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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