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Patience pays off for Wolves!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 2, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Careful pitch selection was key Monday, as Coupeville turned 12 walks into a 9-0 win at Friday Harbor. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Take what they give you.

Showing patience under pressure Monday, the Coupeville High School baseball squad walked its way to a blow-out win at Friday Harbor.

Turning 12 walks, and a handful of errors by their hosts, to their advantage, the Wolves cruised to a 9-0 win while only eking out four hits.

The non-conference victory, Coupeville’s third straight triumph and fourth in its last five games, lifts CHS to 6-3 on the season.

The Wolves, off to their best start in more than a decade, don’t play again until Saturday, when they host 2A Cedarcrest.

Using the Olympic League’s web site and Max Preps, I can go back as far as 2008, and, during that time, no Coupeville baseball squad has gotten off to better than a 5-4 mark.

The Wolves hit that mark in 2017, 2015, 2013 and 2010, but this time around they turned Friday Harbor’s weaknesses into a sixth, very satisfying win.

With hurler Hunter Smith firing BB’s on the mound (whiffing nine and retiring eight of the final nine hitters he faced), Coupeville didn’t need much offense.

Which doesn’t mean it wasn’t happy to accept what Friday Harbor offered.

The Wolves scraped out the only run that mattered in the top of the first, using a single from Matt Hilborn, a sacrifice from Joey Lippo, a passed ball and an RBI single by Smith to “bust” things open.

Coupeville added two more runs in the third, a single tally in the fourth and a game-capping five-run explosion in the top of the seventh, while not notching a single hit in those innings.

In the third, Hilborn and Lippo each walked, stole second and came around to score on Friday Harbor errors, while Nick Etzell pulled off the same maneuver in the fourth.

The Wolves gave Smith a much-bigger cushion in the fifth, again using a mix of walks (five this time) and booted balls by their hosts (two more) to plate five.

The final run came home off of a ground-out by Hilborn, one of the few times CHS was given a chance to put the ball into play in the latter stages of the game.

After collecting two base-knocks way back in the first, Coupeville didn’t get another hit until Smith ripped a fifth-inning single.

But, like Dane Lucero, who led off the sixth with a double, he was left high and dry, stranded and unable to score.

Not that it mattered much, as the Wolves capitalized on what they were given, with seven of nine hitters scoring at least once.

Hilborn and Lippo each tapped home plate twice to lead the scoring attack, while the only two starters not to score, Kyle Rockwell and Jake Pease, both picked up RBIs with bases-loaded walks.

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Breeze blows in snappy pics!!

Posted in Baseball, Boys Soccer, tagged , , , , , on April 1, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Sam Wynn (left) and Jonathan Partida combined to score four times Friday in a lopsided Coupeville win on the soccer pitch. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

   Matt Hilborn fires the high, hard cheese as he closes out a Wolf win on the diamond.

Port Townsend or Coupeville fans, all united by being cold.

“Ha ha, death from above … and … oh crud, my wings are frozen again!!”

Teo Keilwitz uses Jedi mind tricks to freeze the ball in mid-air.

   Joey Lippo digs the longball, even if the steady breeze wasn’t super-conducive to the round trippers on this day.

   All eyes are on the field, except for one lil’ girl intent on figuring out how to break out of her restraints.

Alex Jimenez (right) charges into the fray.

It was prime picture-taking weather.

While the sun was out Friday, there was a nasty lil’ prairie breeze assaulting everyone who stood still too long.

In an effort to keep warm, travelin’ camera clicker John Fisken bounced between the baseball field, and the more-sheltered soccer pitch.

The pics seen above, a mix of on and off field action, are courtesy him.

To see everything he shot (as both Wolf teams won handily), pop over to:

Baseball:

http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-Baseball-2017-2018/2018-03-30-vs-Pt-Townsend/

Soccer:

http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/2017-2018-Coupeville-Soccer/2018-03-30-Boys-vs-Chimacum/

And remember, purchases help fund college scholarships for CHS student/athletes. Be the hero the world needs.

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Can’t touch this!!

Posted in standings, tagged , , , , , on March 31, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Ben Smith helps record history. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Rain was their only weakness.

