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Posts Tagged ‘baseball’

U-Dub baseball nabs Falcon legend!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on August 1, 2018| Leave a Comment »

After two stellar seasons at Lower Columbia College, South Whidbey grad Ricky Muzzy (right) is joining the University of Washington’s baseball squad. (Photo from Muzzy’s Facebook page)

Hopefully Ricky Muzzy remembers me when he gets to The Show.

The former South Whidbey High School standout, who is one of the rare Falcons to get a feature story here on Coupeville Sports (back in 2014), continues to move up in the baseball world.

After two stellar seasons on the diamond at Lower Columbia College, Muzzy is officially making the jump to NCAA D-1 action, joining the University of Washington baseball program.

The Huskies announced the addition of Muzzy and Connor Blair from California’s Butte College in a Monday press release.

After graduating from SWHS in 2016, Muzzy left Freeland for Longview, where he immediately became a key player for LCC teams which won titles both of his seasons.

A middle infielder who can anchor a team at shortstop or second base, Muzzy played in 74 games at LCC, piling up 21 doubles, nine triples, seven home runs and 60 RBI.

He hit .359 during his first season, and .305 as a sophomore.

 

PS — If you want to see the moment when the spotlight first landed on Muzzy, pop over and check out my old-school article on him at:

The Falcons are alright: Ricky Muzzy explodes!!

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Fireworks on final day!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on July 27, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Hawthorne Wolfe had two hits and three RBI as Coupeville Babe Ruth closed its season Friday with a loss at regionals. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Time to pack up the baseballs and sunflower seeds, toss the mitts and spikes in the car, and head home.

A very successful season ended on a slightly sad note Friday, as the Coupeville Babe Ruth baseball squad fell 12-7 to Miles City (Montana) in its final game at the 15U regional tourney in Portland.

The loss drops the Wolves to a still pretty remarkable 17-6.

Along the way, Coupeville went undefeated in regular-season play, finished second at the state tourney, then ventured to Oregon to face its stiffest competition.

The 10-team regional tourney featured teams from Washington, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Canada. The winner advances to the World Series.

While the Wolves won’t be hanging around to play for a title this weekend, they acquitted themselves well, and Friday was a prime example.

Coupeville outhit Miles City 13-10, with eight of of its 11 players collecting at least one base-knock.

In fact, every Wolf made it safely to first base on the day, as the three players without a hit combined to walk four times.

But errors, and one bad early inning, doomed the Islanders.

Looking to close the season with a win, Coupeville scratched out two runs in the top of the first, thanks to an RBI single from Gavin Knoblich and a sac fly off the bat of Cody Roberts.

That brought around Scott Hilborn, who led off the game with a single, and Andrew Score, who walked to start off a day when he would reach base all four times he stepped to the plate.

Then, the bottom of the first hit, and everything went sideways for a bit.

Miles City racked up half its hits in the opening frame, while taking advantage of two free passes and the first two of six errors the Wolves would commit on the afternoon.

By the time Coupeville stopped the bleeding, ending the inning when third-baseman Xavier Murdy scooped up a grounder and lofted the ball into Hawthorne Wolfe’s glove at first, eight Montana runners had tapped home.

That made the rest of the afternoon a game of catch-up for the Wolves, and while they kept plugging away, they never got back closer than four runs down.

Coupeville tacked on a run in the second (a double from Sage Sharp was the big blow) and another in the third (four singles, with Wolfe picking up the RBI).

Miles City responded with two in the fourth and two in the fifth, though, stretching the lead back out before the Wolves closed the game with a seventh-inning rally.

Singles from Score, Roberts, Ashton Leland and Wolfe, who had a team-high three RBI, accounted for three runs before Coupeville ran out of outs in the game, and tournament.

Score led a remarkably-balanced lineup, collecting two hits, two walks and two runs, while Knoblich, Wolfe, Roberts and Leland all picked up a pair of base-knocks.

