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Posts Tagged ‘1A Olympic League’

The dream lives!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on April 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »

CJ Smith (John Fisken photos)

   CJ Smith, seen here covering the bag at third in an earlier game, tossed another gem on the mound Monday. (John Fisken photos)

Cole Payne

   Cole Payne’s fleet feet delivered a 2-1 win to the Wolves, raising them to 5-0 in league play.

Don’t stop believin’.

Rallying for two runs late Monday, the Coupeville High School baseball squad pulled out another win, toppling visiting Chimacum 2-1 and clinching at least second-place in the 1A Olympic League.

With the victory, the Wolves (5-0 in league, 8-8 overall) stay atop the conference, one game up on Klahowya (4-1, 13-3) with four to play.

The Wolves and Eagles meet twice more, starting with a meeting at Klahowya Wednesday.

After that, Coupeville closes the regular season at home Friday against Port Townsend (0-5, 0-12), on the road at Chimacum (1-4, 4-9) May 2, and then, finally, at home against Klahowya May 5.

Regardless of how those games play out, CHS will finish ahead of both the Cowboys and RedHawks.

While Chimacum could still finish with the same record as Coupeville, the Wolves now own the tiebreaker.

The stakes are simple from this point.

Win a league title, something no Coupeville baseball squad has done since 1991, and the Wolves start in the double-elimination portion of the district playoffs May 11.

Finish second and CHS hosts a loser-out game May 7 against the #3 team from the Nisqually League.

Either way, six teams will play at districts, with two advancing to state.

To get an early look at the brackets, pop over to: http://www.olympicleague.com/tournament.php?tournament_id=1906&sport=6

Coupeville stayed on target Monday thanks to another stellar outing from senior hurler CJ Smith and some timely work at the plate.

Smith went the distance, fanning nine and surrendering just a single run in the fifth inning.

Still, for quite some time, that seemed like it might be enough to stop the Wolves, as they stranded a number of runners and were bedeviled by some odd calls.

That changed in the bottom of the sixth, when Wolf sophomore Hunter Smith gave his older brother a reprieve, plating Clay Reilly to tie the score at one apiece.

Buoyed by the run, CJ Smith held Chimacum down in the seventh, capping things with a final punch-out.

Tied going into the bottom of the seventh and final regular inning, Coupeville had nothing to lose (worst scenario? extra innings) and got adventurous.

With Cole Payne at third and Reilly at the plate, the Wolves went for broke and it worked.

Getting a good jump, Payne intended to steal home, only to have his teammate provide the perfect cover by rapping the ball in the direction of first base.

With Coupeville’s senior catcher hurtling for the plate, Chimacum had no play and meekly tossed Reilly out as the winning run scored.

Cue the celebration. And continue the march to history.

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The mojo is back!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on April 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Nicole Lester made her varsity softball debut Thursday as the Wolves rolled to a big win. (John Fisken photo)

   Nicole Lester made her varsity softball debut Thursday as the Wolves rolled to a big win. (John Fisken photo)

“It was good to see the girls back to their old selves.”

After hitting a brief rough spot in the schedule, the Coupeville High School softball squad bounced back with a fury Thursday afternoon, pleasing coach Kevin McGranahan.

Taking full advantage of a young Port Townsend program mired in the midst of a 30-game losing streak, the Wolves, as politely as possible, thrashed the RedHawks 24-6.

The win snaps a three-game skid for Coupeville and lifts them to 7-4 overall, 2-2 in 1A Olympic League play.

With Klahowya (1-1, 6-5) falling to Chimacum (3-0, 7-4) Thursday, the Wolves move back up into second place with more than half the league season left to play.

Facing a school which hasn’t won a softball game since April of 2014, Coupeville rained down runs.

The Wolves plated 10 in the first, then another eight in the second, forcing their coach to curtail his team’s running and find ways to keep the game moving as quickly as possible to its foregone conclusion.

He was able to swap players around and have them work at new positions, give daughter Katrina some time off in the pitcher’s circle and offer Nicole Lester her first start.

The freshman responded just the way her coach was hoping, turning on a pitch and smacking a sharp ground-ball on her first at-bat.

As a team, the Wolves were able to walk a fine line — they needed a win to get their mojo back, but didn’t want to unnecessarily embarrass their hosts.

“Port Townsend is a rebuilding team, but it was good to play them and let the girls just have fun and get back to the basics and play ball,” Kevin McGranahan said. “Everyone on the team contributed today and played well.

“The bats were on fire and we went station to station after the first inning trying to keep the scoring to a minimum.”

Katrina McGranahan carried the biggest bat, whacking two triples and a pair of singles while driving in six runners.

The Wolves collected five doubles on the day, with Mikayla Elfrank leading the way with a pair. Sarah Wright, Kailey Kellner and Jae LeVine also got in on the extra-base parade.

