Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Baseball’ Category

Cousins unite to fuel Wolf win!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 20, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Shane Losey scampered home with the winning run Friday, scoring on a hit from cousin Julian Welling, as Coupeville baseball won for the sixth time in its last seven games. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

An offensive showcase it was not.

Which didn’t matter in the least to Coupeville High School baseball fans.

The Wolves didn’t get many hits Friday against visiting Klahowya, but they got them when it mattered.

Toss in a typically superb performance from senior hurler Hunter Smith, and CHS heads to the weekend on yet another high note.

Knocking off the Eagles 3-1, thanks to timely RBI base-knocks from bashers Kyle Rockwell and Julian Welling, the Wolves improve to 9-4 on the season.

More importantly, Coupeville is 3-1 in Olympic League play, setting up a first-place showdown Monday with Chimacum (4-0).

That home game kicks off at 4 PM.

Port Townsend (1-3), which recently snapped a three-year losing streak, sits in third, while Klahowya, the defending league champ, is in free-fall at 1-5.

Friday’s tilt was a pitcher’s duel from start to finish and Coupeville had the better chucker.

Smith rolled to 5-1 on the season with an 11-strikeout, two-hits, no-walks gem.

After retiring the first 10 Eagle hitters, he gave up back-to-back singles, which momentarily let KSS knot the game at 1-1.

Bouncing back quickly, Smith promptly erased the next 11 guys to step to the plate, ending the game on a true high note.

Coupeville had struck first, scratching out a run in the bottom of the second inning.

Jake Hoagland walked with one out, then stole second and third.

Perched on third, he said a silent prayer and Rockwell answered, smoking an RBI single to open the scoring.

After Klahowya ground out its run, the two teams exchanged goose eggs until the bottom of the fifth, when Welling, the human RBI machine, once again rose to the status of hero.

Gavin Knoblich eked out a walk to open things, then swapped spots with pinch-runner Shane Losey, who was ankling to run wild.

The Wolf young gun got his chance after Smith also walked to put two on with two out.

Welling, who has been torrid with the bat in pressure situations this season, smashed a two-run double to effectively end the game with one swing.

In a neat little small-town twist, the game-winning hit was struck by one cousin, and the game-winning run scored by another.

Losey’s dad and Welling’s mom are kin.

After that it was all up to Smith, with a little help from his defense (Jake Pease had a superb catch in the outfield in the early going), as the Wolves strolled home with their sixth win in their last seven games.

Joey Lippo joined Rockwell and Welling in the ultra-exclusive hit club, poking a single and stealing a bag before being stranded in the third.

Read Full Post »

The bats were smokin’!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on April 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Jake Hoagland ripped a pair of RBI doubles Thursday as Coupeville baseball lashed La Conner 14-2. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

They found a groove, and stayed in it all afternoon.

Poking 14 hits in just five innings Thursday, spread out among eight hitters, the Coupeville High School baseball team was unstoppable.

By the time the Wolf diamond men were back on the bus and headed to Arby’s for post-game roast beef, all host La Conner could do was turn off the scoreboard and try to ignore the 14-2 shellacking it had just endured.

The win, the fifth in the last six games for Coupeville, lifts it to 8-4 on the season.

After that non-conference tune-up, CHS gets right back at it Friday, hosting Klahowya (4 PM) in an Olympic League clash.

Win that one, and the Wolves would rise to 3-1 in conference action and stay a game back of Chimacum in the race for a league title.

Thursday, Coupeville came off the bus on fire and never let up.

The Wolves plated three in the first, using a Joey Lippo single and doubles from Dane Lucero and Jake Hoagland to ruffle the Braves hurler.

Hunter Smith (an RBI ground-out) and Julian Welling (a sac fly) knocked in the game’s first two runs, before Hoagland delivered the early KO with his two-bagger.

With Lucero cruising on the mound, the Wolves eventually stretched the lead all the way out to 10-0, with three more runners coming around in the second and four tapping home in the top of the third.

In the second, Lippo delivered a two-run double that sent Kyle Rockwell and Matt Hilborn scampering home, then the senior outfielder capped things by scoring on a La Conner error.

The Braves went to a new pitcher in the third, but the blood bath continued unabated.

