Coupeville Sports

“Thank you. Yes, we are awesome. Thank you.”

“I’m just gonna strike out the next couple guys. Give the fielders a rest.”

Morgan Payne: Human Vacuum. No ball gets past him.

“Ow! I hurt my face!!”

That’s what you get for being sponsored by Pepsi. Coke is the real thing.

“We’re rollin’, rollin’, rollin!”

“I beat Coach Smith’s score on Bejeweled!!!”

Wednesday was a great day for Wolf baseball.

A 5-2 win over arch-rival South Whidbey, their second straight over the interlopers from Langley and fourth in a row overall.

Fairly decent weather.

A short drive home (compared to trips to Cedarcrest or Sultan).

And, topping it off, the camera work of ace photographer Shelli Trumbull, who continues to rack up the mileage as she follows son Aaron and his CHS teammates.

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“Etzell. Ben Etzell. License to thrill.” (John Fisken photos)

            No coach in his right mind EVER gives Jake Tumblin the stop sign coming around third.

No one could stop Ben Etzell Wednesday.

Frustrating South Whidbey with his pitches and crushing them with his bat, the Coupeville High school junior helped carry the Wolf baseball squad to a 5-2 win in Langley, its fourth straight victory and second in as many games against their Island arch-rivals.

Two days after he shut down the Falcons in the seventh inning to preserve a one-run win, he went the distance and was nearly as sharp. A brief hiccup in the third put him in a hole, but after that Etzell and a note-perfect defense behind him were golden.

Wolf catcher Jake Tumblin zipped a throw to second to snuff a would-be base thief, while middle infielders Drew Chan and Morgan Payne combined on back-to-back dandy web gems to seal the deal in the final inning.

First, second-baseman Chan backhanded the ball beautifully on a shot up the middle and flipped it to the flying Payne, who beat the runner to the bag by a step. Then the duo teamed up with first bagger Aaron Trumbull for a wham-bam double play to cap the win.

When he wasn’t letting his mates have balls to field, Etzell was flinging pure heat, twice knocking down big batters with strikeouts at key moments. He ended both the fourth and fifth with classic punch-outs and racked up seven K’s on the afternoon.

At the plate he was just as dangerous, rapping out three hits and driving in three runs. Payne added a pair of hits while Tumblin stole two bases and scored twice.

Trailing 2-0 entering the top of the fifth, Coupeville put together a nice rally, with Etzell and Payne smacking back-to-back RBI singles, before Kurtis Smith broke the tie with an RBI on a fielder’s choice ground-out.

The Wolves tacked on two more in the sixth when Etzell plated Korbin Korzan on a grounder deep in the hole at short. While South Whidbey tried — and failed — to catch Etzell at first, Tumblin never broke stride coming from second and scored without a throw.

Now 4-2 overall, 2-2 in Cascade Conference play, Coupeville will go for the season sweep Friday, March 29, when the Falcons travel back up the Island for a 4 PM game.

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Brian Norris in happier times. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

The hand.

Brian Norris is a splendid defensive first-baseman, but he’s not so hot at catching falling wine glasses.

The Coupeville High School junior suffered a hand injury right before the start of baseball season when he knocked over a glass while getting up from the dinner table. The glass shattered as it fell and slashed into his hand.

Making matters worse, the emergency room doctor who sewed up the cut failed to notice the tendon in his thumb had been severed. It was only when he went to his normal doctor to have the stitches removed that the more serious injury was detected.

Now, instead of being able to return and join his Wolf teammates on the field, Norris will be seeing a specialist Friday for surgery to have the tendon reconnected (“I don’t know if it has a special name. You could make one up if you wanted to. That’d be cool”) and will be looking at 12 weeks of rehab, effectively ending his season before it can begin.

“I am looking on the bright side. I get to use my thumb and that is what is really important,” Norris said. “Don’t get me wrong. I will miss it (baseball) but having full use of my thumb for the rest of my life is pretty important.”

His presence will be missed on the field, said Wolf coach Willie Smith.

“It’ll make us a little thinner in depth,” Smith said. “Obviously we will miss Brian defensively and he was really swinging the bat well.”

Norris remains connected with the team, however, as he maintains a presence in the dugout during games, using an iPad to help keep stats for his coach. Or something like that.

“I try to beat his (Smith’s) Bejeweled score,” Norris joked.

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        The best outfield in the game — left to right, Korbin Korzan, Wade Schaef and Kurtis Smith.

Drew Chan just smoked an RBI double and he’s in a pretty good mood.

Mike Etzell was smiling on the inside as he celebrated his birthday with a win.

Willie Smith (14) and his Wolves are all grins at the end of the day.

Is there anything finer than to beat South Whidbey?

No. No there is not.

Unless it is looking at Shelli Trumbull photos after you beat South Whidbey.

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        You don’t mess with Ben Etzell, especially when he’s throwing on his dad’s birthday. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

“You see, Korb, we’re just gonna keep winning and winning and winning…”

Three in a row, and they’re not stopping there.

With each win, the Coupeville High School baseball squad surges in confidence, awakening memories of three short summers ago, when the core of this team was nothing less than the best in the state.

Monday afternoon, on a day when the sun shone, the babies in the audience flashed their dimples and big sisters returned from college to see their brothers lash huge, two-out base hits, the Wolves held off a spirited charge from their arch-rivals, bouncing South Whidbey 7-6.

It was a game that had a bit of everything, from timely hits (Kurtis Smith lacing a two-out, two-run single as former Wolf three-sport star Katie Smith, home from the University of Washington, beamed; Kyle Bodamer crunching a pinch-hit go-ahead RBI single) to timely errors.

Smith streaked home from second after a failed pick-off throw sailed into center field, while Aaron Trumbull, left for dead in a run-down, survived by the slimmest of margins when the third baseman muffed the throw.

That set up Jake Tumblin, whose raw speed on a grounder unhinged a South Whidbey infielder, who whipped the ball over his first baseman’s glove, allowing two Wolves to scamper home.

The game even had a built-in birthday celebration, as Ben Etzell, the third Wolf hurler of the afternoon, shut down the Falcons in the top of the seventh.

While Coupeville assistant coach Mike Etzell was serenaded by family and friends after the game, his biggest smile came when his son punched out the final three outs, including one on a called third strike that exploded in Tumblin’s mitt loud enough to be heard in Langley.

Now 3-2 on the season, with three straight one-run wins at home, the Wolves head down South Wednesday for the middle game of a three-game bout, before wrapping things back in Coupeville Friday.

They’ll look to get out of the gate Wednesday as quickly as they did Monday. The Wolves pounced on the Falcon pitcher for a quick four-spot, with an infield single from Tumblin, a booming RBI double from Drew Chan, a walk to Etzell, then Smith’s heroics, both with the bat and his speedy feet.

South Whidbey rallied to tie the game at four, using a two-run blast that cleared the outfield fence to light the fire.

Just as quickly, however, the Wolves regained the lead. After a single by Aaron Curtin, Trumbull reached base when the Falcon catcher missed the third strike, then Bodamer and Tumblin came through with their big knocks.

The Falcons picked up a run apiece in the fifth and sixth to shave the lead back to 7-6, but Etzell slammed the door shut in the seventh. Moving to the mound from first after Trumbull lost the first batter on balls, he induced grounders to Curtin and Chan, sandwiched around his epic strikeout.

After that, all that was left was for Lorene Norris to hand out treats and Britnie Korzan and Riley Boyd’s baby daughter to pack up her dimples and go home, content in the knowledge she had witnessed another win for uncle Korbin Korzan and company.

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