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Wolves headin’ East!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on June 29, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Gavin Knoblich will lead the Coupeville Babe Ruth baseball team to state in mid-July. (John Fisken photo)

Pack your bags. We’re off to Ephrata.

OK, well not for two weeks, but you get the point.

After a second-place finish at the District 11 tourney, the Coupeville Babe Ruth baseball squad is state tournament bound and will make the 221-mile trip (one way) to compete at the big dance.

Action gets underway Monday, July 10 under (likely) toasty skies in Eastern Washington.

Coupeville closed districts Tuesday with a 12-1 loss to Sedro-Woolley, which gave the Outlaws a two-game sweep and the tourney crown.

The Wolves hung around through the third, with George Dailey using his arm and bat to stake his squad to a 1-1 tie.

A resident of Oak Harbor who’s playing with Coupeville this summer, he whiffed six and drilled an RBI double that shot down the third-base line, sending Scott Hilborn scampering home.

Sedro countered by inadvertently beaning Dailey in the back on an ensuing pick-off try.

Apparently they hit just the right muscles on the play.

“His pitching wasn’t the same after that, and then the wheels fell off,” said Coupeville coach Steve Hilborn.

Dailey eventually gave way to Gavin Knoblich, but the CHS sophomore-to-be was hampered by a defense which sprung multiple leaks behind him.

Coupeville had six base-runners in the game, with Dailey crunching a pair of doubles to lead the way.

Caleb Meyer added two singles, with Knoblich and Scott Hilborn earning walks.

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Roll on, heads high!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on June 27, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Ulrik Wells relaxes with a post-game beverage after playing Monday night. (Katy Wells photo)

Not all losses are the same.

While Coupeville’s Babe Ruth baseball squad was roughed up 13-3 Monday by Sedro-Woolley, it won’t change one important fact.

The Wolves are still state tourney bound.

Coupeville and S-W are playing a best-of-three clash in Burlington (game #2 is Tuesday, game #3 Wednesday if necessary) to decide seeding coming out of District 11, but both teams advance.

Going forward, though, the Wolves would like to trim down the mistakes, as they were stung by giving up seven walks and committing five errors Monday night.

Sedro seized the opportunity, scoring six runs across the first two innings, despite getting to Coupeville’s pitching staff for just a single hit.

The Wolves scratched out their runs in the third, using three walks (eked out by Daniel Olson, George Dailey and Cody Roberts) and base-knocks from Gavin Knoblich, Caleb Meyer and Ulrik Wells.

Dailey paced Coupeville with a pair of singles, while Wells, Knoblich, Meyer and Scott Hilborn each added a hit.

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Fight till the final swing!!

Posted in Baseball, Little League, tagged , , , , on June 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Jack Porter exits the season sporting a rather impressive shiner. (Jeff Porter photo)

Peyton Caveness is just hanging around. (Stephanie Pulliam photos)

Jon Roberts, master of sunscreen.

Pressure, what pressure? You’re looking at the most laid-back dugout in the biz.

Alex Smith is not sure about the whole “taking my picture” thing.

Landon Roberts gets limbered up.

“I throw strikes, son. It’s kind of my thing.”

They ran into the big boys.

Central Whidbey Little League soared through the Minors baseball season in style, winning tournaments and racking up win after win.

All-Star play turned out to be a bit different, however, as Coupeville’s diamond men went two and out at the district tourney.

Facing big city squads from Burlington and Anacortes, Central Whidbey got roughed up a bit, losing 27-1 Friday and 18-5 Sunday.

CWLL put up a fight in its finale, though, rapping out 10 hits.

Landon Roberts led the way with three singles and two RBI, while Peyton Caveness and Johnny Porter added a pair of base-knocks apiece.

Chase Anderson, Seth Woollet and Jordan Bradford rounded out the hit parade, each collecting a single.

Caveness was also a force on defense against Anacortes, making a spectacular diving catch while on the run in center.

In the opening game of the double-elimination tourney, Central Whidbey had a tougher time scraping out hits, finishing with three, one each from Caveness, Roberts and Anderson.

Levi Pulliam, Mike Robinett, Alex Smith, Jack Porter, Gabe Reed and Aiden O’Neill rounded out the All-Star roster.

While the season ended prematurely, Central coach Jon Roberts sees a bright future ahead for the program.

“Coaching, we made some mistakes that we will learn from and will return next year with most of the team intact, as we were a very young 9-10-11 team.”

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Swing for the fences!!

Posted in Baseball, Little League, Softball, tagged , , , , on June 23, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   With winning teams and talented players, the future for Coupeville softball is a bright one. (Renae Mulholland photos)

The boys of summer.

Abby Mulholland (left) and Savina Wells have a chat.

“Ice cream????? Where???????”

The race is on.

Gwen Gustafson (left) and Mulholland enjoy their sweet treats.

With players repping different uniforms, it was an explosion of color.

Mariah Knoblich controls the universe, or at least the ice cream.

   Jill Prince, future Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Famer, was a huge star as a sixth grader.

The games aren’t done, but that’s no reason not to have a party.

While All-Star play looms ahead for many of its team, the Central Whidbey Little League took a moment Thursday to celebrate the season that was.

Ice cream and souvenirs were handed out, and softball mom Renae Mulholland was on hand to document the proceedings for us.

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Learning on the job!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on June 20, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Nick Etzell rapped out four hits at a weekend baseball tourney. (John Fisken photo)

Ignore the record and focus on the lessons learned.

That was the mantra for the Coupeville High School baseball squad after it absorbed four losses in as many games at a three-day tourney in Anacortes.

“It’s not a weekend we are going to brag about, but we put together a team and now we need to learn to play together and work as a team,” said CHS coach Chris Smith.

“We had a very good chance to win three of our four games and unfortunately we lacked the mental maturity and toughness to do so under less than ideal situations.”

Coupeville had to fight through player availability issues and injuries to field a squad.

“We had a lot to work around this weekend,” Smith said. “There were some big challenges and overall as a team we just couldn’t quite overcome them to pull off a W.”

The Wolves were one-runned in two of their games, being nipped 6-5 by Oak Harbor and 2-1 by host Anacortes.

CHS also fell 16-7 to Meridian after having the early lead and 20-2 to Lake Stevens.

While scrambling to get enough bodies, Smith also had to juggle those he had, with several players in new spots.

“As a coach I had the opportunity to see a number of guys in different positions, which was very helpful for me,” Smith said.

He praised the play of outfielder Kyle Rockwell and catcher Gavin Knoblich, as well as the hot bat of Nick Etzell, who delivered “some offensive firepower that apparently he has been waiting to unleash all year.”

Hunter Smith ripped five hits, including a pair of doubles, to pace the Wolf attack.

Etzell (four hits), Matt Hilborn (3), Jake Pease (3), Jake Hoagland (2) and Jonathan Thurston (2) had multiple hits, while Taylor Consford, Joey Lippo and Jacob Zettle chipped in with a base-knock apiece.

Consford and Hoagland had triples, while Lippo’s hit was a resounding double.

“Overall, we have got to keep learning, we have got to keep working to get better and we have to form into a cohesive unit if we want to do well as a team,” Chris Smith said.

Coupeville returns to action at a tourney in Gray’s Harbor June 30-July 3.

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