Wright and LeVine had three hits apiece, while Lauren Rose collected a pair of singles and Tamika Nastali beat out “a beautiful bunt.”

Veronica Crownover, Robin Cedillo, Tiffany Briscoe and Hannah Benway all collected base knocks, as well.

Katrina McGranahan (one hit and nine strikeouts in three innings) and Wright (two hits and four K’s) made for a formidable duo in the pitcher’s circle.

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Roll on, Wolves!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Hunter Smith smacked three singles, collected 3 RBi and struck out

   Hunter Smith smacked three singles and collected 3 RBI at the plate Thursday, while also whiffing 10 on the mound. (John Fisken photo)

It was brutal and efficient, just the way it needed to be.

Raining down 11 hits (from eight different batters) the Coupeville High School baseball team rolled to its fourth straight league win Thursday, crushing visiting Port Townsend 15-4.

The win, the fifth in their last seven games, lifted the Wolves to 7-7 overall, 4-0 in the 1A Olympic League.

It also kept them a game-and-a-half up on Klahowya (2-1, 11-3) in the race for a league title, and well clear of Chimacum (1-3, 3-8) and Port Townsend (0-3, 0-10).

Thursday’s showdown could have easily been a “trap game,” with CHS coming off of a huge upset of Klahowya only to turn around and face a win-less team.

To Coupeville’s credit, other than one sloppy inning, it never played that way, though.

The Wolves came out with sharp pitching from sophomore hurler Hunter Smith, who whiffed 10 RedHawks, and aggressive hitting from the get-go.

Coupeville scored in every inning, notching three in the first and two more in the second before exploding for a game-deciding eight-spot in the third.

The third-inning burst came at the exact right moment, as the Wolves early 5-0 lead was cut to 5-4 when their defense crumbled a bit in the top of that inning.

Four CHS errors, a lively mix of bobbled balls and throws that skipped away, helped keep the RedHawks alive, and then a huge two-run single back up the middle got the visiting fans in a momentary tizzy.

Hunter Smith was having none of it, however, as the unflappable one calmly ended the inning with another punch-out, stranding two runners.

For an agonizing moment or two, the game tottered on the precipice.

And then the Wolves attacked.

Sending 14 batters to the plate in the third, Coupeville used six walks and five hits in the inning to savage Port Townsend beyond recognition.

Nick Etzell and Hunter Smith drew bases-loaded walks to pad the lead slightly, before CJ Smith stroked a two-run single and Cole Payne lashed an RBI double.

The Wolves weren’t done, though, as Kory Score drove a two-run single to center-field and Clay Reilly looped an RBI single into the gap to stretch the lead all the way out to 13-4.

Running aggressively, even with a large lead, Coupeville tacked on two more runs in the fourth to put the ten-run rule into effect, and with Hunter Smith unhittable down the stretch, there was no hope for the RedHawks.

Coupeville had opened the game with three in the first.

Both Smith brothers came sprinting home when Payne’s bunt was thrown into right field, then pinch-runner Joey Lippo trotted across the plate on a ground-out off the bat of Julian Welling.

The Wolves tacked on two in the second, with Reilly dropping a beautiful bunt single to kick things off.

The junior outfielder stole second, took third on a single from birthday boy Gabe Wynn and came home on a passed ball.

Wynn was plated by Hunter Smith, smashing one of his three singles on the afternoon.

Reilly had two hits, while CJ Smith, Payne, Score, Ethan Marx, Wynn and Lippo all chipped in with one apiece.

While Welling was one of only two starters not to get a hit, that was only because the sophomore third baseman got flat out robbed. Twice.

After his first-inning RBI (which came on an epically long at-bat, as he fouled off pitch after pitch to stay alive), he came within an inch or two of a pair of extra-base hits.

Welling smashed a long shot down the left field line that was somehow run down, then had a wicked liner to third get snared by a RedHawk who jumped at just the right moment.

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Win some, lose some, always keep fighting!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on April 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Mikayla Elfrank crushed an epic double and made several sparkling defensive plays at short Tuesday. (John Fisken photo)

   Mikayla Elfrank crushed an epic double and made several sparkling defensive plays at short Tuesday. (John Fisken photo)

It’s a learning process.

Fielding a team without a single senior, with almost all of its key players freshmen or sophomores, the Coupeville High School softball squad is still very much a work in progress.

The early days of the season were a heady time, as the rally caps came out often en route to a 6-1 start.

Now, after taking a 7-1 loss at home to Klahowya Tuesday, the team’s third straight defeat, the Wolves are experiencing the bumps in the road.

The loss dropped Coupeville to 6-4 overall, 1-2 in league play and the Wolves slid into third-place in the 1A Olympic League standings.

Defending champ Chimacum (2-0, 6-4) sits on top, with Klahowya (1-0, 6-4) and Port Townsend (0-2, 0-6) sandwiched around Coupeville.

