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Just win, baby!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged 1A Olympic League, Aaron Curtin, baseball, CHS Wolves, CJ Smith, playoffs, small ball on May 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Aaron Curtin brings the heat. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Wolf seniors (l to r) Kyle Bodamer, Aaron Trumbull, Aaron Curtin, Josh Bayne and Carson Risner. (Jimmy Myers photo)

In it to win it.

Using a mix of stellar pitching and quality “small ball” offense — two things it will need to have success in the playoffs — the Coupeville High School baseball squad ran away with an 8-1 win Tuesday over visiting Chimacum.

The Senior Night triumph, featuring another first-rate pitching performance from Aaron Curtin, clinched second place in the 1A Olympic League and guaranteed a home playoff game this Saturday for the Wolves.

Now 9-8 overall, 5-3 in league play, Coupeville will try and ruin undefeated Klahowya’s Senior Night Thursday, then welcome Cascade Christian to town for a 1 PM loser-out district playoff game.

Win that game and they advance to the double-elimination portion of districts, from which three of four teams will qualify for state.

Looking for a bit of revenge against a Chimacum squad they had stumbled against a week ago, the Wolves chipped away, notching a run in the second and another in the third.

Both runs came the same way — a single, a steal of second and then an RBI single.

Small ball at its best.

In the second, it was Hunter Smith setting the table and Aaron Trumbull bringing him home, while Josh Bayne and Carson Risner filled those roles in the second.

With Curtin dang near unhittable — he gave up just one fluky hit through the first six innings — the Wolves put the game away with a burst in the fifth.

The Wolves juiced the bags on a single from CJ Smith, a walk from Cole Payne and a bunt single from Bayne.

The senior speedster was so quick to the bag Chimacum’s pitcher could only shake his head in disbelief after fielding the ball, with a throw being pointless.

Coupeville then started rolling in the runs, without doing anything dramatic, scoring on a wild pitch, an error on a ball hit into the hole at short by Risner and a missed third strike.

“Not a “I need to talk to the hitting coach about how hard they hit it” inning, but some small ball and putting pressure on their defense,” said CHS hardball guru Willie Smith.

The Wolves tacked on three more in the sixth the same way, with Clay Reilly, CJ Smith and Payne scoring on an error, a sac fly and a passed ball.

While Chimacum shot itself repeatedly in the foot, Coupeville took advantage and did collect nine hits.

Bayne and CJ Smith led the way with two base knocks apiece.

Curtin never gave the Cowboys a chance to mount a comeback, whiffing the side twice while racking up nine K’s in a complete game win.

His defense had a hiccup in the seventh, booting a pair of balls to account for Chimacum’s lone run.

Never missing a beat, however, Curtin calmly closed the game out with a final punch-out on a ball so nasty all the Cowboy hitter could do was stand and watch it blow by him for strike three.

To see the playoff brackets, jump over to http://www.olympicleague.com/tournament.php?tournament_id=1542&sport=6

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Young guns play all day!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged baseball, CHS Wolves, Joey Lippo, Julian Welling, JV, South Whidbey tourney on May 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Jonathan Thurston got the start in game one of Saturday’s JV baseball tourney. (John Fisken photos)

JV coach Chris Smith gets his game face on.

Gotta make the gas count.

Having traveled down to the South end of the Island Saturday, the Coupeville High School JV baseball squad played two games, then went into extra innings in the nightcap just for good measure.

The young guns lost both games, falling 7-1 to South Whidbey before being nipped on a ninth-inning walk-off hit against Cedar Park Christian, but 16 innings of late-season baseball is invaluable as a learning tool.

Game one was a one-sided pitcher’s duel, as the Falcon hurler scattered three hits and whiffed eight Wolves.

CHS hurlers Jonathan Thurston and Joey Lippo were decent, but not as sharp as their rival.

“We never really got going,” said Wolf coach Chris Smith. “Positive note — only one error in the game, which came in the sixth as a dropped third (strike) where we could not record the out.”

That inability to hold on to third strikes would haunt the Wolves all afternoon, as it happened twice more in the second game, with the final time allowing CPC to remain alive and tie up the game.

“Aside from that, we were flawless defensively,” Smith said.

CPC took advantage of a short porch and launched a pair of home runs to break the game open.

Julian Welling, Hunter Smith and Nick Etzell teamed up to share the pitching duties in the nightcap, combining for 10 K’s.

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Wolf frosh dazzles Redhawks!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged 1A Olympic League, Aaron Curtin, Aaron Trumbull, baseball, CHS Wolves, Hunter Smith on May 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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 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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Swing away!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged baseball, Ben Olson, Brenden Gilbert, CHS Wolves, Jake Hoagland, JV on May 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Jimmy Myers digs in. (Laurie Black photos)

Jake Hoagland is ready for his close-up.

Makin’ nice with the guy behind the plate.

Nick Etzell: Bunt Master

Ben Olson (12) was not aware that cameras were allowed inside the dugout…

They lost, but they went down swinging.

The young guns on the Coupeville High School JV baseball squad couldn’t match up to host Klahowya Wednesday, getting ten-runned 16-6, but, before they did, the Wolves did some damage at the plate.

They plated four in the third and got big blows from Jake Hoagland and Brenden Gilbert, who each socked a triple.

Hoagland actually turned his blow into an unofficial inside the park home run due to “some help from the defense and some aggressive base coaching at third,” CHS coach Willie Smith said with a chuckle.

The Wolf freshman reached base three times, collecting another hit and a walk, while Jimmy Myers walked twice.

Jonathan Thurston came on in long relief after Coupeville’s starter was roughed up in the first and kept things close, whiffing seven over five innings.

The Wolves return to action with a tournament at South Whidbey today.

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CJ Smith gets “filthy!!”

Posted in Baseball, tagged 1A Olympic League, baseball, CHS Wolves, CJ Smith, Klahowya 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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