“They may call me Church, but you’ll be praying when you face my heat, son!” (Shelli Trumbull photo)
There are days when one player will rise up and simply be better than everyone else around him.
Wednesday was that day, and Aaron Curtin was that player.
Firing BB’s on the mound and smoking the game-winning hit at the plate, the Coupeville High School sophomore carried the Wolves to a wind-whipped 5-2 victory over visiting Granite Falls in a classic example of a baseball game being dominated by a single player.
Not that he didn’t have help, however, as Ben Etzell returned from an injury to crush a rally-launching double and numerous Wolves pulled off nifty defensive plays.
When Curtin wasn’t setting down Tiger batters on strikes — he whiffed seven while tossing a 124-pitch complete game — his fielders were making big-time plays behind him.
Wade Schaef sprinted a mile into the deepest, darkest part of center field to snag a dangerous fly, while Morgan Payne, Etzell and Drew Chan pulled off the slickest double play of the year to snuff a potential rally. Coupeville also picked off two Granite Falls runners in the fifth inning to slam the door shut on a Tiger rally.
The Wolves jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, scoring a run in each of the first two innings. Payne crushed an RBI single to center to score Kurtis Smith in the first, then Korbin Korzan lofted a long sacrifice fly to plate Josh Bayne in the second.
With Curtin striking out five through the first four innings, and the double play ending a bases loaded jam in the third, the Wolves sailed along untouched until the fifth.
Then came the only real bump of the afternoon, as Granite Falls knocked in two runs in the top of the fifth to tie things up. They were looking for more, but ran themselves out of the inning, with runners gunned down at both third and first on pick-off plays.
With the brutally cold wind picking up considerably and the thought of extra innings not particularly appealing to anyone, Coupeville came out aggressively in the bottom of the sixth.
With one out, Etzell launched a shot into left field and never broke stride rounding first, flying face-first into second and beating the throw by a hair. After a walk to Payne and a long fly out by Jake Tumblin, the hero of the day arrived at the plate.
Given a chance to put himself back ahead, Curtin grooved a pitch and drilled a two-run double into the gap. He had barely left the field for a pinch-runner, a grin on his face as he was jumped by his teammates in the dugout, when the next batter, Kyle Bodamer, smoked his own RBI double down the left field line.
After that, all that was left was for Curtin to power home through the seventh, starting it off with his final strikeout, then ending it with a high pop-up to first-baseman Aaron Trumbull.
Now 6-9 overall, 4-9 in Cascade Conference play, Coupeville heads to Granite Falls Friday for the rubber game of their three-game set. It then plays three of its final four at home, before hosting at least one, and possibly two, playoff games.
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