“Etzell. Ben Etzell. License to thrill.” (John Fisken photos)
No coach in his right mind EVER gives Jake Tumblin the stop sign coming around third.
No one could stop Ben Etzell Wednesday.
Frustrating South Whidbey with his pitches and crushing them with his bat, the Coupeville High school junior helped carry the Wolf baseball squad to a 5-2 win in Langley, its fourth straight victory and second in as many games against their Island arch-rivals.
Two days after he shut down the Falcons in the seventh inning to preserve a one-run win, he went the distance and was nearly as sharp. A brief hiccup in the third put him in a hole, but after that Etzell and a note-perfect defense behind him were golden.
Wolf catcher Jake Tumblin zipped a throw to second to snuff a would-be base thief, while middle infielders Drew Chan and Morgan Payne combined on back-to-back dandy web gems to seal the deal in the final inning.
First, second-baseman Chan backhanded the ball beautifully on a shot up the middle and flipped it to the flying Payne, who beat the runner to the bag by a step. Then the duo teamed up with first bagger Aaron Trumbull for a wham-bam double play to cap the win.
When he wasn’t letting his mates have balls to field, Etzell was flinging pure heat, twice knocking down big batters with strikeouts at key moments. He ended both the fourth and fifth with classic punch-outs and racked up seven K’s on the afternoon.
At the plate he was just as dangerous, rapping out three hits and driving in three runs. Payne added a pair of hits while Tumblin stole two bases and scored twice.
Trailing 2-0 entering the top of the fifth, Coupeville put together a nice rally, with Etzell and Payne smacking back-to-back RBI singles, before Kurtis Smith broke the tie with an RBI on a fielder’s choice ground-out.
The Wolves tacked on two more in the sixth when Etzell plated Korbin Korzan on a grounder deep in the hole at short. While South Whidbey tried — and failed — to catch Etzell at first, Tumblin never broke stride coming from second and scored without a throw.
Now 4-2 overall, 2-2 in Cascade Conference play, Coupeville will go for the season sweep Friday, March 29, when the Falcons travel back up the Island for a 4 PM game.
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