete. They’re pushing each other every day in practice and competing for spots. The culture we’re trying to build is starting to come to fruition.”
The Bruins start their 2026 season with a non-league game at Columbia River High School (Vancouver) at 4:30 p.m. on March 13.
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