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Heal quickly, Jacob!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged baseball, beanball, CHS Wolves, Jacob Zettle on May 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Jacob Zettle

Heal quickly, Mr. Zettle.

A quick word or two for Jacob Zettle.

The Coupeville High School freshman took a pitch to the face in Thursday’s JV baseball game and had to leave the game with what is believed to be a fractured cheekbone.

The moment put a chill on the game, but the fact he was able to exit under his own power eased things a bit.

“Walked off the field. Tough kid,” said Lisa Jenne, mom of fellow Wolf player Jake Hoagland.

Coupeville coach Willie Smith was out of town with the varsity when it happened, but immediately checked on his young player.

“Pretty sore and beat up,” Smith said. “I talked with grandpa last night and he was OK; thought he would try to come to the game on Saturday depending on how he felt.”

Smith, an expert at defusing tense situations, also took time to good-naturedly needle his assistant once everyone had been assured Zettle was on the mend.

“I guess I can’t leave any kids with Chris Smith since, under his watch, two players have tried to catch the ball with their faces,” Smith said with a laugh.

“Not sure if that’s a new way of catching, endorsed by the new educators of the world or if we are just trying to be tough, but it’s not very efficient!”

Zettle has been one of those players who it is easy to root for, as he plays with great enthusiasm and hustle, always with a smile on his face.

As he recuperates, we here at Coupeville Sports just want to send him well wishes and a speedy recovery.

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Soon … very soon!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged 1A Olympic League, baseball, CHS Wolves, Hunter Smith, Josh Bayne, Klahowya on May 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

As it heads into the postseason, the Wolf baseball squad is getting closer and closer to taking down the #1 team in 1A. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Closer and closer.

Klahowya may be unbeaten (18-0), may be the #1 ranked 1A team in the coach’s poll, but there’s a big, bad Wolf coming up stealthily from behind, just waiting for its moment to pounce.

The Coupeville High School baseball squad has played its Olympic League rivals three times this season — a fourth meeting could be looming in the district playoffs — and they have narrowed the gap each time.

After dropping the first meeting 10-2, they shaved the margin to 3-1 in the middle game, and then came agonizingly close Thursday, falling 1-0 in a game decided by one pitch that got away.

The loss dropped Coupeville to 9-9 overall, 5-4 in league play.

The Wolves now kick-off the postseason with a home playoff game Saturday (12 PM) against Cascade Christian, the #3 seed out of the Nisqually League.

Staff ace Aaron Curtin will be on the mound for CHS and it’s a loser-out game.

Win, and Coupeville advances to the double elimination portion of districts and would be just a single win away from making it back to the state tourney for the second straight season.

Trying to ruin Klahowya’s Senior Night festivities, the Wolves came dangerously close, but couldn’t get the one hit they needed to break things open.

In a game of few hits (Coupeville had four, Klahowya three), the Wolves twice had a runner at third, but failed to bring him home.

Kyle Bodamer and Clay Reilly lashed back-to-back two-out singles in the second, then moved up on a passed ball, but were left hanging when the next batter struck out.

Keeping alive the day’s trend of not getting the offense started until there were already two outs, Coupeville had another shot in the third.

Curtin bashed a double, then went to third when Carson’s Risner’s grounder was thrown away by Klahowya’s third baseman.

Unfortunately, the ball bounced right back on the field, forcing Curtin to hold up at third, and the Wolves sputtered with a ground out to end the brief rally.

Klahowya’s lone run came in the first, when the Eagles used a single, a stolen base, a fielder’s choice and a mix-up between Wolf hurler Hunter Smith and Risner to plate a runner.

The freshman pitcher tried to take the blame, calling it a wild pitch, while the senior backstop demurred, claiming it was a passed ball.

With Wolf hurlers Smith and Aaron Trumbull combining to limit Klahowya’s offense, the Eagles only really had one other scoring opportunity, but Josh Bayne put the kibosh on that.

With runners at the corners and one out in the sixth, a Klahowya runner tried to tag and come home on a short sac fly, but Bayne came up firing from center and terminated him in short order.

While he would have enjoyed messing up the Eagles perfect season, Coupeville coach Willie Smith was generally pleased with what he saw.

“We played really well, getting very good pitching and strong defense but once again, we just couldn’t get a hit when we needed one,” he said. “Other than getting the win, I was pretty happy with how we played.

“We approached this like it was a playoff game and that’s what it felt like, so we feel pretty mentally prepared for Saturday and if we can manage to get some guys on with less than two outs, I feel like we can produce some offense to go with our pitching and defense.”

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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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