Coupeville Sports

Ben Etzell whiffed 15 Cedarcrest hitters Monday, one of the better performances in CHS history. (John Fisken photo)

Impressive, but not a school record.

When Coupeville High School senior Ben Etzell whiffed 15 Cedarcrest batters Monday, it was the most K’s racked up by a Wolf pitcher in several years.

But do a little digging (mainly talking to the right people, since CHS doesn’t have extensive baseball records) and you find some even more impressive numbers.

The king of the mound (as far as we know) is Ray Cook, who carried Coupeville to a district title in 1976 as a junior.

In the final, he set down an astounding 21 batters over 13 innings, winning the game and sending the Wolves to state, where they lost 3-1 to Brewster in the quarterfinals.

I don’t know what’s more impressive — the 21 strikeouts or the fact he pitched all 13 innings, one inning shy of two complete high school games.

Cook was a strikeout fiend, according to Bill Jarrell. He set down 17 over seven innings in another game and whiffed 16 while tossing a perfect game in yet another appearance.

In more recent days, Brad Miller twice topped Etzell’s still-impressive work, according to CHS coach Willie Smith.

Miller gunned down 19 Sultan hitters in 1995, a year after he whiffed 18 Turks. He also recorded 14 K’s against Granite Falls in ’94.

The other Big, Bad Brad — the imposing Brad Haslam — set down 14 against Quilcene in 1990, then teamed with Frank Marti and Todd Brown to whiff 15 Winlock hitters in a 1991 regional game.