Dane Lucero, here hitting in an earlier game, got the win on the mound Wednesday as Coupeville thrashed Port Townsend. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Right where they want to be, in the driver’s seat.
Taking care of business Wednesday, the Coupeville High School baseball squad bushwhacked host Port Townsend 17-6, clinched a playoff berth and moved into sole possession of first place in the 1A Olympic League.
With the victory, their fourth straight and eighth in their last nine games, the Wolves soar to 5-1 in conference action, 11-4 overall.
That puts them a half game up on Chimacum (4-1, 6-7) which visits Whidbey Friday for the rubber match in a three-game season series.
The Cowboys won 5-4 in the rain at home two weeks ago, then the Wolves returned the favor 1-0 in the prairie sun Monday afternoon.
Port Townsend (1-4, 1-9) and defending league champ Klahowya (1-5, 2-12) bring up the rear, and neither team can catch Coupeville, guaranteeing the Wolves one of the league’s two playoff berths.
While the RedHawks have only won a single game in the past three years, they’ve pushed CHS this season.
The first time the teams faced, the Wolves eked out a 3-1 win, and Wednesday, Coupeville trailed 4-1 after two innings of play.
CHS had gone down one-two-three in the top of the first, then given up three runs in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a couple of errors and some timely PT base-knocks.
The Wolves got one run back in the second, with Julian Welling plunking a single and coming around to score on a ground-out by Dane Lucero, but the RedHawks immediately answered with a score of their own.
Instead of panicking, Coupeville went to work, ramming home three runs in the third to tie things up, before exploding for five in the fourth and eight in the fifth to wrap things.
The Wolves set the table in the third with a Matt Hilborn single, a Joey Lippo walk, then a double steal from the fleet-footed duo.
With runners in scoring position, Hunter Smith came up big, drilling a two-run single, before coming around to score on an RBI single off of Welling’s smoking-hot bat.
With the game knotted at four, Lucero, who whiffed four, bore down on the mound and held the RedHawks relatively in check the rest of the way.
Not content to sit on a narrow lead, the Wolves super-charged their bats heading into the fourth and promptly began crushing the snot out of the Port Townsend pitching.
Jake Hoagland, who obviously ate his Wheaties, bashed a pair of triples, one in the fourth, one in the fifth, with the first one narrowly missing being a round-tripper.
Coupeville actually had a trio of three-baggers on the day, as Hunter Smith jacked one as well.
With the ball flying off the bats of the Wolves, the RedHawks helped out a bit, juggling balls and letting the speedy Wolves turn singles into two or three bases at a time.
CHS finished with 13 hits, with five different hitters racking up at least two base-knocks apiece.
Hilborn (1B, 1B, 2B) led the attack, while Hoagland (two triples) and Smith (1B, 3B) went deep and Lippo and Welling each collected a pair of singles.
Jake Pease and Lucero rapped singles to round out the hit parade, while Lippo had the web gem o’ the day, spearing a liner at second while on a dead sprint.
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