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League titles, playoff destinies on the line

Posted in standings, tagged , , , , , , on April 28, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Sarah Wright (left) and Lindsey Roberts are coming for all your postseason awards. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Two titles won, two to go.

The battle for regular-season North Sound Conference pennants came to an end in baseball and boys soccer this past week, with Cedar Park Christian and South Whidbey triumphing, respectively.

That leaves girls tennis and softball still in the middle of heated battles, as the teams involved have a chunk of the regular season left to play.

The week ahead (Apr. 29-May 4) is a busy one for Coupeville High School, with a heady mix of regular and postseason play on tap.

Three of five Wolf programs are all about the playoffs as we head for the start of May.

Soccer hosts Cedar Park Christian Monday in a loser-out district game. Win and the Wolves play again May 1 and 4, both on the road, as they try to qualify for bi-districts.

Track heads to Granite Falls May 2 for the league championships. After that comes districts, bi-districts, and state in the weeks ahead.

Baseball gets to rest a bit, then heads to Sehome High School May 4 for the start of the bi-district tourney. The Wolves play twice Saturday, and need at least one win to keep their season alive.

Meanwhile, softball and girls tennis still have a chunk of the regular season to finish.

The netters are set to play four matches next week, starting with the home finale Apr. 30 against Friday Harbor.

After a road trip to Chimacum for a non-conference match-up May 1, the Wolves have a doubleheader May 2 at Granite.

Or, more like a match-and-a-half, as they need to finish an earlier tussle halted by rain, then play the regularly-scheduled finale.

Softball faces its biggest week yet, with four games in five days, and a title on the line.

Monday, the Wolves travel to Bothell to face Cedar Park Christian, then it’s home to rumble with Granite May 1 and for a Senior Night double-header May 3 with Sultan.

Coupeville has one more regular-season game the following week, a short trip to Langley to play South Whidbey, but league title hopes will be decided this coming week.

The Wolves sit right behind Granite in the standings, and absolutely have to topple the Tigers, or pray for a ginormous miracle from other teams, if they want to hang a banner for a second-straight season.

As we await the nail-biting, legacy-defining week on its way, a look at league standings through Apr. 28:

 

North Sound Conference softball:

School League Overall
Granite Falls 7-1 10-5
Coupeville 5-2 8-6
CPC-Bothell 5-3 10-4
Sultan 1-6 1-9
South Whidbey 1-7 4-10

 

North Sound Conference baseball:

School League Overall
CPC-Bothell 13-2 17-3
South Whidbey 12-3 17-3
King’s 10-5 11-9
Coupeville 7-8 7-12
Granite Falls 2-13 4-16
Sultan 1-14 1-19

 

North Sound Conference girls tennis:

School League Overall
King’s 5-0 6-0
South Whidbey 5-1 5-4
Granite Falls 2-3 3-8
Coupeville 1-4 1-4
Friday Harbor 0-5 0-5

 

North Sound Conference boys soccer:

School League Overall
South Whidbey 8-0 12-1
King’s 6-2 7-3-1
Coupeville 3-5 5-8
Sultan 3-5 4-10
CPC-Bothell 0-8 0-10

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Senior sluggers earn sweet swan song

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 27, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Lindsey Roberts (left) and Kylie Chernikoff stay warm during Coupeville baseball Senior Night festivities. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Jake Pease and his fellow seniors closed their home playing days with an 8-1 win over Granite Falls.

Shane Losey

Dane Lucero

Bryce Payne

Matt Hilborn

Wolf coach Chris Smith joins his seniors.

They went out with a bang, and a click.

Coupeville High School baseball sent its five seniors to the exit door (for home games, at least) with a win Friday, their seventh-straight headed into the playoffs.

Along for the ride was John Fisken, who clicked the glossy photos seen above.

To peruse his action shots from the win over Granite Falls, and possibly support his efforts by buying a pic or seven, pop over to:

https://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-baseball-2018-2019/BB-2019-04-26-vs-Granite-Falls/

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Seven straight wins for sizzlin’ diamond men

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on April 27, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Jake Pease beats the tag Friday as Coupeville drills Granite Falls 8-1. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

It’s been like two seasons wrapped in one.

The 2019 campaign has been an unusual one for the Coupeville High School baseball team.

Having lost eight seniors, the new-look Wolves struggled to mount a consistent offensive attack in the early going this spring, scoring just 13 runs while starting the season 0-12.

And then something clicked.

After an 8-1 win Friday over visiting Granite Falls, Coupeville heads to the playoffs on a seven-game winning streak.

During that torrid stretch, the Wolves have plated 66 runners, ultimately cost arch-rival South Whidbey a chance to win a league title, and swept three-game series from Sultan and Granite.

The win which started the redemption arc, a 4-3 shocker over their next-door neighbors, proved to be huge.

If South Whidbey had won that Island rivalry game, it would have entered Friday guaranteed of earning at least a tie for the North Sound Conference pennant with Cedar Park Christian.

Instead, the Falcons faced a winner-takes-all finale in Bothell, and CPC pulled out a 5-4 win thanks to a sixth-inning three-run pinch-hit home run.

Cedar Park, which has been to the state semifinals two years running, finishes 13-2 in league play, while South Whidbey is 12-3.

Coupeville, the hottest team in the conference at the moment, wraps at 7-8 in league action, 7-12 overall, and heads to the playoffs as the #4 NSC team.

The Wolves open the double-elimination bi-district tourney May 4 with a game against Meridian at Sehome High School. Win or lose, CHS plays a second game that afternoon.

