Coupeville Sports

Drew Chan and mom Beverly. (John Fisken photos)

Chan gobbles up a grounder.

Chan and dad Chris.

Chan at the bat.

Soccer needed eight. Baseball just one.

Carrying the load of leadership by himself, Coupeville High School second baseman Drew Chan is the lone senior on this year’s baseball squad.

As he prepares for Senior Night (at 4 PM, which is not technically night…) today against Lakewood, it gives CHS fans a final chance to cheer on the spark plug, the hard-hittin’, slick-fieldin’ motor that helps drive the Wolves.

The hope is Coupeville will host a home playoff game Wednesday, giving Chan one more game on his home field, but either way he deserves your support.

He is the example that all Wolf athletes should follow. A kid who digs in, gives his best every game and picks his teammates up, win or loss.

He leads the bench in chatter, and he leads by example as well as by words.

When Chan hangs up the #2 uniform, hopefully way down the road after a long postseason run, it won’t stay there for long. Others will wear it in years to come.

But when they pull on that red and black jersey, they should take a moment, because they’ll be putting on a number worn by a Wolf legend.

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   Wolf baseball guru Willie Smith imparts some last bits of wisdom to senior Drew Chan. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

       Ben Etzell stares down a Sultan bat which has just missed another one of his pitches.

Up close and personal with Kurtis Smith.

It’s not a game until Morgan Payne is covered in dirt.

Bringin’ the heat.

“I admit it. Coupeville is just much more awesome than we are.”

Three wins in three games.

Firing on all cylinders as they head towards the playoffs, the Coupeville High School baseball squad completed a three-game season sweep of Sultan with a win Friday. Now, they’d like the Turks to give them a little help next week.

Sultan hosts South Whidbey Monday, while Coupeville hosts Lakewood, in the regular season finales.

The Wolves and Falcons, the only two 1A schools to play baseball, each have seven wins in Cascade Conference play, with Coupeville owning the tie-breaker, having taken two of three from South Whidbey.

If both teams win or lose Monday, or Coupeville wins and South Whidbey loses, the Wolves are the #1 seed and draw a home playoff game Wednesday, May 1.

Only a Falcon win and a Wolf loss (not gonna happen) would bump them to #2, and send them on the road.

Win or lose Wednesday, Coupeville will play a second game Thursday at Pipeline Fields in Blaine. Win at least one of their first two playoff games, and they will return to Blaine Saturday to play for seeding into tri-districts.

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Kyle Bodamer is becoming a hitting machine. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

Ben Etzell has been getting stronger as the Wolves head towards the postseason.

Ben Etzell has Sultan’s number.

That number is 20, which is how many Turk batters the Coupeville High School hurler whiffed this week. Following up an 11-K performance Monday, he sent another nine down swinging Friday to help lead the Wolves to a huge 6-2 win.

The fourth win in the last five games for Coupeville, it improved them to 9-10 and all but guaranteed they will open the playoffs at home Wednesday, May 1.

The starter in the postseason opener is expected to be Etzell, and he is a pitcher on fire right now.

Other than a brief burp in the top of the seventh, he was dealing, whiffing at least one hitter in every inning. His best showing was the third, when he gunned down the side, part of a run of four straight strikeouts for the Wolf junior.

The few times Sultan managed to put the bat on the ball, Etzell’s defense gobbled it right up, with shortstop Josh Bayne handling several hard choppers flawlessly.

First baseman Aaron Trumbull chipped in with his own highlight play, turning an unassisted double play to end the fourth, snaring a liner and then chasing down a straying runner.

Meanwhile, the Wolves pounded out 10 hits — two apiece from Bayne, Kyle Bodamer and Morgan Payne — and were a hit or two away from running Sultan completely off the field.

They struck early, loading the bases in the bottom of the second with no outs. Bodamer than delivered with a thunderous two-run single to left center.

Runs in the third (on a throwing error) and fourth (a bases loaded walk to Kurtis Smith) increased the lead, but Sultan kept on finding a way to escape from danger at the very last moment, preventing the Wolves from throwing up a huge inning.

It was more than enough, though, with Etzell painting the corners — he only gave up one hit prior to the seventh — and Coupeville stretched the lead to 6-0 with two more in the sixth as Etzell and Payne smacked back-to-back RBI hits.

Sultan, which spent much of the game looking they wished the season was already over, staged a mini-rally in the seventh, getting three of its four hits.

But even that was over almost before it began, as Etzell got strikeout number nine, packaged around a pair of shallow fly-outs.

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       Aaron Curtin, backed up by a superb defense, blew away Sultan Wednesday. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Yesterday, gone in a snap. Today, nothing but a good time.

A day after a rough outing at Granite Falls, the Coupeville High School baseball squad quickly rediscovered that winning feeling they enjoy so much while playing in sun-drenched Sultan.

Combining highlight-reel defense, clutch hitting and some lights-out mound work by hurler Aaron Curtin, the Wolves strolled to a 5-2 victory in their final regular season road game.

Their third win in four games, it lifted them to 8-10 as they head home to wrap things with games Friday against Sultan and Monday against Lakewood. The playoffs begin Wednesday, May 1.

Coupeville came out with its intensity amped up and quickly jumped on the Turks in what Wolf coach Willie Smith hailed as a “huge rebound game for the boys.”

After Kurtis Smith led off the game with a single — his sixth hit over the past three games — the Wolves seemed to run themselves out of the inning. Drew Chan dropped a sacrifice bunt and Smith the coach decided to try and bring Smith the runner all the way to third, only to have him thrown out.

Never fear. There’s more where that came from.

Ben Etzell stroked a single and stole second, Morgan Payne eked out a walk, then Jake Tumblin crushed a triple to deep right, sending both runners scampering home.

Three insurance runs in the fifth, coming off of singles from Etzell and Payne, a bobbled ball by the Sultan third baseman and a passed ball, staked Curtin to a five-run lead. Which was more than he needed, as he fired B-B’s from the mound on his way to a seven-strikeout day.

When the Turks did get wood on the ball, the Wolf defense snuffed out any hopes Sultan had of staging a rally.

Payne pulled off a trio of web gems. First he skied to snare a tapper, then fired to first to double off the runner. Then he went into the hole and gunned down a runner at first on another play, before snagging a line drive backhanded to save a couple runs.

Not willing to let Payne have all the spotlight, Smith and Korbin Korzan each made dynamic catches in the outfield. Smith dove to rob a Turk of a sure-fire extra base hit, while Korzan made a tough running catch while looking into the sun.

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The birthday boy, Kyle Bodamer. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

Drew Chan

Kurtis Smith

With the last cupcake eaten, time to get back on the bus.

No one likes losing.

Especially when you have to travel to Granite Falls on a school bus for the pleasure.

But the one thing that sort of, kind of, can make the day better is free cupcakes. So, thanks to Kyle Bodamer turning 16 Tuesday, the Coupeville High School baseball squad had one thing to be happy about.

Because no one says no to a free cupcake. No one.

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