Scott Hilborn drops the hammer. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
All in all, a pretty dang good week.
Sparked by another stellar pitching performance from senior Scott Hilborn, the Coupeville High School varsity baseball squad toppled host Orcas Island Saturday, heading back to the ferry with a 4-2 win.
That gives the Wolves three Northwest 2B/1B League wins over the last five days and keeps them a half-game out of first place.
CHS sits at 9-1 in conference action, with four NWL games left to play, while Mount Vernon Christian is 10-1 with three left on the schedule.
The Wolves, now 11-4 overall and winner of seven of their last eight games, face the league’s bottom three teams next week.
They travel to Concrete (0-9) Tuesday, trek to Darrington (4-6) Thursday, then host La Conner (1-9) Saturday on Senior Night.
After that comes a non-conference rumble with Sultan and the regular-season finale against league rival Friday Harbor, before Coupeville heads to the district playoffs as a #1 seed.
Facing a solid Orcas Island team Saturday, Hilborn was in control from start to finish, scattering three hits while whiffing nine Vikings.
Coupeville jumped in front 2-0 in the top of the second inning, putting together three straight hits from Jack Porter, Peyton Caveness, and Cole White.
Caveness slammed a double, while the second Wolf run came zipping home on a fielder’s choice groundout off the bat of Johnny Porter.
For quite a bit, that two-run lead was all Hilborn needed, as he retired the first seven hitters he faced, and got out of a teeny-tiny jam in the fourth thanks to a double play started by Jonathan Valenzuela.
Even on the coldest of days, Jonathan Valenzuela’s defense is red-hot. (Morgan White photo)
But Coupeville’s own bats went cold for a couple of innings, and Orcas finally cracked the code in the bottom of the fifth.
Two Viking hitters embraced the pain and let themselves be drilled by wayward pitches to get things started, with Calvin Saxe whacking a two-run single to left to knot things up at 2-2.
The Wolves have been resilient all season, however, and they quickly responded, pushing two runners of their own across in the top of the sixth to retake the lead.
Chase Anderson and Valenzuela connected on back-to-back singles to lead off the inning, while Jack Porter came up with a mammoth two-out hit.
Orcas committed an error on Porter’s RBI single, allowing a second Wolf to race home, and the deed was done.
Hilborn retired six of the final seven hitters, setting the Vikings down 1-2-3 in the seventh to send local fans back to their cars with tear-stained faces.
Or at least I’d like to think so.
Saturday stats:
Chase Anderson — One single
Peyton Caveness — One double
Jack Porter — Two singles
Landon Roberts — One single
Jonathan Valenzuela — One single, one walk
Cole White — One single
Coupeville Sports 
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