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Wolf baseball flips coaches!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on March 30, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Coupeville High School baseball coach Marc Aparicio resigned effective Thursday. (John Fisken photo)

Coaching changes continue at Coupeville High School.

Wolf varsity baseball coach Marc Aparicio has resigned his post, effective immediately, after accepting a new Department of Defense job.

The position requires travel and enough time away from home, especially during baseball season, that it presented substantial scheduling problems.

Aparicio, who also runs the Penn Cove Taproom with brother Mitch, said he greatly enjoyed his time as a coach, but needed to make the decision that was best for his family.

Baseball joins boys basketball, cheer and girls soccer as the fourth CHS program to have a coaching change this school year.

JV coach Chris Smith has been promoted to head coach and will debut in the post Friday against Port Townsend.

He’ll be aided by longtime Wolf assistant coach Mike Etzell, as well as volunteers Aaron Lucero, Josh Welshans and Steve Hilborn.

Aparicio finished 14-15 in a little under a season-and-a-half of helming his alma mater’s hardball program.

The Wolves went 10-12 last season, going 7-2 in Olympic League play to capture the program’s first league title in 25 years.

CHS is 4-3 overall, 0-1 in league play, this year.

Coupeville High School issued the following press release:

Effective on Thursday, Mar. 30th, Marc Aparicio will be stepping down as Head Baseball Coach due to job re-location.

It is difficult being a head coach and not employed by the school district and as Marc’s job situation became such that it would require him to miss time with the baseball program, he made the difficult decision to resign and have his assistants continue coaching, making the transition as seamless and least impactful as possible.

I completely understand and support Marc in his decision as he needs to take care of himself and his family and fully appreciate the difficulty in the decision he had to make.

I’d like to thank Marc and appreciate his time and effort that he made while Head Coach here in Coupeville and wish him nothing but the best.

Willie Smith
Athletic Director

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But a brief setback!!

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

   Clay Reilly had two hits and two RBIs in Coupeville’s Olympic League opener. (John Fisken photos)

Jake Hoagland takes a cut Wednesday afternoon.

This time they’re going to have to fight from behind.

Last season, the Coupeville High School baseball squad won its first seven league games en route to capturing the program’s first conference title in 25 years.

After falling 7-4 to visiting Klahowya Wednesday, the Wolves will need to write a new script in 2017.

The loss snaps a four-game winning streak for CHS and leaves it 0-1 in Olympic League play, 4-3 overall.

The Wolves sit in a tie with Port Townsend (0-1, 0-3) which it plays Friday in a road game.

Klahowya (2-0, 2-3), the league champs in 2015, are a game up on Chimacum (1-1, 3-2) in the very early going.

Wednesday’s match-up was fairly even in the score-book, with the Eagles holding a slight edge in hits at 11-9.

But while Klahowya didn’t deliver any huge blows, they did consistently chip away at the Wolf pitching staff, scoring in five of seven innings.

After both teams exchanged runs in the first — Hunter Smith singled and came around on an RBI ground-out by Clay Reilly for the Wolves — Klahowya built a 5-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth.

Coupeville rallied for three runs to turn things back into a one-run affair, but then stalled out.

Matt Hilborn, Joey Lippo, Reilly and Dane Lucero all delivered singles in the inning, as the Wolves plated all three runs after notching two outs.

For the game, three Wolves — Lucero, Reilly and Kory Score — piled up two hits apiece to pace the offense.

With Smith, their starting pitcher, battling a balky back, Coupeville moved him back to shortstop in the second inning and used Taylor Consford, Julian Welling and Hilborn to finish out the game.

 

To see more photos from this game, pop over to:

http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/2017-Coupeville-Baseball/20170329-vs-Klahoway/

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The bats were blazin’!!

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

   Kory Score lashed a three-run double Monday, sparking a 12-4 Wolf win. (John Fisken photo)

It’s a good thing they don’t use wood bats in high school baseball.

With the red-hot swings Coupeville High School hitters were laying down Monday, the Wolves would have burnt holes through some old-fashioned ash, hickory or maple.

Seven different CHS sluggers recorded at least one base-knock, including a bases-clearing double from Kory Score, en route to smashing 13 hits in a 12-4 romp over visiting Sultan.

The non-league victory, coming against a former longtime Cascade Conference rival, stretched Coupeville’s win streak to four and brings it to 4-2 on the season.

Riding high, the Wolves kick off defense of their Olympic League crown with a home game against Klahowya Wednesday and a road trip Friday to Port Townsend.

When they do, they’ll still be carrying good memories from smashing the Turks.

Coupeville came out loaded for bear, erupting for 11 runs in the first three innings to quickly derail any Sultan hopes.

After loading the bags in the first on singles by Joey Lippo and Clay Reilly and a walk to Dane Lucero, the Wolves got ruthless.

Ethan Marx eked out a walk to force in the game’s first run, but that was just the prelude.

Score, Coupeville’s lanky first-baseman, who comes equipped with a die-hard fan section led by girlfriend Amanda Neitzel, promptly messed up the Turk pitcher’s day by ripping a resounding double to plate Reilly, pinch-runner Jonathan Thurston and Marx.

Once the runs started coming, they didn’t stop, as CHS piled together four more hits in the second and amassed another three runs.

Hunter Smith started things off with a double, while Jake Hoagland capped things with a two-run single.

Determined to ten-run the Turks, Coupeville ran the score to 11-0 in the bottom of the third, despite starting the inning with two outs and nobody on base.

Smith and Lippo rapped out singles, Reilly walked, Lucero plated two more, and, finally, Hoagland delivered again, this time with an RBI single.