Coupeville juiced the bags on a Hoagland walk and back-to-back singles from Jake Pease and Rockwell, then started unloading the bases quickly.

Nick Etzell ripped a two-run single, before the nuclear-hot Lippo delivered another RBI base-knock.

A final run scooted home on a ground-out off of Smith’s bat and the specter of the game being halted early thanks to the mercy rule reared its head for the first time.

Giving their fans a brief glimmer of hope, the Braves finally punched in a pair of runs in the bottom of the third, then held CHS scoreless for the first time in the top of the fourth.

The brief glimmer was firmly stamped out, however, as Coupeville rammed home another four runs in the fifth to effectively ice the game.

The Wolves did all their damage after starting off the inning with two outs and no one on base.

Lippo (yes, him again) singled, Smith was plunked by a wayward pitch, then Welling, the human RBI machine, brought both of his teammates home with a two-run single.

It didn’t stop there, with Lucero’s single driving home Welling and Hoagland’s second double of the afternoon plating pinch-runner Shane Losey.

Coupeville spread out its offense, with Lippo delivering a team-best four hits.

Hoagland (2B, 2B), Lucero (1B, 2B) and Rockwell (1B, 1B) chipped in with two base-knocks apiece, while Smith, Etzell, Welling and Pease all had a hit.

The only two Wolf hitters not to get a hit still reached base, as Hilborn and Jacob Zettle combined to walk three times.

Read Full Post »

Diamond men pile up stats!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Senior Kyle Rockwell is one of many players who have chipped in to help Coupeville baseball get off to a 7-4 start. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Rockin’ and rollin’.

The Coupeville High School baseball squad is off to one of its best starts in years, and a lot of the success comes from balance.

Up and down the lineup, Wolves are producing, and that has fueled a 7-4 record heading into a non-conference game today at La Conner.

A look at where CHS sits, stats-wise, as compiled by coaches:

 

Hitting:

Player AB Runs Hits 2B 3B HR BB RBI Avg. OBP
Lucero 40 4 12 3 5 11 .300 .370
Knoblich 20 4 2 3 3 .100 .250
H. Smith 42 14 18 2 4 2 15 .429 .468
Zettle 1
Hoagland 30 6 8 1 8 6 .267 .439
Pease 27 4 7 5 3 .259 .375
Lippo 36 12 12 1 12 4 .333 .500
Welling 20 6 9 2 6 11 .450 .645
Rockwell 28 2 5 1 7 5 .179 .378
Hilborn 37 17 16 2 9 12 .432 .580
Etzell 32 11 7 3 8 1 .219 .375

 

Pitching:

Player W/L ERA Gms H R ER BB HBP K IP WHIP
Lucero 1-1 4.13 5 16 16 11 13 1 15 18.2 1.554
H. Smith 4-1 0.88 5 19 9 4 4 36 32.0 0.719
Lippo 0-1 10.50 1 1 1 2 1 0.2 3.000
Welling 1-0 3.50 1 3 2 1 2.0 1.500
Hilborn 1-1 4.29 5 21 15 10 7 3 17 16.1 1.714
Etzell 0-0 9.55 4 3 5 5 2 2 4 3.2 1.364

Read Full Post »

The battle rages!!

Posted in Baseball, Boys Soccer, Girls Tennis, Softball, tagged , , , , , , on April 15, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Maggie Crimmins and CHS tennis swept two league matches this week to claim control of first-place in the 1A Olympic League. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Let the jockeying begin.

In a week where many teams were beset by the never-ending rain, two of the four Olympic League races we’re tracking had changes at the top of the standings.

In baseball, Chimacum, which has never finished higher than third in the previous three seasons of the conference, jumped past Coupeville and into first-place.

A one-run win put the Cowboys a game up on the Wolves, but there’s still two-thirds of the league season to play — including two more bouts between these very two teams.

Over on the tennis courts, not a single league match had been played prior to this week.

That’s changed, and with back-to-back wins at the tail end of the week, the Coupeville netters staked a solid claim to being a favorite to win a fourth straight crown.

While softball (Coupeville) and boys soccer (Klahowya) didn’t change leaders, none of the races are anywhere close to being decided yet, ensuring several more weeks of excitement.

