Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Baseball’ Category

Tough start, strong finish

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on March 6, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Cody Roberts pitched strongly in relief Saturday in Coupeville’s opener. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Erase the first half hour and things were pretty good.

Back on the baseball diamond for the first time since 2019, the Coupeville High School hardball squad dug itself a big hole Saturday, then almost clawed all the way back out again.

But it wasn’t to be, as the Wolves stranded the tying run on base in the final inning, falling 7-5 to visiting Friday Harbor.

The first baseball game played since the pandemic wiped out all prep sports last spring, it also marked Coupeville’s return after many years to the Northwest 2B/1B League, and the debut for new head coach Will Thayer.

The new diamond guru liked some of what he saw, but could have done without his pitching staff giving up 11 walks in the first two innings en route to falling behind 6-0.

“It was a good game,” Thayer said. “Rough first inning and a half, then we pulled together.

“It was a good gauge of where we stand, and, if we would have started fast, I believe we would have had a different outcome.”

Daniel Olson, the lone senior on this Coupeville squad, got the call on the mound and opened things by whiffing the leadoff hitter.

After that, however, he had some control problems, helped by an ump with a tight strike zone.

Without registering a base hit, and actually only making contact once, Friday Harbor still managed to put three runs on the board in the first, and another three in the second.

Wolf junior Cody Roberts came on in relief midway through the second inning, and started firing b-b’s, while Olson came back around to provide plenty of spark to Coupeville’s offense.

“Cody pitching was close to shut down,” Thayer said.

The Wolves almost immediately began to chip away at the lead, tossing a run on the board in the bottom of the second, two more tallies in the third, and a run in the fourth.

Olson had a key base-knock in the second — the first hit for either team — while Jonathan Valenzuela bashed an RBI double in the third which plated Scott Hilborn.

Finding a nice groove at the plate, the Wolves also got hits from Zane Oldenstadt and Hawthorne Wolfe in the fourth, narrowing the lead back to 6-4.

From there, the two squads exchanged runs in the fifth, before both pitching staffs clamped down on the hitters.

Trailing by two with two outs and no one on base in the bottom of the seventh, and final inning, Coupeville almost produced a rally for the memory books.

Olson and Roberts punched back-to-back hits, with the latter representing the tying run, but Friday Harbor escaped, ending the game on a strikeout.

In this pared-down pandemic season in which all the players, fans, and umps will wear masks, Coupeville has an 11-game schedule.

Up next is a home doubleheader Friday, March 12, with La Conner coming to The Rock.

Read Full Post »

“Our future is very exciting!”

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on February 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »

After COVID-19 stole a season from him, Hawthorne Wolfe returns to the baseball diamond. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

New coach, new league, new schedule.

Everything is a little different for the Coupeville High School baseball squad as it gets ready for its first games since 2019.

The pandemic erased prep sports last spring, then coach Chris Smith departed Whidbey Island after the graduation of his youngest child.

Now, Will Thayer steps into the dugout as the head man and his first Wolf team is scheduled to play a pared-down, conference-only slate of games.

That will give Coupeville a strong introduction to their new foes, at least, as CHS moves from 1A to 2B, returning to its old stomping grounds in the Northwest 2B/1B League.

While the schedule seems to shift each day, as of Thursday the Wolves are set to play fellow 2B schools Friday Harbor (4) and La Conner (3) the most, with a single game against 1B rivals Darrington, Mount Vernon Christian, and Concrete.

Orcas Island (1B) opted not to play spring sports as long as its students were not back in class, while Chimacum (2B) is slated to join the NWL for the 2021-2022 school year.

Having a chance to go toe-to-toe with Friday Harbor should give Thayer and his crew a solid idea of where they fit in the new hierarchy.

“Perennial power in this league seems to be Friday Harbor; they are a very well-coached team and consistently at the top of their league,” Thayer said. “This is our first year in this league and we will have to learn the teams on the fly.

“It is kind of nice being a first-year coach in a new league so I can learn with the team,” he added. “We will be able to measure ourselves against our league for the first time together.”

With the unexpected gap year, the Wolf roster has seen a fairly large turnover.

Of the 15 players listed on the roster posted on the league web site, only four have ever played in a CHS baseball game — senior Daniel Olson and juniors Hawthorne Wolfe, Cody Roberts, and Sage Sharp.

Olson and Roberts provide a one-two combo at the top of the pitching staff, while Wolfe is back to hit leadoff and prowl center field.

Cody Roberts joins Daniel Olson at the top of Coupeville’s pitching rotation. (Photo by Karen Carlson)

Three sort-of newcomers, all with plenty of hardball experience, are expected to have immediate impacts, as well.

Xavier Murdy, a junior, joins Olson and Wolfe as a team captain, while sophomores Scott Hilborn and Jonathan Valenzuela will start at shortstop and third base, respectively.

“We are anchored on the left side of our infield,” Thayer said. “This will be their first year of high school baseball and they have proven themselves ready to rise to the occasion and lead us in to the future.”

Murdy spent his freshman year on the soccer pitch, but with the move from 1A to 2B, boys soccer slides from spring to fall.

Rounding out the preseason roster are junior Miles Davidson, sophomore Coen Killian, and a pack of freshmen — Nathan Ginnings, Cole White, Nick Guay, Andrew Williams, Seth Woollet, and Zane Oldenstadt.

It’s a group which will have to learn on the fly.

“Just coming together as a team, as we haven’t had much time to bond as a tight group; but every practice we become a tighter group,” Thayer said.

“We are learning from each other as we go in a very short time.”

However the lineup eventually breaks down, Thayer is excited to get on the field.