The Wolves, though, will have a strong opportunity to get back to their winnings ways, as they travel to Port Townsend Thursday, where they will try and add to the RedHawks two-year, 29-game losing streak.

If nothing else, the hits should come easier than they did Tuesday.

Klahowya hurler Amber Bumbalough, who was named the league MVP as a freshman, is continuing to roll in her second season of high school ball, and she was scorching as usual.

Coupeville, a fairly strong-hitting team, couldn’t get a base knock off of her until the fifth inning, when Tiffany Briscoe whacked a single to left.

Coming on the heels of a walk to Mikayla Elfrank, that gave the Wolves two on with nobody out, and a familiar pattern seemed to be emerging.

Fall behind early — in this case 4-0, largely on the basis of a three-run triple — then rally right back into the game.

Only, on this day, an alert Klahowya coach sprang from the dugout and got the hit negated on a technicality.

When Briscoe had entered the game, replacing Tamika Nastali in the second inning, CHS coach Kevin McGranahan had forgotten to declare the change to the ump.

So, instead of a single, Coupeville was given an out.

“That’s on me, not Tiffany,” McGranahan said. “She did a great job up there, I just made a mistake. My mistake all the way.”

Coupeville finally got an official hit (or two) off Bumbalough in the sixth, when Lauren Rose lashed a lead-off liner to center field, followed by a gorgeous bunt single off of the bat of Hope Lodell.

“The Surgeon” dropped the ball neatly in front of and to the side of the Klahowya third-baseman, then burned down the base path to beat the throw by half a step.

The Wolves netted their lone run in the inning, with Rose scampering home on a fielder’s choice ground-out by Sarah Wright, but the rally died too quickly for the local fan’s liking.

Klahowya put the game away for good in the seventh, with an RBI triple, followed by a two-run dinger that cleared the fence.

With the game slipping away, Elfrank refused to go down easy.

Capping a solid all-around game, the sophomore sensation crushed a lead-off double in the seventh, pounding the ball about a foot short of a home-run.

Her big blow, combined with several nifty web gems at short, caught her coach’s eye.

“Mikayla played strongly,” McGranahan said. “She was a rock for us; always nice to see.”

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Bow to your rulers! Twice!!

Posted in Girls Tennis, tagged , , , , on April 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Sage Renninger teamed with Payton Aparicio for a huge victory at first doubles Tuesday. (John Fisken photo)

   Sage Renninger teamed with Payton Aparicio for a huge victory at first doubles Tuesday. (John Fisken photo)

Twice the wins. Twice the statement.

Bringing home two victories Tuesday, the Coupeville High School girls’ tennis squad moved a huge step closer to defending its 1A Olympic League title.

Knocking off host Klahowya twice, the Wolves improved to 3-0 in league play, 5-3 overall.

That puts them a game-and-a-half up on Chimacum (1-1, 3-6) and three up on Klahowya (0-3, 4-8).

Beat the Cowboys Apr. 26 on their home court and Coupeville clinches its second straight league title banner.

The Wolves effectively eliminated Klahowya from title contention Tuesday by finishing off a win from a match that was left unfinished Mar. 24, before rolling to a second win in the day’s regularly scheduled match.

The earlier match had been frozen at 3-3 for close to a month, with Valen Trujillo and Sydney Jackson locked at 5-5 in the third set of their singles bout.

Trujillo came out loaded for bear Tuesday, winning eight of nine points as she polished off a 6-7(0-7), 6-4, 7-5 victory.

After that, she and her teammates rolled to a 4-2 win in the nightcap.

Complete Match #2 results:

1st singles — Valen Trujillo beat Sydney Jackson 6-4, 6-3

“She had to work hard to win today’s match, but she came through, big time!,” said CHS coach Ken Stange.

2nd singles — Sydney Autio beat Sophie Kovaleskie 6-1, 6-3

“It was a very businesslike win for Sydney. She was in control the whole way.”

3rd singles — Bree Daigneault beat Ciara Perez 6-2, 6-0

“Bree absolutely rolled.”

1st doubles — Sage Renninger/Payton Aparicio beat Shania Rose/Haley Sargent 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(7-4)

Hailed by Stange as “the match of the day,” the Wolf sophomores battled back from down 5-4 in the final set to knock off a highly-regarded duo.

With two wins in two matches against Klahowya’s top dogs, Aparicio and Renninger have clinched the league’s top seed heading into the postseason.

“The goal: win league, win district … and beyond,” Stange said.

2nd doubles — McKenzie Bailey/Maggie Crimmins lost to Mary Ann Marker/Maddy Reinks 6-1, 6-2

3rd doubles — Kenzi LaRue/Kameryn St Onge lost to Taylor Bruce/Domnique Sutton 6-3, 6-2

4th doubles — Julia Borges/Julianne Sem led Desiree Watts/Emma LaJoie 6-4, 1-4 (match stopped for Coupeville to catch ferry, but doesn’t affect outcome)

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