Kyle Bodamer, seen here in a game earlier this season, was one of many Wolves who swung aggressively Tuesday. (Shelli Trumbull photo)
No one hangs their head after this one.
Playing the best baseball team it will face all season (and one of the best in the state, period) in defending 2A state champ Archbishop Thomas Murphy, Coupeville High School played with passion, grit and aggressiveness Tuesday, putting a scare in the Wildcats.
And while they weren’t able to hand ATM (13-0 in league play, 14-1 overall) its first Cascade Conference loss, the 8-4 score doesn’t begin to fully reflect how closely played this game was.
A day after a sub-par performance in Granite Falls, the Wolves returned home and reignited the spark.
Whether it was Drew Chan and Aaron Curtin whacking key hits or right-fielder Kurtis Smith teaming with pitcher Aaron Trumbull and catcher Jake Tumblin on a perfectly-timed wham-bam throw out of a runner headed home, Coupeville was not backing off.
Facing a team that routinely invokes the ten-run rule and runs off its opponents after five innings, Coupeville pushed hard until the last out. Literally.
Having loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh on consecutive singles by Chan, Morgan Payne and Tumblin — with the fleet-footed Tumblin beating a laser throw by a step on an infield single — the Wolves forced ATM to go to its bullpen and bring in the big gun, Zander Clouse.
The flame-throwing stud got Curtin to hit a foul ball a mile high for one out, then ATM turned a game-ending double play off of a hard chopper by Kyle Bodamer, who went flying into the bag at first, coming up inches short of keeping the rally alive.
Even though the loss dropped Coupeville to 5-9, Wolf coach Willie Smith was pleased with the effort and burning desire to pull off the upset.
“This is the best we’ve played them in two or three years at least,” he said. “Them bringing in their big guy to close was a sign of respect, that we were worrying them.”
The Wolves came out aggressive, hacking away for runs in each of the first three innings.
Coupeville banged away for two in the bottom of the first, with Tumblin and Curtin each connecting on superb RBI singles, then the Wolves used a hail of bunts to tack on another run in the second.
Bodamer beat out a chopper, then Korbin Korzan executed a sacrifice bunt so well he ended up beating out the throw to first.
Wade Schaef dropped another bunt, but this time the ATM starter picked it up, whirled to make the play at third and, instead, threw it into left field, allowing Bodamer to scamper home.
Coupeville’s final run came in the third, when Tumblin was hit by a pitch, stole second, then scored on a single by Curtin.
With Aaron Trumbull mixing up his pitches and speeds on the mound, the Wolves stayed close the entire game.
One brief mental error, when two outfielders deferred to each other and a ball dropped between them, hurt Coupeville, however, allowing ATM to break through for its only big inning of the afternoon, a four-run third. That turned a 3-2 lead into a 6-3 deficit.
The newly fired-up Wolves will get right back at it Wednesday, when Granite Falls comes to the Island for the second game of a three-game series.
Curtin is scheduled to draw the start, injured third-baseman/pitcher Ben Etzell has been cleared to return to play, and the first pitch is set for 4 PM.
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