While the offense was wailing away, Lucero was shutting Sultan down in style on the mound.

The sophomore hurler, putting together a second consecutive strong outing, retired the first eight batters and carried a no-hitter into the top of the fourth.

While Lucero hit a brief speed bump in that inning — as Sultan used a pair of singles, two walks and an error to score all four of its runs — he got out of the inning and was virtually untouched after that.

He threw a complete game, scattering four hits and striking out two on 85 pitches.

Coupeville added a final run in the sixth, with Marx reaching on an error, moving up on a single from Nick Etzell, then scoring on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Matt Hilborn.

Lippo led the Wolf hit attack with three singles, while Smith, Reilly, Lucero and Hoagland all chipped in with two base-knocks apiece.

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Big catches, bigger pics!!

Posted in Baseball, Softball, tagged , , , , , on March 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Robin Cedillo (left) goes high, Jae LeVine goes low and everything works out beautifully as the Wolves snuff out a Vashon rally. (John Fisken photos)

Creepin’ and a crawlin’, Jake Hoagland sneaks back onto the base.

A few rain drops can’t disrupt super fan Sylvia Arnold’s good mood.

Dodging the liquid sunshine, Ethan Marx hauls in a catch.

Katrina McGranahan gets medieval on a sneaky softball.

Twice Saturday, Hunter Smith lashed a two-RBI hit. This is one of those.

   “I am … the law!!” Darren Crownover pretends to watch daughter Veronica crush home runs, but in his mind, he’s doing a Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd impression.

No softball escapes Hope Lodell. Ever.

The rain was fallin’ and the camera was clickin’.

Despite fairly miserable Whidbey weather Saturday, Coupeville High School managed to get in both softball and baseball games, sweeping visiting Vashon Island.

Along for the ride, and working both sides of the street, was damp yet plucky paparazzi John Fisken, who was nice enough to kick these pics our way.

To see everything he shot (purchases fund college scholarships for CHS student/athletes) pop over to:

Softball — http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/2017-Coupeville-Softball/20170325-vs-Vashon/

Baseball — http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/2017-Coupeville-Baseball/20170325-vs-Vashon/

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JV sluggers play from dawn to dusk!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on March 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Jake Pease had multiple hits, caught and made his high school pitching debut Saturday in a road doubleheader. (John Fisken photo)

“The short story is that we ran out of pitching, and our bats found leather when theirs found grass.”

Coupeville High School JV baseball coach Chris Smith had a short bench Saturday, but he still got his Wolves to battle valiantly through a doubleheader on sunny Vashon Island.

While the varsity squad was getting damp back on Whidbey, the Wolf JV played in a relative heat wave, holding the lead in both games before falling 6-4 and 14-5 to the Pirates.

The losses drop the young guns to 1-2 on the season.

“It was a long day and a grind on the field, which is what we like,” Smith said. “I was very proud of our pitchers, who knew they were going into this doubleheader with very little to no support in relief.

“Both Nick Etzell and Elliott Johnson should be commended on their strong pitching performances,” he added. “They both made valiant efforts and pitched a good game, maintaining a Coupeville lead into the 4th and 5th inning, respectively.”

Etzell went five innings in the opener, with Gavin Knoblich coming on to throw in relief, then Johnson teamed with Knoblich and first-time pitcher Jake Pease in the nightcap.

Coupeville notched a quick two runs in the top of the first in game one and held that lead until Vashon struck for five in the bottom of the fourth.

Not content to go down easily, the Wolves got two back in the sixth, but couldn’t quite catch up.

Game two might look like a rout if you just look at the score, but it was far from that.

With Johnson in command on the mound, CHS was on top 5-3 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning. Then Vashon struck, racking up 11 runs in a two-inning span to seal the deal.

Etzell and Pease led the way offensively for the Wolves, rapping out multiple hits, with Etzell scoring twice in both games.

“Our guys battled the whole way,” Smith said. “It was good baseball, even better than the score reflected.

“Everyone demonstrated a never-say-die attitude and we went down swinging,” he added. “Well, not literally; our last out of the second game was a strikeout looking, but you get my point.”

Coupeville played tough defense all game, with several plays bringing a smile to Smith’s face.

The Wolves pulled off a slick double play (Etzell to Pease to Kyle Rockwell) in game one, and twice gunned down runners at the plate in game two.

On both those plays, Etzell was the cutoff man and laid the ball perfectly in Cameron Dahl’s waiting glove behind the plate.

“We made some plays that demonstrated some defensive brilliance,” Smith said. “I love that!”

The hardball guru was also pleased with the hustle and effort he got from a trio of bench players — Johnny Carlson, Seth Weatherford and Gavin Straub.

“We got a lot of support and heart from our bench,” Smith said. “They stood ready in the dugout, waiting for their moment to shine and shine they did.”

Carlson “lost both of his cleats in separate strides as he stormed down the left field line after a double,” actually running out of his shoes.

Weatherford “made a huge out in right catching a hard line drive that he charged in to gobble up” and Straub “put the bat on the ball in both of his AB’s and did everything humanly possible to reach safely.”

Ulrik Wells, Jacob Zettle, James Vidoni and Shane Losey rounded out the Wolf roster, with Wells smacking a single in game two.

While he wanted to come away with wins, Smith couldn’t fault his team’s effort or desire.

“In the end (assistant coach) Mike (Etzell) and I walked away bummed we couldn’t squeak out a win,” he said. “But content that we played “Baseball” and part of baseball is knowing how to deal with the disappointment.

“We will move on and work to get better,” Smith added. “I was proud of this team because they delivered on our expectations for them to “Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together and Have Fun!

“At the end of the day that is all I really ask or expect!”

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