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Posts Tagged ‘1A Olympic League’

Wolf frosh dazzles Redhawks!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on May 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Hunter Smith (John Fisken photo)

   Wolf freshman Hunter Smith tossed five solid innings on the mound and crunched a two-run double in a 12-2 win at Port Townsend. (John Fisken photos)

Aaron Trumbull

Aaron Trumbull had another big day, knocking in four runs with his quick bat.

The other Smith brother can fling a fastball, too.

A game after Coupeville High School junior CJ Smith was superb on the mound against Klahowya, younger brother Hunter took the ball Friday and shut down Port Townsend.

The Wolf freshman struck out seven over five innings, while not surrendering an earned run, as CHS rolled to a 12-2 victory.

The win gave the Wolves a three-game season sweep of the Redhawks and lifted them to 4-3 in the Olympic League, 8-8 overall.

Coupeville closes the regular season with a home game against Chimacum Tuesday and a road game at Klahowya Thursday.

Win one of those games and the Wolves clinch the #2 seed in the league and a home playoff game May 9.

Playing a Port Townsend squad mired in last place, Coupeville went out and did exactly what they needed to do — step on a team and step on them hard.

The Wolves rediscovered their hitting mojo and put good aluminum on the ball all day.

“I was pretty excited about how we got our runs,” said Wolf coach Willie Smith. “We got 11 hits on the day and I would say that the majority of our outs were all well-hit balls that were either line drives, deep drives, or hard grounders.”

With the Redhawks playing solid defense, Coupeville responded by running the bases aggressively and pushing for runs.

After chipping away with a run in the first (Carson Risner knocked in Cole Payne, who had singled and stole second) and another in the second (Aaron Trumbull walked, stole second and scored on an error), the Wolves exploded in the third.

Raining down seven runs in the inning, CHS batted around, with Aaron Curtin starting the inning with a walk and closing the offensive attack nine batters later with an RBI on a sac fly.

In between his plate appearances, the Wolves got a two-run double from Hunter Smith, RBI singles from Trumbull and Julian Welling and a two-run single from Josh Bayne.

“It was nice to see us actually produce runs through solid hits rather than rolling over on grounders and allowing the other team to make errors to get our runs,” Willie Smith said.

Port Townsend scratched out two runs in the fourth, using a walk, Coupeville’s lone error and a two-run triple to get a rally briefly started.

But, as soon as the damage began, Hunter Smith snuffed the fire right back out, striking out the next Redhawk to strand the runner at third.

Determined to catch the earliest ferry back to the Island, the Wolves banged home three more in the fifth to put the game on ice.

Cameron Toomey-Stout walked and stole second, Gabe Wynn singled and stole second (a recurring theme on the day), then Hunter Smith walked to juice the bags for Trumbull.

Swinging a wicked hot bat all afternoon, the senior promptly lashed a shot to right center to bring home all of his younger teammates, capping a four-RBI day.

Coupeville spread out its offense, with every player who drew an at-bat reaching base via hit or walk.

“I was very happy with our approach at the plate,” Willie Smith said.

The hardball guru was also quite pleased with his young hurler and how he handled the in-game pressures.

“Defensively, it was a lot of Hunter; he did a great job of locating his fastball and keeping them off balance with a solid curve.”

“He got two sliding catches in left field from Aaron Curtin, but I’m pretty sure he was just showboating!,” he said with a laugh.

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“We had a perfect defensive game!!”

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on April 30, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Hailey Hammer

Hailey Hammer: Destroyer of Hitter’s Souls. (John Fisken photos)

Lauren "Munchkin" Rose: "If you even think about running, I will make your entire family cry!!"

  Lauren “Munchkin” Rose: “Fool, if you even think about running on me, I will make your entire family cry!!”

The final score was deceptive.

Though a look at the record book will show the Coupeville High School softball squad fell 2-1 to visiting Klahowya Wednesday, every other part of the game felt like a win.

“We were 100% better of a team then how we played on Monday (in a loss at Chimacum) and I feel like this is one of those losses we can feel good about,” said Wolf coach Deanna Rafferty. “The girls had a great defensive game.”

Wolf hurlers McKayla Bailey (4) and Katrina McGranahan (1) combined to whiff five Eagles, and when the ball was put in play, their defense sparkled.

Lauren Rose, the fireball-flingin’ frosh catcher who will not be run on (ever!) nailed one who dared to test her arm, cracking off “an excellent throw to second base.”

Hailey Hammer was her usual slick-fielding whiz at third, knocking down hard hits and gunning out runners, while Hope “The Surgeon” Lodell and Tiffany Briscoe pulled off sprinting catches in the deepest reaches of the outfield.

“Overall we had a perfect defensive game and I am incredibly proud of how the girl played their defensive game,” Rafferty said.

Both of Klahowya’s runs were hard-earned ones coming off of “legitimate hits,” as the Wolves never shot themselves in the foot with errors.

At the plate, however, Coupeville struggled a bit.

“It’s the same tune,” Rafferty said. “We’re lacking on offense and need to pick it up.”

The Wolves scratched out their solo run off of a single from Bailey, a beautiful sacrifice bunt from Briscoe and a resounding double from Hammer.

Unfortunately, the batters coming up after the senior slugger left Hammer stranded.

The loss dropped the Wolves to 4-8 overall, 3-3 in Olympic League play.

Coupeville travels to Port Townsend Friday (“We are looking forward to going and getting a win”) and has a busy schedule as it heads into May.

A string of rain-outs early in the season put a crimp in the schedule, but most of those games have now been moved to the end of the season.

The restructured final stretch:

May 1 @ Port Townsend (league game)
May 4 Bellevue Christian
May 5 Chimacum (league game)
May 7 @ Klahowya (league game)
May 15 @ South Whidbey
May 18 @ Meridian
May 19 La Conner

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CJ Smith gets “filthy!!”

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Wolf hurler CJ Smith delivered a strong pitching performance Wednesday (Shelli Trumbull photo)

CJ Smith delivered a strong pitching performance Wednesday, one that made a teammate yell “That was filthy!” after a strikeout. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

CJ Smith was magnificent, but it wasn’t quite enough.

Despite a stellar game from the junior hurler, the Coupeville High School baseball squad came up just short of upending the #1 team in 1A Wednesday, falling 3-1 to visiting Klahowya in a game that could have easily gone the other way.

With Smith dealing on the mound (“That was filthy!” screamed one of his teammates after a nasty strikeout), the Wolves, now 7-8 overall, 3-3 in Olympic League play, had their chances.

“One of the better pitching performances we’ve had this season,” said CHS coach Willie Smith. “CJ mixed it up, never lost his composure and really kept them guessing.

“He stepped up big for us, as he has done all season.”

Unfortunately, the Eagles (14-0, 5-0) managed to find just a few chinks in Coupeville’s armor and exploit them for the few runs they would need.

Klahowya cracked a scoreless tie in the third, using a single, a passed ball and an error — on a play where the Wolf fielder had a tough read on the ball with the runner moving right in front of him.

The Eagles then added two in the fourth, taking advantage of a blown rundown play.

Coupeville had the runner nailed, but the player who was supposed to backup the play failed to cover the bag, letting the dead-in-the-water Eagle slide into second as another runner shot across home plate.

A long, corkscrew RBI single that landed just a fraction inside the left field foul line plated Klahowya’s final run.

But while the visitors scratched out a few runs, CJ Smith recovered each time and bore down, refusing to let the Eagles break out a big inning.

Helping him were three standout defensive plays.

Wolf catcher Carson Risner threw out a runner trying to steal second to kick the game off, Aaron Curtin made a spectacular sliding catch in left and Josh Bayne notched an impressive double play.

Bayne corralled a shot to center, then came up firing, gunning down a lollygagging Klahowya runner who had drifted way too far off of first to admire his teammate’s moon-ball.

While their defense was generally solid, the Wolves struggled at the plate, garnering just one hit.

It was a well-hit single to center from lead-off hitter Cole Payne in the first inning, and it would be their only base knock.

Payne and Bayne each walked twice, with Payne eating dirt after being plunked on the brim of his batting helmet by a wild pitch, but that was it for a very limited offensive attack.

Coupeville’s lone run came in the sixth, when Payne zipped home on a squeeze play.

Unfortunately, the Wolves left runners stranded at second and third with an inning-ending strikeout, one of 11 whiffs they absorbed in the game.

Still, pushing the state’s #1 team in a game where one play could have changed the outcome was a huge step back up after Coupeville’s previous game, when they fell to a previously winless Chimacum squad.

“We played with the right attitude today,” Willie Smith said. “Now we need to keep that going.”

With three regular season games left — one each against league rivals Port Townsend, Chimacum and Klahowya — the Wolves want to hold onto the #2 seed out of the conference, which would give them a home playoff game May 9.

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Close, but no cigar!!

Posted in Boys Soccer, tagged , , , on April 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Josh Datin

   Even with a loss Tuesday, Josh Datin and the Wolf booters sit in second place in the 1A Olympic League, just a half game out of first.

They’ve been bumped from the penthouse, but they can still get back in.

After falling 3-0 at Klahowya Tuesday, the Coupeville High School boys’ soccer squad is no longer alone in first place in the 1A Olympic League.

The loss drops the Wolves to 2-1 in league play (3-6 overall), while the Eagles ride the win to 2-0 (9-1-2 overall) and bounce up to claim the top slot, at least for the moment.

With three league games left — two against Port Townsend (1-1, 2-6) and a rematch with Klahowya — Coupeville sits in second place and controls its own playoff destiny.

The top three teams in the four-team conference advance to the postseason, with Olympic #1 and #2 both hosting their playoff openers.

While the Klahowya boys may not be the equal of their school’s girls squad, which won the state title this year, the Eagles are clearly the favorite in the league and they took care of business Tuesday.

Coupeville battled them to a scoreless tie in the first half, but couldn’t hold on after the break.

“We lost to a very good team,” said Wolf coach Kyle Nelson. “Overall we came away feeling pretty good about our effort.

“We will be playing them again on Monday (May 4), and we will try to put together a full game and see if we can get a win.”

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“Baseball can be very humbling!!”

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Aaron Trumbull (John Fisken photo)

   Wolf hurler Aaron Trumbull was effective Monday, but the defense behind him, and his team’s offensive attack, were not. (John Fisken photo)

It has been a season of inconsistency for the Coupeville High School baseball squad.

When the Wolves are good, they’re very, very good. And when they’re not, they can drive a coach to distraction.

“As we found out today, baseball can be a very humbling game,” said CHS hardball guru Willie Smith. “One minute you make a great play, hit the ball hard, hustle out a hit, then the next … is today.”

Taking several steps backward, the Wolves came out flat (“a disturbing trend in the last few games”) and were anemic on offense and wild on defense, allowing host Chimacum, winless in 12 prior games this season, to stroll to a 7-3 win.

The loss, the team’s third in the last four games, dropped CHS to 7-7 overall, 3-2 in Olympic League play.

It was also not the confidence builder the Wolves might have wanted heading into their rematch Wednesday with Klahowya (13-0, 3-0), the state’s #1 ranked 1A team.

Playing a Cowboy squad they might have expected to roll, the Wolves instead scuffled for most of the afternoon, almost pulled out a win, then fell apart again at the dispiriting end.

Coupeville hurler Aaron Trumbull was effective on the mound, but his defense sputtered behind him, leading to three unearned runs and a quick deficit to overcome.

The Wolves finally got on the board in the fourth, when Aaron Curtin singled, stole second and came around to score on a ground-out from Trumbull.

Briefly rallying, Coupeville tied it up at 3-3 with two runs in the top of the sixth.

Curtin cracked a double to right, before Carson Risner reached base when Chimacum juggled his hard-hit ball.

Cameron Toomey-Stout, running for Risner, stole second to set up fellow frosh Hunter Smith, who delivered a two-run single back up the middle.

Coupeville looked like they might get more, with Clay Reilly eking out a walk, but the Wolves stranded two (“our downfall of late”) and couldn’t break the tie.

As quickly as things went the way of the Wolves, they took a u-turn, however.

Chimacum immediately rebounded with a four-run rally in the bottom of the inning, with one play perfectly capturing all of Coupeville’s agony in one horrifying snapshot.

An RBI singled plated one Cowboy, then the Wolves threw the ball away twice on the play.

After failing to get a second runner coming home, Coupeville airmailed the ball back into center, allowing the hitter to come all the way around.

A ragged defense and a sudden lack of punch at the plate — Curtin (2), Hunter Smith (2) and Risner (1) accounted for the team’s five hits — both worry Willie Smith.

“We need to figure out how to hit the ball again and we don’t have much time to get it done,” he said. “Some have some minor things to fix, many have mental things to fix; either way we have to get it done and that will be mine and our coaches jobs.

“Right now, it’s about getting back to being consistent and playing strong defense again; if we can do that we will be alright, if not, well then we will have an early May.”

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