Maybe.

Softball, thanks to the unique challenges raised by Port Townsend and Chimacum abandoning their programs this season due to a lack of players, could be settled five days from now.

If CHS beats Klahowya Friday at home, the Wolves, with wins in the first two of three games the squads will play, will clinch their first softball title since 2002.

An Eagle upset (Coupeville won 15-1 Mar. 28 and weather has kept KSS sidelined since that day) and the championship would come down to an Apr. 30 meeting in Silverdale.

And, speaking of upsets, the most unexpected score came from the world of baseball, where Port Townsend shocked Klahowya 6-2 Friday.

The win snapped a 48-game losing skid for the RedHawks, who last won Apr. 9, 2015, and sent the Eagles, the defending champs, crashing into the cellar.

My, oh my.

Current standings through Apr. 15:

Olympic League baseball:

School League Overall
Chimacum 3-0 5-5
COUPEVILLE 2-1 7-4
Port Townsend 1-3 1-6
Klahowya 1-3 2-8

Olympic League boys soccer:

School League Overall
Klahowya 4-0 7-2-1
COUPEVILLE 3-1 4-4-2
Port Townsend 1-3 1-6-0
Chimacum 0-4 0-6-0

Olympic League girls tennis:

School League Overall
COUPEVILLE 2-0 3-5
Chimacum 0-1 1-6
Klahowya 0-1 1-5

Olympic League softball:

School League Overall
COUPEVILLE 1-0 7-3
Klahowya 0-1 5-2

Read Full Post »

To the final out, to the final batter!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 13, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Gavin Straub had a pair of singles Thursday as Coupeville’s JV baseball squad battled Klahowya to the final at-bat. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

It was a nail-biter. A barn-burner. A gut-wrencher.

Pick your superlatives, but the Coupeville and Klahowya JV baseball squads put together an audience-pleaser Thursday, even if, ultimately, only the Eagle fans went home truly satisfied.

Rallying from four runs down, then scoring the winner in the seventh, Klahowya edged the Wolves 7-6 on a rain-free Whidbey diamond.

The loss drops the Coupeville JV to 1-4 on the season.

For much of the afternoon, the Wolves looked to be in control.

Starting pitcher Daniel Olson was humming on the mound, holding Klahowya to just two hits and a single run through five innings.

During that time, the Wolf hitters racked up seven hits of their own and built what seemed like a comfortable 5-1 lead.

Coupeville got things started in the second, using singles from Gavin Straub and Johnny Carlson to plate the first run.

Unfortunately, the Wolves left two aboard in the inning, a small mistake which would come back to haunt them later in the game.

CHS added two runs apiece in the third and fifth, starting both rallies in the same way, with back-to-back one-out singles from Jered Brown and Olson.

In the third, both runners scampered home when Klahowya booted Shane Losey’s grounder, while in the fifth, the Wolves picked up tallies on an RBI ground-out by Mason Grove and a run-scoring double from Losey.

Things took a major change in the sixth, however, when the Eagles finally put together their first sustained rally.

Piling up three singles  around two Wolf errors and a hit batter, KSS plated five to roar all the way back into the lead, pushing dark clouds over the Coupeville dugout.

The Wolves had an immediate response, knotting the game back up at 6-6 in the bottom of the sixth, thanks to a timely two-out base-knock.

It came courtesy James Vidoni, whose single scored Ulrik Wells, essentially re-starting the game.

Klahowya was not to be denied, though, as it scratched out what proved to be the game-winner in the top of the seventh.

The Eagles got the most important run of the game without a single hit, using three walks and an error to send their seventh runner across the plate.

Coupeville kept the bleeding at a minimum thanks to nailing a different KSS runner at the plate on a throw from Losey to Grove.

The Wolves had a chance to send the game to extra innings, but, after walking to open the bottom of the seventh, Olson was stranded as the next three hitters went down.

Straub, Brown and Olson paced the Coupeville attack with two hits apiece, while Losey, Carlson and Vidoni each added a base-knock of their own.

CHS hurlers Olson, Brown and Carlson combined to whiff eight Eagles on the afternoon.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »