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No retreat, no surrender!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on July 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Coupeville High School senior Jake Hoagland whacked an RBI double Saturday at the Battle of the Bats in Sumner. (John Fisken photo)

The Wolves stayed on the field a lot longer this time around.

Getting an immediate rematch with Honda Baseball at Battle of the Bats, Coupeville High School put up a much better fight Saturday than it did a day before.

While they still fell 9-4 at Sumner High School to the Bellevue select team, which boasts two former MLB players among its alumni, that was markedly better than Friday’s three-inning 15-0 loss.

This time around, the Wolves were tied 4-4 into the bottom of the fourth inning and stayed on the field until the game was called in the sixth inning due to a two-hour limit on games.

Now 1-2 on the weekend, CHS closes the tourney with a Sunday morning game at Bellarmine Prep against the PBC Zips, a select team from Seattle.

Having split two games in pool play Friday, the Wolves entered bracket play seeded #15 out of 25 teams, which set up the unexpected rematch with Honda Baseball.

After falling behind 4-0, Coupeville rallied in the top of the third, turning three hits into four runs of its own.

Gavin Knoblich started things off by eking out a walk.

The CHS sophomore moved to second on a sac bunt by Jake Pease, then scampered home when Matt Hilborn crunched an RBI double.

A walk to Joey Lippo kept things going, before Dane Lucero (a two-run single) and Jake Hoagland (an RBI double) came through with big base-knocks.

Hoagland tried to keep the fire burning extra bright, but was nailed at third while trying to stretch his hit into a triple.

While he departed the field, he took a rival with him after accidentally blowing up the guy’s ankle on the bang-bang play.

Coupeville had two more chances after its big rally, getting doubles from Thomas Anderson in the fourth and Lippo in the fifth.

Both blows turned out to be one-time shots, however, as both Wolf runners were left stranded on base.

Honda Baseball chipped away against CHS hurlers Austin Boesch, Jonathan Thurston and Hilborn, breaking through for two runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth.

The select squad, which will have a chance to play for a title in its bracket Sunday, has been in business since 1988.

There is an extensive list of players who went on to play college ball listed on the team’s web site, with its greatest claims to fame being pitchers John LeRoy and Sean White.

LeRoy had a cup of coffee with the Atlanta Braves in 1997 and can boast a MLB win on his resume, while White appeared in 105 games for the Seattle Mariners from 2007-2010.

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A little bad, a lot of good!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on July 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Taylor Consford ripped a pair of hits Friday as Coupeville’s 17U baseball squad won its tourney opener. (John Fisken photo)

One was a beauty, one was a beast.

Playing back-to-back games Friday morning at the 3rd annual Battle of the Bats tournament at Curtis High School, Coupeville’s 17U baseball squad found wildly different results.

In the opener, the Wolves controlled things from the first batter and strolled to a 9-2 win over the Swing Center Shockers.

Ten minutes after that victory, CHS was back on the same diamond, but this time, everything went terribly, horribly wrong.

A mere three innings later, the Wolves staggered off the field, having been thrashed 15-0 by Honda Baseball in a game called early thanks to tournament mercy rules.

After the split in pool play, Coupeville moves to bracket action Saturday.

The final tournament of the summer season for the Wolves, Battle of the Bats features 25 teams in the 16/17 division and another 13 squads squaring off in the 15U flight.

Big win:

Four runs in the bottom of the first staked CHS hurler Jonathan Thurston to a big early lead, and he responded, carrying a shutout into the fifth inning.

The top of the fourth was his moment in the sun, as the lanky hurler gunned down three straight Shocker hitters.

Nick Etzell came on in relief in the fifth and closed out the game emphatically for Thurston.

At the plate, everything worked for Coupeville.

The Wolves picked up three hits in the first — a double from Taylor Consford and singles by Joey Lippo and Jake Hoagland — and mixed those in with a bevy of walks, many of the “batter getting plunked” variety.

CHS tacked on another three runs in the second, again getting a trio of base-knocks (this time singles from Matt Hilborn, Consford and Dane Lucero), before adding a single run in both the fourth and sixth.

Both of those scores came courtesy of bases-loaded walks, with Austin Boesch and Kyle Rockwell picking up RBIs as they strolled to first with a free pass.

Thomas Anderson, one of three Oak Harbor players (along with Boesch and Donny Kloewer) tagging along with Coupeville for this tourney, reached base all four times he came to the plate in game one.

A well-hit single and three walks made Anderson a frequent visitor to first base.

Big loss:

Coupeville, which got roughed up to the tune of three runs in the first, five in the second and seven more in the third, had its shots on offense, but couldn’t capitalize.

The Wolves loaded the bases in both the first and second inning, packaging four walks and singles from Consford and Kloewer.

It wasn’t to be, though, as Honda baseball dodged a bullet both times, getting inning-ending ground-outs to strand all three runners.

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Wolves wrap season at big dance!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on July 13, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Chelsea Prescott and her Coupeville Babe Ruth teammates capped a successful season with a run to the state tourney. (John Fisken photo)

No trip to Canada this year.

Back-to-back losses the past two days eliminated the Coupeville Babe Ruth baseball squad from the state tournament in Ephrata, leaving them a win shy of advancing to regionals in Calgary, Alberta.

