Coupeville Sports

    Central Whidbey slugger Joey Lippo (center) continues to carry a hot bat into the fall. (Joe Lippo photo)

Several Coupeville baseball players are staying in the game this fall by playing with an Oak Harbor squad. Here’s the story of their latest win, a 13-7 romp over Anacortes, courtesy Joe Lippo:

Anacortes packed the wagons and traveled south to Oak Harbor for its weekly fall ball showdown (read: beat-down) with the North/Central sluggers.

This was to be by far the most interesting game, with two rundowns, the weirdest call of the season, quotable quotes and a coach getting tossed.

The Coupeville players on the squad took a page from the Wolves’ football playbook: hit hard and often.

Early in the first, the North/Central pitcher got in trouble right away, giving up some hits, walking a lot, and even committing a balk, allowing two runs while striking one out.

Coach Lark “How Many Outs Are There?” Gustafson then went to Coupeville hurler Ethan Marx to get out of the first inning.

After a quick 60+ mph game of catch with Coupeville backstopper Clay “You Can Never Have Too Many Seeds” Reilly, the North/Central team finally got to the plate.

The Anacortes pitcher had similar woes, and had trouble finding his groove.

When he did find the strike zone, Oak Harbor player Hunter Wiegenstein (much more on him later) smacked a double, scoring one and was closely followed by Ryan Evans with a double of his own, clearing the bases and advancing the score to 3-2, before a timely pickoff and a roller to second ended the inning.

Marx took the mound again, keeping up the onslaught of fastballs, change-ups, and some mildly stinky cheddar and even participating in a rundown between second and third that included everyone on the North/Central team except for the right and center fielders.

The wheels started to come off a little as Marx faltered after downing two batters, and two Anacortes players crossed the plate before Coupeville shortstop Joey Lippo flagged down a grounder and threw the runner out at second, stopping the bleeding at 4-3.

Trent Cone led off the third with an opposite field single, and was followed by Marx, who hit a dribbler down the third base line that steadfastly refused to cross the line as he cruised to first.

Oak Harbor standout James Besaw took one for the team off his leg, and the bases were suddenly loaded. And then, just as suddenly, they were all stranded by a quick double play and a strikeout, preserving the 4-3 Anacortes lead.

That put Marx back on the mound for the third straight inning, and that’s when things got interesting.

A catch for an out and an overthrow resulted in umpire Rita Kline awarding two bases and coach Shane Evans challenging the call loudly.

Kline ended the argument but Evans wasn’t done, firing a final comment. At this point the home plate umpire had seen enough and sent coach to the showers (as it were).

Shortly thereafter, Marx was replaced on the hill by Hunter “I’m Going To Strike Everyone Out” Weigenstein with two outs, a runner on second and the score 5-3. A roller right back to the pitcher ended the inning.

The bottom of the third started well as Central Whidbey slugger Joey “I Hit It In The Gap, Twice” Lippo stroked a single, followed by a Steven Richards single. Reilly sacrificed the runners one more base. A two out hit to center scored Lippo and Richards was waved home, only to be thrown out at the plate, ending the inning.

Weigenstien, who was really the key to the whole game, threw hard the entire inning, preventing any more damage, and the North/Central squad came back to try to put some numbers on the board.

And put up numbers they did: a lead off single by Evans followed by a double by Caleb Vaughn which scored Evans and then Brandon Figarelle scored Vaughn.

At this point, there was a rundown between second and third, closely following a collision at the plate. Kline suddenly called time and stopped the play, killing the rundown and preventing an out. Turns out she was concerned with the Anacortes catcher’s well being.

Then Cone and Marx singled, followed by a walk to Besaw to load the bases. And that’s the way it stayed, but now the Whidbey team had taken the lead, 6-5.

Top of five put Weigenstein back on the hill, shutting down the kids from the north with blistering fastballs and a little help from Reilly, who made a leaping grab for the third out.

Bottom of five and Johnny “I Left My Hat In My Dads Car” Thurston led off with a walk, and stole his way to third. Lippo hit him home with a single, then decided that standing around on base was lame. So he stole second and third, then scored on a passed ball, clearing the bases for Reilly, who jacked a single.

Game MVP Weigenstein came up to add his two cents in the form of a single, scoring Reilly. At the end of five, the home team is pulling away.

Weigenstein stayed steady in the sixth, the Anacortes team continued their pitcher induced slump, and Steven Richards wrapped the game in the seventh.

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Clay Reilly transforms into Miguel Cabrera. (Joe Lippo photo)

Four Central Whidbey baseball stars are continuing to play ball deep into the fall, and parent/blogger Joe Lippo is along for the ride. His story from the trenches:

Saturday rolled around, and with storm clouds gathering on the horizon, North Whidbey and Anacortes met again at Volunteer Park for their weekly Junior League Fall Ball contest.

For a while there, it looked like the oversized North (and Central) Whidbey squad would lend a few players to Anacortes due to some no-shows, but the roster filled out as parents realized that the rain would hold off.

The day started like the last one, and the visiting North (and Central) Whidbey team began the afternoon at the plate.

First batter up was Coupeville’s own Joey Lippo, who set the tone for the game with a lead-off single past the Anacortes shortstop, maintaining his 1.000% on base percentage on the season.

Another Coupeville resident, Clay Reilly, followed up with a walk, during which time Lippo vacated first base for the better views and real estate value of second base.

Reilly also had a hit deep to left field, which should have been a triple, but as Clay rounded second base at full stride, he noticed that the Anacortes third baseman had inexplicably vacated his position and was somewhere in left field for the cutoff. So, of course, he kept going all the way to home, resulting in an inside the park home run.

In comments made after the game, Reilly indicated that he wasn’t really going to stop anyway, so we will count it as a home run.

With the exception of Reilly’s HR, all of the Coupeville sluggers did about the same (and if any of this is wrong, blame the back of the soggy envelope I scribbled it on):

Clay Reilly – Single, HR, BB
Joey Lippo – Single, 2 BB
Ethan Marx – 2 BB
Johnny Thurston – 2 BB

So, as you might conclude, Anacortes pitching wasn’t really where they wanted it to be.

However, when it was, North (and Central) Whidbey took the ball for a ride. There were a couple notable standouts from the Great White North that bear mentioning, even though this is a Coupeville Sports blog, and may get censored by the Great and Powerful OB (Owner of Blog).

James Besaw, who has the distinction of being (arguably) the fastest player on the team, got to first every time he was at the plate, and then proceeded to steal so many bases that the Anacortes PD started looking into the matter.

He also got caught in a rundown trying to steal home, but evaded all attempts to tag him out and ended up sitting in a cloud of dust at home plate while the ball rolled away from the pitcher.

Another North Whidbey player, Matthew Boyd, was definitely dialed in as he stroked no less than three doubles into the deep outfield of Volunteer Park, driving in many runs and making the biggest contribution to the 17-2 (5 inning) victory for North Whidbey.

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