But that’s still a week away, and Friday the focus was on honoring Coupeville’s seniors — Bryce Payne, Shane Losey, Jake Pease, Matt Hilborn, and Dane Lucero — while finishing the regular season on a strong note.

Both missions accomplished.

The Wolves jumped on Granite right away, sending 11 hitters to the plate in the bottom of the first inning and bringing six of them around to score.

Three walks, with Hilborn and Gavin Knoblich being plunked, set the table, but it was Coupeville’s bats which did the most damage.

Six singles, accounting for 60% of Coupeville’s hits on the day, sent runners scrambling and Granite coaches to weeping silently in their dugout.

Hawthorne Wolfe started the hit parade, and then Pease, Ulrik Wells, Payne, Losey, and Hilborn (in his second at-bat of the inning) all collected base-knocks.

After the early run-fest, Coupeville didn’t need much more, but it did tack on a run in the second, on a Daniel Olson sacrifice bunt, and a final score in the sixth, on an RBI single off the bat of Pease.

The senior starter led the way with three hits in his home swan song, while Hilborn banged out a pair of singles.

Olson, Wolfe, Payne, Wells, and Losey also had hits, Lucero walked three times and a game after smashing up his face during a collision in the outfield, Mason Grove returned to eke out a walk.

While Coupeville pounded the ball to all fields, Granite had no answers for Wolf hurler Hilborn, who came two outs away from tossing a no-hitter.

He finally got touched in the seventh, giving up a one-out double, but was otherwise in control all game, whiffing eight and walking just a single batter.

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Wolf express keeps rolling

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 24, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Mason Grove (left) and Matt Hilborn were banged up after a collision in the outfield Wednesday afternoon, but rebounded to help Coupeville win its sixth-straight game. (Chris Smith photo)

Can’t stop. Won’t stop.

The late-season surge continues, as the Coupeville High School baseball squad continues to rewrite its story.

Bouncing back from a rough start, the Wolves have become a hit-happy group in the latter part of the season, and Wednesday was more good times as 10 base-knocks fueled a 7-4 win at Granite Falls.

The sixth-straight win for the suddenly-scorching Coupeville diamond men, it lifts them to 6-8 in North Sound Conference play, 6-12 overall.

The Wolves and Tigers wrap their three-game series, and the regular season, Friday in Coupeville.

First pitch is 4 PM, and it’s Senior Night for Matt Hilborn, Dane Lucero, Jake Pease, Bryce Payne, and Shane Losey.

Win or lose that finale, Coupeville is playoff-bound as the #4 seed from the NSC, and kicks off the double-elimination bi-district tourney May 4.

Wednesday, the Wolves scrapped and fought, then blew the game open with a nine-batter, five-hit, five-run fifth inning.

CHS trailed 3-1 headed into that frame, having given up a single run to Granite in the first, third, and fourth.

Coupeville’s only run before the explosion came in the top of the first, after Hilborn doubled to lead-off the game, then came around to score on a Pease sac fly.

Looking for a game-changing play, the Wolves got it, with Ulrik Wells amblin’ to the plate to lead off the fifth and promptly smashing a triple.

From there, the floodgates broke, as a Losey double mixed with singles from Hilborn, Lucero, and Gavin Knoblich and a walk to Hawthorne Wolfe.

Given the lead, Wolf pitcher Lucero, making the final regular-season start of his four-year prep career, shut down Granite, scattering two singles across the final three innings en route to tossing a complete game.

Coupeville tacked on a final run in the seventh, just to make sure, with Hilborn ripping a single and Lucero conking a double.

Hilborn (2B, 1B, 1B), Lucero (2B, 1B), and Knoblich (1B, 1B) led the hit parade, with Wells (3B), Losey (2B), and Pease (1B) each adding a solid base-knock.

 

Wolves arch-rival play for a title:

Coupeville’s first win, a 4-3 shocker over a South Whidbey team which was rolling, looms even larger now.

That meant the Falcons would have to sweep their final three-game series with Cedar Park Christian to claim the league title.

With CPC riding a 16-game winning streak entering this week, that seemed unlikely.

Now, not so much.

South Whidbey nipped the Eagles 3-0 Wednesday, after winning by the same score Monday, and the two teams are dead even at 12-2 in conference action with one game to play.

CPC is 16-3 overall, South Whidbey 17-2 (it also lost one game to King’s), and the two teams play Friday in Bothell with the pennant at stake.

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Bats zing, wins bloom, cameras click

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 23, 2019| Leave a Comment »

On a five-game winning streak, Cody Roberts (left) and Gavin Knoblich are all smiles. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Softball sluggers Heidi Meyers (left) and Marenna Rebischke-Smith, done with practice for the day, pop by to cheer on their baseball buddies. 

CHS coach Chris Smith cooks up some strategy.

“Spring” sports on the prairie, a time for layers (and more layers). 

Mason Grove tracks a high fly ball.

Dane Lucero goes low to pull in the throw at first.

Daniel Olson offers good vibes to Knoblich.

Jake Pease slaps the tag on a Granite runner lost in no-man’s land.

The bats are hot, the camera hotter.

As the Coupeville High School baseball squad bashed out nine hits Monday en route to its fifth-straight win, wanderin’ paparazzi John Fisken was busy clicking away from every angle.

The photos above are courtesy him.

To see more, and possibly purchase some glossies for grandma (thereby helping fund scholarships for CHS student/athletes), pop over to:

https://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-baseball-2018-2019/BB-2019-04-22-vs-Granite-Falls/

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