The Wolves fell 17-12 to Othello in Wednesday’s opener, then were knocked out 12-2 Thursday by Moses Lake.

“It was a fun experience,” Coupeville coach Steve Hilborn said. “But it would have been nice to have a better showing.”

Othello:

The Wolves jumped out to an 8-0 lead by the third inning, then hit a severe rough stretch, giving up 17 unanswered runs.

Errors in crucial situations killed Coupeville, with Othello salting the game away with an eight-run sixth inning

Down 17-8, the Wolves rallied to scratch out four runs in the bottom half of the inning, but that was the end of the trail for any comebacks.

Moses Lake:

With a 10 AM start time, Coupeville had hopes of catching their Eastern Washington foes while they were down.

Moses Lake didn’t finish its Wednesday game against Sedro-Woolley until 12:30 AM Thursday, making for a short turnaround.

“We were hoping they’d be too tired to play, but they figured it out,” Hilborn said. “We left 11 guys on base in the first four innings. Couldn’t get runs across.

“It was a walk-fest on both sides. Neither pitcher could figure out the ump’s strike zone.”

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Coupeville ace heads to state tourney!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on July 10, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Coupeville’s Nathan Ginnings closes out a win Sunday, sending North Whidbey Little League to the state tourney. (Contributed photos)

Ginnings gets ready to rip.

The uniform says North Whidbey Little League, but it was a Central Whidbey mercenary who got the final out.

Coupeville’s Nathan Ginnings slammed the door on Anacortes Sunday, striking out the final hitter in a 12-2 win that punches a ticket to the state tourney.

Oak Harbor’s 11/12 baseball squad (and its Coupeville star) head to Federal Way for the big dance.

NWLL has a first-round bye, then opens play Sunday, July 16.

Playing at South Whidbey in the District 11 championship, North Whidbey needed just one win to claim the title, while Anacortes would have needed a doubleheader sweep.

Oak Harbor’s sluggers, with Ginnings playing most of the game at third base, put things away early, torching Anacortes for eight runs in the third inning.

Ginnings, who played for NWLL since Central Whidbey couldn’t get enough players to field a full squad this season, reached base on an error and a fielder’s choice and scored a run.

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A Wynn-er all the way!!

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , , , on July 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Gabe Wynn charges off the court and into the Hall o’ Fame. (John Fisken photos)

“I … crushed it.”

Some players make you smile.

Gabe Wynn is one of those.

For the past five years, from the first time I saw him playing 8th grade basketball, on through his graduation this spring, he was one of the most reliably entertaining guys in town.

Didn’t matter the sport — football, tennis, basketball or baseball — Wynn, the son of former OHHS hoops legend Robyn (Seth) Myers, enjoyed every moment he was playing.

It’s that spirit, along with his skills and stats, which lifts him up and today, deposits him at the doorway of the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.

So let’s swing those doors wide and welcome him to these hallowed digital halls.

After this, while his physical body will be leaving Whidbey for college at some point, his memory will live on, enshrined at the top of the blog under the Legends tab.

Gabe exits holding the school record for most three-point shots made in a basketball game, swishing seven in a ferocious fight with league champ Port Townsend.

He played varsity basketball all four years, making his debut as a raw frosh and exiting as a sage senior, and, along the way, he sparkled at a whole lot of other sports as well.

Wynn was a big hitter on the football field, a fireball on the tennis court and a scrapper on the diamond, willing to sacrifice his body for the good of the team game in and game out.

But it’s basketball where his legacy will be the most enduring.

Over the course of his high school career, Gabe showed a mix of big-time play and quiet, committed hustle.

He’s part of a select group of Wolf hoops stars who scored points at the varsity level in all four of their seasons, and raised his scoring total each season.

Helping lead a painfully young, inexperienced team through his senior campaign, Wynn became a go-to scorer, raining down treys from behind the arc, while retaining an ability to fight for buckets in the paint.

Along with the points, the rebounds and the steals, Gabe set himself apart with his grit and hustle.

And also, and this is a huge thing, with his willingness to get up every time he was sent to the floor, or sent a rival to the floor, and deliver a quick word, or just a butt-slap and a nod, to let the other player know it’s not personal, it’s the game.

Playing against Stevenson, a school which traveled 525 miles, round trip, to fill out its schedule with a non-conference game, Wynn made sure the visitors would never forget him.

Sparking a 64-60 Wolf victory, he exploded his own bench, sending chairs and teammates flying during a wild scramble for a loose ball.

Not content to stop there, he then did a full somersault over a Stevenson player’s shoulder while latched onto a rebound that both players badly wanted.

When Wynn hit the floor, the resulting sound was a mix of a cannon shot and a watermelon hitting the ground after being dropped from a skyscraper.

But he got the jump-ball call he wanted, and staggered back to his feet, checking on the condition of the rival player first before gently massaging his own head.

It was vintage Gabe in every way — not giving up, no matter the cost, but always mindful of those around him.

Off the court, on the court, he was the same quality dude every step of the way.

Stats are important, and Wynn piled up some nice stats, but character matters more, and his was A+ all the way.

Which is why inducting him into the Hall o’ Fame is such an easy call.

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