“Our goal for this season is to compete for a league title,” he said. “Since there is no state tournament this year, our team goal is league title, and let everyone know that we are a state-worthy team next season.

“We are a very young team so our future is very exciting, and I believe we will be in contention for league and state for the foreseeable future.”

Read Full Post »

CHS diamond dandies lose a foe (for now)

Posted in Baseball, Softball, tagged , , , , on February 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »

With Orcas Island stepping away from spring sports, Daniel Olson’s senior season dips from 10 games to nine. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

And then there were six.

Things change at a moment’s notice in the Age of Coronavirus, and Wednesday brought a new wrinkle.

Orcas Island informed Northwest 2B/1B League officials it will not begin athletics until students return to in-person education.

Currently, the expectation is for that to happen in late March, though nothing is guaranteed.

With a condensed spring sports season running from February 22 to April 3, Orcas is out, with the hope it will be back in when traditional fall sports run March 29 to May 8.

The Vikings are the second group of NWL athletes to bow out due to COVID-19 concerns, as Chimacum already opted to delay joining what is intended to be an eight-team league.

Chimacum combined with next-door neighbor Port Townsend for the 2020-2021 school year, and the schools are playing in the 1A/2A Olympic League as East Jefferson.

With Orcas stepping away from spring sports, two Coupeville teams lose a total of four games from already pared-down schedules.

The Wolf softball squad was set to host the Vikings March 13, then join the CHS baseball team in traveling to Orcas March 23.

That road trip was to feature a softball doubleheader and a lone hardball contest.

With the changes, Coupeville softball sees its schedule shrink from 12 to nine games, while Wolf baseball goes from 10 to nine.

CHS track and girls tennis are unaffected, as Orcas doesn’t field teams in those sports.

 

UPDATE #1: A trip to Friday Harbor has been added to the schedule on March 19, bringing both Coupeville diamond schedules up to 10 games.

 

UPDATE #2: Softball will play a home doubleheader March 6 against Friday Harbor, instead of the previously-planned single game, raising its schedule back to 11 games. 

Read Full Post »

CHS baseball welcomes new head coach

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on January 28, 2021| Leave a Comment »

New Coupeville High School varsity baseball coach Will Thayer. (Submitted photo)

Will Thayer turned a negative into a positive.

Growing up, he dreamed of being a professional baseball player, but his playing days were derailed by a high school knee injury.

Instead of moping around, Thayer moved into coaching, starting when he was 16, and continuing to this day.

Now the 2002 Oak Harbor High School grad will be pulling on a new uniform, after being named as the varsity baseball coach at Coupeville High School.

While he has CHS Athletic Director (and former Wolf baseball guru) Willie Smith’s approval, the final stamp will come when the school board approves his hire.

It’ll be Thayer’s second try at leading a Wolf diamond program, as he was originally hired last spring to helm Coupeville’s JV softball squad.

When COVID-19 shut down sports across the state, he never got a chance to coach a game, however.

If current plans hold, baseball will join other spring sports in being the first to return to play during the pandemic.

Northwest 2B/1B League AD’s have set a tentative time frame of February 22 to April 3 for a shortened, six-week season, though that will depend on the region reaching Phase 2 in Governor Jay Inslee’s latest reopening plan.

After replacing Chris Smith, who moved off-Island after the graduation of his youngest child, Thayer is ready once again to rock and roll.

It’s the logical next step for a man who has been around the game for most of his life.

“Growing up I started when I was eight, playing in North Whidbey Little League, and then played my high school baseball in Oregon until a knee injury stopped my playing days,” Thayer said.

“Growing up I wanted to be a professional baseball player,” he added. “Once I realized high school was as far as I was going to go, I knew I wanted to stay around the game.”

That led to an early entry into the coaching fraternity, and it’s a decision he has embraced.

“Once I started coaching, I realized I got the same joy as I did as a player and decided I was going to work as hard as I needed to coach at the high school level,” Thayer said.

“Being from the area, coaching for Coupeville is my way of giving back to an area I spent a lot of time playing and coaching in for so many years.”

Thayer, who is a Recreation Assistant with the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Department at NAS Whidbey, preaches that “small wins create large victories.”

He inherits a program left in a good place by Chris Smith, and will look to expand on what his predecessor accomplished.

“I am a family man, who loves sports and coaching them,” Thayer said. “As a coach, I am invested in creating a winning attitude both on and off the field.

“(Our) upcoming season’s on-field goal is to win our league title.

“Long term is to build a program the community is proud of, and looks forward to coming out and supporting every year, and to get people talking about Coupeville baseball starting with the little leaguers to the people in the community.”

Read Full Post »

Wolf alumni earns military honor

Posted in Baseball, military, tagged , , , , on January 28, 2021| 1 Comment »

Coupeville alumni Seth Weatherford (right) graduated from the United States Air Force Security Forces Academy. (Photo courtesy Laureen Wilson)

Weatherford streaks home with a run during his junior baseball season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

From Wolf to Defender.

Coupeville High School grad Seth Weatherford joined the ranks of those “on the wall” Wednesday, officially graduating from the United States Air Force Security Forces Academy.

The USAF SF operates as the primary law enforcement within the Air Force, and is now also connected with the new U.S. Space Force.

Weatherford, a 2020 Coupeville High School grad, was an athlete, scholar, and thespian during his time in Cow Town.

He played baseball for the Wolves, appearing in a mix of varsity and JV games for coaches Chris Smith and Mike Etzell.

Unfortunately, Weatherford and teammates lost their senior season when the COVID-19 pandemic brought a hold to sports last spring.

Earlier in his school career he was part of the Coupeville Middle School Theatre Troupe’s production of Stocking Stuffers, under the direction of Peg Tennant.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »