Aaron Curtin, backed up by a superb defense, blew away Sultan Wednesday. (Shelli Trumbull photo)
Yesterday, gone in a snap. Today, nothing but a good time.
A day after a rough outing at Granite Falls, the Coupeville High School baseball squad quickly rediscovered that winning feeling they enjoy so much while playing in sun-drenched Sultan.
Combining highlight-reel defense, clutch hitting and some lights-out mound work by hurler Aaron Curtin, the Wolves strolled to a 5-2 victory in their final regular season road game.
Their third win in four games, it lifted them to 8-10 as they head home to wrap things with games Friday against Sultan and Monday against Lakewood. The playoffs begin Wednesday, May 1.
Coupeville came out with its intensity amped up and quickly jumped on the Turks in what Wolf coach Willie Smith hailed as a “huge rebound game for the boys.”
After Kurtis Smith led off the game with a single — his sixth hit over the past three games — the Wolves seemed to run themselves out of the inning. Drew Chan dropped a sacrifice bunt and Smith the coach decided to try and bring Smith the runner all the way to third, only to have him thrown out.
Never fear. There’s more where that came from.
Ben Etzell stroked a single and stole second, Morgan Payne eked out a walk, then Jake Tumblin crushed a triple to deep right, sending both runners scampering home.
Three insurance runs in the fifth, coming off of singles from Etzell and Payne, a bobbled ball by the Sultan third baseman and a passed ball, staked Curtin to a five-run lead. Which was more than he needed, as he fired B-B’s from the mound on his way to a seven-strikeout day.
When the Turks did get wood on the ball, the Wolf defense snuffed out any hopes Sultan had of staging a rally.
Payne pulled off a trio of web gems. First he skied to snare a tapper, then fired to first to double off the runner. Then he went into the hole and gunned down a runner at first on another play, before snagging a line drive backhanded to save a couple runs.
Not willing to let Payne have all the spotlight, Smith and Korbin Korzan each made dynamic catches in the outfield. Smith dove to rob a Turk of a sure-fire extra base hit, while Korzan made a tough running catch while looking into the sun.
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