Kurtis Smith, seen here in an earlier game, crunched three hits in Coupeville’s big win Monday. (John Fisken photo)
The score of the second game shouldn’t overwhelm the magnitude of the first game.
Coupeville High School’s trip to Cedarcrest Monday resulted in a doubleheader split — a 6-5 win followed by a 20-1 loss — but it’s the first score that’s huge.
The host 2A Red Wolves were unbeaten (7-0) and atop the Cascade Conference standings at the start of the day, but got humbled by the scrappiest of small-school 1A baseball squads.
The split left the Wolves at 5-4 overall, 3-4 in league play, with wins in five of their last seven games. The two squads will play the rubber match of their three-game series 4 PM Wednesday, April 4 in Coupeville.
The opening game was a nearly flawless combo of big game pitching (Ben Etzell went the distance, striking out seven) and timely hitting (Coupeville rapped out 10 hits).
“Ben did a good job of scattering their hits,” said Wolf coach Willie Smith. “He was in command the entire game and we played solid defense behind him, stranding nine runners through the game.
“He did a great job of keeping their top five hitters off the bases, holding them to just four singles,” he added. “It was a huge key to keeping their offense in check.”
At the plate, Kurtis Smith and Drew Chan set up the RBI men by consistently reaching base. Smith crunched three hits while the senior captain smacked a pair.
Utilizing three Cedarcrest errors packaged around their hits, Coupeville got big knocks from Morgan Payne and Etzell, who each had key two-run singles.
The good feelings didn’t last all afternoon, unfortunately, as Cedarcrest jumped all over the Wolf pitching staff in the nightcap.
“Not really much good news to report other than it is over,” Smith said.
Coupeville actually jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead on an RBI double from Payne, but then “the wheels came completely off.”
Now, as they prepare for the third game, with a chance of taking two of three from one of the big powers in their conference, the focus will be on what went right in game one, as opposed to how game two ended.
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