Two teams enter the Thunderdome, only one exits. Spoiler: Mr. Intense, aka Aaron Curtin, made it out. (John Fisken photo)
This is how you break Concrete.
You chip away a little bit, then BOOM, the whole dang thing falls apart.
Taking that valuable scientific lesson into account, the suddenly-surging Coupeville High School baseball squad rode a seven-run second inning to a 10-2 non-conference win Wednesday.
The victory, the third straight for the Wolves, lifted CHS to 5-4 on the season.
Coming off of victories over Cedarcrest and La Conner, Coupeville came out a bit slowly against Concrete, falling behind 1-0 after an inning and a half.
The visitors opened the game with back-to-back walks, then got an RBI double from the cleanup hitter.
After that, though, Wolf senior hurler Aaron Trumbull went into lock-down mode and would be troubled no more.
He whiffed six, gave up just three hits from the second inning on and fielded his position flawlessly, recording four outs on his own.
With Trumbull making Concrete miss with his patented brand of off-speed delights, Coupeville coach Willie Smith flipped the switch on his hitters.
“We had a meeting of the minds and I just simply told them that they needed to change the effort and attitude or else the result of the game would not be good,” Smith said with a dry chuckle. “They responded.”
And, while they didn’t exactly tear the hide off the ball, the Wolves used a patient eye at the plate to get things going.
Overall, they eked out 10 walks on the day, including two batters who got plunked for their patience.
In the second, CHS juiced the bags with two walks and a Concrete error, then got a wicked hot chopper from Josh Bayne that brought home two runners.
Bayne, still basking in the glow of his batsmanship, promptly stole second to further rattle the Concrete pitcher.
Cole Payne slammed a two-run single back up the middle and the rout was on, with the Wolves scoring a touchdown’s worth of runs with just two measly hits in the inning.
“Not exactly smoking it, but some good at bats and taking advantage of errors on the Lion’s part,” Smith said.
Coupeville tacked on three more in the sixth, kicked off when Payne singled, then went berserk, stealing second, third and (eventually) home on a double steal.
With Trumbull and Kyle Bodamer aboard, fab frosh Cameron Toomey-Stout smoked a two-strike single into left to collect the first hit and RBIs of his short varsity career.
JV rolls:
Paced by five shutout innings from Jonathan Thurston (“his best game of the year, keeping them off balance with a mix of fastballs and curve-balls”) and stellar defense, the young guns rolled to a 9-0 win.
Nick Etzell pulled off a dandy double play, snaring a line drive before firing to first to catch a straying runner, while Josh Poole brought everyone to their feet.
“The catch of the day belonged to Josh, who ran a country mile to catch a ball in foul territory right up against the right field fence,” Smith said.
At the plate, nearly everyone chipped in for the Wolves.
Gabe Wynn bashed a double, Poole lashed an RBI single, Toomey-Stout thwacked a two-run double, Jacob Zettle laid down “a perfect sacrifice bunt” and Etzell got fancy.
The Wolf freshman laid down a bunt that turned into a two-run single as “he surprised everyone with the bunt and his blazing speed!”
Coupeville Sports 