Korbin Korzan whiffed four and shut down Granite Falls in relief Wednesday. (Shelli Trumbull photo)
Willie Smith is trapped in his own personal “Twilight Zone.”
A season of great promise has taken more than its share of tumbles off the straight and narrow, and, as his team fell to 6-8 Wednesday, the same day arch-rival South Whidbey shocked ATM for a second straight game, the Coupeville High School baseball guru is getting tired.
“Well, it’s basically a mix between the movie “Groundhog Day” and being Charlie Brown’s teacher,” Smith said “We play the same game over and over and I say the same things, but nothing really changes.”
It resulted in a 6-2 loss at Granite Falls this time, and all but guaranteed the Wolves will be the #2 1A school from the Cascade Conference come playoff time.
South Whidbey is 9-5 in league play and holds a 3.5 game lead over Coupeville (5-8). There is hope, however, as the Wolves have a make-up game against Lakewood, who they’ve beat twice, and three against winless Sultan.
If the two Whidbey schools finish tied, and the Falcons, who have won six straight, would have to cool off for that to happen, Coupeville has the tie-breaker.
The Wolves won two of three against SWHS to open the season.
To make a run over its final five games, CHS will have to find another gear, however.
At times, their pitching has been flat-out brilliant. The rest of their game, not so much.
“We came out, if it is possible, flatter than we did on Monday,” Smith said.
Granite, which got very little offensively against Ben Etzell in a 1-0 win in the team’s first meeting Monday, got to Wolf starter CJ Smith quickly this time.
“They jumped on CJ in the first inning and we committed two errors (on the same play, mind you) and before I could make a change it was 4-0 with just one out,” Willie Smith said. “Unfortunately for CJ, it was a combination of a lack of control and the poor defense behind him that led to his early exit.”
Korbin Korzan came on in relief and kept things close from then on. He whiffed four Tigers while going the rest of the way, delivering a performance that cheered his coach.
“If there was a bright spot for us in this game it was Korban’s effort on the mound,” Willie Smith said. “With each outing he has had this year, he has got stronger and more confident, which is going to be huge for us as we move on in the playoffs.”
Unfortunately, the Wolf offense continued its season-long trend of being its pitchers worst enemy. Lack of run support is killing what has been a generally first-rate pitching corps.
“Offensively, we were less than stellar,” Willie Smith said. “We continue to be our own worst enemies: swinging at bad pitches, watching good pitches go by, and waiting for somebody else to get the big blow.
“Too many of them change their approach at the plate with each plate appearance and that mentality is leading to poor at-bats.”
Coupeville finally got something brewing in the sixth, scoring its runs on a string of singles from Kurtis Smith, Aaron Trumbull, Korzan and Cole Payne.
The rally died too soon, however, as back-to-back strikeouts stranded a pair of runners.
The Wolves put two runners on in the top of the seventh, as well, but couldn’t plate either one, ending the game on a pop up and a fly out.
Josh Bayne was the lone Wolf to collect multiple hits, leading the way with a pair of singles.
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