The 2023 high school baseball season is quickly approaching and as usual, excitement abounds throughout the state. Players and coaches have been working in preparation for the upcoming season and, as is the case each year, there are some very talented players and teams across Washington.

Teams across the state have goals and aspirations to finish their seasons at the State Tournament, but there is plenty of work to be done before that becomes reality. We hope to familiarize our readers with many of the teams across the state as we preview individual teams across Washington. We will take you right up to first pitch this season with these team previews and eventually releasing our preseason Top 25 teams in the state.

Please keep checking back throughout the season as we will be your one-stop shop for everything related to high school baseball across the state. Each week we will be releasing our players of the week and updating the Top 25 teams in the state.

High School Name: Columbia River

Coach’s Name: Stephen Donohue

Classification: 2A

No. of Returning Positional Starters: 4 position players

Team Strengths: Deep pitching staff with plenty of experience from a state runner-up finish last season. 

Top Returning Players:
'24 Chris Parkin
'24 Noah Larson
'24 Zach Ziebell
'23 Austin Habets
'23 Kaden MacDonald

Prospects includes all players within the program who have PBR profiles, it does not indicate Varsity status

2024 Prospects:
Zayne Boyes
Cole Backlund
Peter Lubisich
Charlie Palmersheim

2025-2026 Prospects:
Harrison Hoffarth
Nate Little
Noah Coakes

Team Outlook: 
The Rapids finished the 2022 season with a final record of 21-5 and finished as the 2A state runner-up to eventual champion Tumwater. Despite some impactful losses on the mound that have left a significant amount of innings to be replaced, some key pieces are back to help lead Columbia River back into the playoffs for 2023. Starting with defending league Player of the Year, junior INF Chris Parkin. A natural hitter with consistent feel for the barrel and a mature approach, Parkin should continue to be a difficult out this season while seeing time at SS and in a relief role on the mound. Fellow juniors Noah Larson and Zach Ziebell return as well and both will be leaned on heavily in multiple ways. Larson went 3-0 on the mound last year and logged some innings in big games. He’ll have a bigger workload with his pitching this season as will Ziebell, who was a key arm in relief for 2022. Senior Austin Habets should continue to hold things down at 3B and likely play a bigger role in the offense this year. Keep an eye out for power hitting junior Zayne Boyes as well. Boyes is a physical hitter with power potential in the bat and exit velocities up to 98 mph at the plate. The Rapids will continue to put an emphasis on their team defense and hope that their big game experience from 2022 can help this team mature quickly. The pitching staff might lack the star power up top that it had last season but there’s enough depth to protect their balanced line-up that might be stronger 1-9 than it was previously. Columbia River has advanced to the round of 16 in the playoffs 9 times since 2010 and will look to continue their winning ways in 2023.

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