Coupeville Sports

Kurtis Smith charges a ball. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

The top spot can still be theirs.

It’s a bit of a long shot, but the Coupeville High School baseball squad can still catch South Whidbey and earn the #1 district playoff seed among 1A schools in the Cascade Conference.

Repeat what they did Monday, when they thumped Sultan 9-0, over the course of the regular season’s final week, and catch a few breaks and it could happen.

Of course, nothing can go wrong.

CHS, now 7-8 overall, 6-8 in league play, will need to take two more from Sultan, win makeup games against Lakewood and Granite Falls, and root for the Falcons (10-6) to lose their final two games.

If all that happens, both Whidbey squads finish 10-8 and the Wolves own the tiebreaker, having won two of three when the squads faced off way back at the start of the season.

If nothing else, Coupeville wants to head into the postseason on a strong note, and it kicked off a five-games-in-six-days stretch with a bang.

Wolf senior hurler Ben Etzell was electric on the mound (again), whiffing 12 and scattering just two hits.

And, for once, his offense backed him up with a ton of runs. No 1-0 pitcher’s duels this time out.

At least once the game reached the fifth inning, when the Wolves blew open a scoreless game.

Wade Schaef (walk), Jake Tumblin (single, stolen base) and Etzell (intentional walk) juiced the bags, then Josh Bayne lashed a two-run single to right center to bust things open.

CHS poured it on after that, with big hits from Aaron Trumbull, Aaron Curtin and Kurtis Smith keying a three-run sixth and four-run seventh.

“It allowed us to win going away and finally put a team away as we should,” said CHS coach Willie Smith. “We are hoping that with four more games this week and playoffs looming next week, that we can use this game to help get us in a groove offensively and we can hit the playoffs running and in good shape.”

Tumblin and Curtin paced the Wolves with two hits apiece while Korbin Korzan collected three steals on the afternoon.