Sharp, Hilborn and Johnny Carlson added a hit apiece to round out the hitting attack.

Chelsea Prescott walked in both of her plate appearances, with Daniel Olson and Roberts combining for seven strikeouts while sharing pitching duties.

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Scrappy Wolves keep swinging!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on July 26, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Xavier Murdy piled up a hit, a walk and two runs Thursday as Coupeville Babe Ruth played at regionals in Portland. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Not all teams are created equal.

When the Coupeville Babe Ruth 15U baseball squad went to the state tourney, they had 13 players on their roster, the same boys (and one girl) who played together all season.

Now, as the Wolves fight through regionals in Portland, they have 11 in uniform, as Ulrik Wells and Drake Borden couldn’t make the trip.

Thursday’s opponent, the KWRL Centerfield Roosters, representing South Washington, are a true all-star team. The squad pulls players from Kalama, Woodland, Ridgefield and La Center, all meccas of teen sports excellence.

So, it’s not a total surprise the under-staffed Coupeville diamond dogs, despite a chippy effort, fell 14-4.

The loss drops the Wolves to 17-5 on the season, with one contest left to play.

That comes Friday afternoon, when Coupeville faces Montana in its fourth and final game in pool play.

After taking a close loss to Calgary and more lopsided defeats at the hands of Portland and KWRL, the Wolves have no hope of advancing to the semifinals portion of the 10-team tourney.

But, after picking up an unexpected run of games (it’s subbing for North Washington state champ Columbia Basin at regionals), Coupeville will return home with valuable experience from the big stage.

The Wolves fell behind early Thursday, giving up three runs in the first and six more in the second, as KWRL whacked the stuffing out of the ball.

The all-star unit racked up eight hits in just the first two frames, including a triple and a pair of doubles.

The South Washington crew finished with 13 hits before the game was called after five innings due to the 10-run mercy rule.

Coupeville plated a run in the first, another in the third, and two more in its final at-bats.

The opening Wolf run came on a nice two-out, no-one-on-base rally, as the Islanders strung together a single from Daniel Olson, a walk to Gavin Knoblich and an RBI double off the bat of Cody Roberts.

In the third, it was base-knock city, as singles from Xavier Murdy, Andrew Score and Olson brought a runner around.

Roberts was in a groove, smoking a lead-off double in the fourth for his second two bagger, but he died a lonely death on the base-paths as his teammates were unable to help him tap home.

Needing three runs to keep the game alive, Coupeville almost got there in the fifth, but came up a few inches short.

Four consecutive walks — with Murdy, Scott Hilborn (he was plunked by a wayward pitch), Score and Olson outlasting the KWRL hurler — plated one, while a sac fly from Knoblich closed out the rally.

Roberts and Olson paced the Wolves at the plate with two hits apiece, with Murdy scoring twice.

Hawthorne Wolfe, Chelsea Prescott, Ashton Leland, Sage Sharp and Johnny Carlson rounded out the active roster for Steve Hilborn’s squad.

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Still in it, still wanna win it!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on July 24, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Daniel Olson and the Coupeville Babe Ruth baseball squad are in Portland this week, playing in the 15U regional tourney. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Stop, take a breath and then get back at it.

After a close opening game Monday, the Coupeville Babe Ruth baseball squad was roughed up Tuesday at the 15U regional tourney in Oregon.

The Wolves, who almost pulled off a wild come-back win before falling 9-5 to Calgary, were blasted 17-1 by host Portland.

Coupeville has a bye day Wednesday, then wraps up pool play with games Thursday against South Washington and Friday against Montana.

There are two five-team pools and the top two teams from each advance to the semifinals. The winner of the tourney is off to the World Series.

After finishing second at the state tourney, Coupeville got an unexpected chance to advance to regionals after state champ Columbia Basin bowed out at the last second.

While the Wolves didn’t get a hit until the fifth inning of their opener against Calgary, they used solid pitching and defense to keep the game close.

