Coupeville Sports

   Hunter Smith tossed six scoreless innings and racked up four RBIs Saturday in an 8-2 win over defending state champ Vashon Island. (John Fisken photo)

Vashon Island was the toast of baseball a year ago.

The Pirates took out Meridian, Nooksack Valley, Overlake/Bear Creek and defending state champion Hoquiam en route to taking home the trophy as the best 1A team in all the land.

Maybe it’s a good thing they didn’t face Hunter Smith along the way.

The Coupeville High School hurler got his crack at the Pirates Saturday and thoroughly bushwhacked them, tossing six scoreless innings and driving in four runs to spark an 8-2 win.

The non-conference victory, the third straight for the Wolves, lifts them to 3-2.

Coupeville has a busy week ahead, with two of three at home.

The Wolves host non-conference foe Sultan Monday, then open defense of their Olympic League crown with a home game Wednesday against Klahowya and a road trip Friday to Port Townsend.

Now, if we’re being totally fair, we’ll acknowledge this year’s Vashon squad is not the same as last year’s, since the Pirates lost nine players to graduation.

But until someone takes away the title, they will still enter every game this year bearing the moniker “defending state champs,” so it is what it is.

And Vashon flat-out had no luck against Coupeville’s junior ace, who welcomed the Pirates to Whidbey by setting them down one after another.

Smith whiffed ten, while giving up just a single in the second and a walk in the fifth, cruising home with an 8-0 lead.

Vashon managed to scrape together two runs in the seventh against Wolf reliever Matt Hilborn, but he settled down quickly and ended any hopes of a late-game rally.

Coupeville jumped on the Pirates quickly, scoring two in the first and another two in the second.

The opening runs came courtesy an RBI double from Clay Reilly and an RBI single by Jake Hoagland, before Smith struck in the second with a two-run single.

Two innings later, Smith was right back at it, this time crushing a two-run double to run the score to 6-0.

Reilly and Dane Lucero plated runners in the fifth to cap Coupeville’s scoring.

While Vashon couldn’t buy a hit most of the day, the Wolves collected six base-knocks, with four of them being of the extra-base variety.

Smith, Reilly and Ethan Marx all had doubles, while Reilly also tripled.