After crunching a pair of doubles in a 19-0 win, Hunter Smith gives lil’ sis Scout, whose softball team won 19-9, a ride. (Charlotte Young photo)
Jonathan Thurston was dealing.
The Coupeville High School senior hurler was flat-out nasty Thursday, shredding a young La Conner squad while his own teammates smacked the crud out of the ball en route to a 19-0 win.
The lopsided non-conference victory lifts the Wolves to 7-6 heading into a key Olympic League showdown Friday at Klahowya.
Wolf coach Chris Smith plopped the ball into his senior’s hand, sat back and enjoyed the show.
“Johnny threw a great game!”
La Conner got its first two hitters on base, thanks to a walk and a single, and then, after that, it was lights out.
Thurston stranded both Brave runners, striking out three in a row to escape the first, then eventually ran his streak to 10 straight hitters retired.
He gave up a one-out single in the fourth, but Coupeville promptly erased the runner when catcher Taylor Consford threw him out trying to steal second.
For the afternoon, Thurston finished with 10 strikeouts, while facing only two batters over the minimum in a game called after five innings thanks to the mercy rule.
And La Conner needed mercy, as Coupeville’s hitting mixed with its own inability to hang on to the ball doomed the Braves.
By the time the Wolves were done, they had rung up 14 hits.
Tack on 13 La Conner errors and the runs were flying across the plate in season-high numbers.
Coupeville plated seven in the first, added three in the second, another four in the third, then coasted home with five in the fourth.
In a game in which eight different Wolves notched at least one hit, Dane Lucero had the hottest bat, rapping out three singles and piling up five RBIs.
Four other CHS sluggers — Hunter Smith, Joey Lippo, Matt Hilborn and Clay Reilly — had two base-knocks apiece, with both of Smith’s being doubles.
Julian Welling, Kory Score and Consford added singles, with Hilborn, Welling and Score notching three RBIs apiece.
Coupeville Sports 