The two teams were knotted at zero until the bottom of the fourth inning, when the Canadians scratched out a pair of runs.

The bottom fell out for a moment in the fifth, as Calgary put together three extra-base hits to slap five runs on the board, running its lead to 7-0.

Coupeville, which got its first hit when Johnny Carlson slapped a two-out single in the fifth, finally came alive in the sixth.

Peppering four hits (base-knocks courtesy Scott Hilborn, Hawthorne Wolfe, Andrew Score and Chelsea Prescott) and collecting four walks (thanks to the eagle-eyed Daniel Olson, Gavin Knoblich, Carlson and Xavier Murdy), the Wolves put up five runs of their own.

Calgary escaped the inning, though, and added two runs in the bottom of the sixth to stretch the lead back out.

Olson, who struck out three in five innings on the hill, whacked a one-out single in the top of the seventh, but that was it for offensive fireworks.

Game two? The less said probably the better, as Portland crunched 13 hits, while Coupeville had a solitary base-knock.

It was a big one, though, as Score drilled a two-out RBI triple in the top of the fifth and final inning, plating Olson, who had walked and stolen second.

Coupeville’s only other base-runner was Cody Roberts, who eked out a third-inning walk.

As the Wolves prep for the second half of pool play, they sit at 17-4 on the season.

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Lippo, Bombers go on a run in the sun!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , on July 24, 2018| Leave a Comment »

CHS grad Joey Lippo and his select baseball team won five of six games at an 18-team Arizona tourney. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

The weather was hot in Arizona, but Joey Lippo was hotter.

Paced by their speedy lead-off hitter, the Seattle Bombers 18U select baseball squad won five of six games, claiming second-place at the 5th annual World Series West.

There were 18 teams, repping multiple states, in the Upperclass Division of the tourney in Scottsdale, and it took five days before any of them could upend the Coupeville grad and his summer compatriots.

The Bombers won a game a day from July 20-23, finishing first in pool play and earning a bye into the semifinals of the tourney.

After opening with a 9-7 win Friday over Edge White, Lippo and Co. blanked the Los Al Cage Rats 5-0 Saturday, then pulled off the win of the tourney Sunday morning.

Facing off with Batters Box 18U Navy, the Bombers went into extra innings tied 3-3.

At which point it was Lippo time, as the former Wolf launched a game-busting RBI double in the top of the eighth.

The blow sparked a five-run rally, which turned out to be a good thing, as Bombers pitching gave back three runs in the bottom half of the inning before escaping with an 8-6 win.

With a bye at stake, the Bombers won a battle of unbeaten teams Monday, knocking off Colorado Baseball Academy 7-0.

Lippo pilfered two bases to spark the offense, while Bombers hurler Eric Anderson tossed a no-hitter to seal the deal on a perfect 4-0 run through pool play.

The tourney came to an end Tuesday, with the Bombers knocking off the Aggie Scout Team 4-2 in the semis, before they were toppled 7-3 in the championship game by the Central Valley Marlins.

The Marlins, who did not have a bye coming in to the playoffs, had to win three games Tuesday to take home the trophy to Fresno, CA, and they did just that.

The tourney’s #1 team in ERA, strikeouts, RBI and hits won a pair of elimination games in romps (15-0 and 12-2) before jumping on the Bombers for four runs in the first inning.

Lippo went down swinging, rapping out a pair of hits to pace the Bombers in the title game.

For the tourney, he recorded six hits, four runs and two RBI, while reaching base just about every way possible.

That including being plunked, taking advantage of both fielding errors and catcher’s interference and using his torrid toes to out-race a dropped third strike.

Lippo was spotless on defense while roaming center field for the Bombers, including sprinting into left at one point to snag a ball his teammate lost in the sun.

He also is returning home without suffering heat stroke (we think), despite the weather being a balmy 100 degrees on the “coolest” day, before soaring Tuesday to a brain-frying 116 (in the shade).

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