Coupeville High School athletics pulled off a flawless week … if you ignore the contests washed away by the elements.

Put the Wolves on the field between Mar. 26-30 and they couldn’t be beat, going 6-0, with victories in all four spring sports which keep track of win-loss records.

Baseball and soccer won twice each, while tennis and softball knocked off their only foes. Making things even better, five of those six wins came against Olympic League foes.

The only thing keeping CHS from achieving pure nirvana was the elements, which washed away, at least temporarily, a softball game against Port Angeles, a tennis match against Olympic and a baseball game against Sultan.

With spring break kicking off, the schedule for the upcoming week is relatively light, with a few non-conference games scattered at the start and end of the week.

Current standings through Mar. 31:

Olympic League baseball:

School League Overall
COUPEVILLE 2-0 5-3
Chimacum 1-0 2-5
Klahowya 1-2 2-7
Port Townsend 0-2 0-5

Olympic League boys soccer:

School League Overall
Klahowya 3-0 5-2-1
COUPEVILLE 3-1 4-2-1
Port Townsend 1-2 1-5-0
Chimacum 0-4 0-5-0

Olympic League girls tennis:

School League Overall
COUPEVILLE 0-0 1-4
Chimacum 0-0 1-4
Klahowya 0-0 1-3

Olympic League softball:

School League Overall
COUPEVILLE 1-0 3-1
Klahowya 0-1 5-2

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Where there’s a will, there’s a way!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on March 30, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Julian Welling was a force at the plate and in the field Friday, propelling Coupeville into sole possession of first-place in the Olympic League (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Julian Welling was unstoppable.

A game after being beaned three times, the Coupeville High School senior first-baseman rebounded Friday to slay visiting Port Townsend with both his booming bat and his nimble feet and glove on defense.

Sparked by Welling, the Wolves overcame a viciously cold prairie wind and an umpire with a fairly creative strike zone to topple the pesky RedHawks 3-1.

The win, Coupeville’s third in the past four games, lifts them to 2-0 in Olympic League play, 5-3 overall.

It also gives them sole possession of first-place, a half-game up on Chimacum (1-0).

Defending champ Klahowya (1-2) and Port Townsend (0-2) hold down the bottom slots at the moment.

Friday’s game wasn’t totally what was expected, but a win is a win, especially one that keeps you as the top dog.

Port Townsend entered the day on a 46-game losing streak, dating back to Apr. 9, 2015, but it hung tough, scoring first and leading into the bottom of the third.

The RedHawks scraped out three hits on the afternoon and two of them came in the opening frame.

Toss in a walk and a Wolf dropping a fly ball while on the run, and the visitors exited the inning with a single, solitary run.

Which was kind of huge for Port Townsend, as it’s only the fifth one they’ve scored in as many games this season.

Meanwhile, Coupeville couldn’t get its own offense untracked, alternating between eking out some walks and putting the ball into the air, where it died a swift death in the merciless wind.

It wasn’t until the bottom of the third that the Wolves finally found a way to keep the ball on the ground, and it immediately paid dividends.

With Nick Etzell and Joey Lippo aboard on walks, CHS managed to move them into scoring possession with two outs, then caught a break when a wild pitch sent Etzell scrambling home with the tying run.

The hitter at the plate, one Mr. Welling, then broke his team’s hit-less streak, cranking an RBI single over the bag at third.

While Coupeville’s rally died promptly afterwards, the Wolves had an extra bit of pep in their step with a 2-1 lead, and they shut Port Townsend down the rest of the way.

After tossing three innings and striking out four, Dane Lucero gave way to relief ace Matt Hilborn, who buzzed through four fairly drama-free innings while matching his predecessor’s K-count.

He got a little help, though, with Jake Pease making a running catch in left, snagging the ball as it caressed the laces on top of his shoes.

Then there was Welling, who twice made sensational snags on potentially wayward throws at first, both times recovering to put a tag on the RedHawk runner trying to get by him.

The first one was a nice bang-bang play, while the second was pure artistry, as he had to make the play while down on his knees in the dirt.

“He made two great plays for us on defense, and, in a close ball game, that was huge,” said Coupeville coach Chris Smith.

Welling also tossed another run on the pile, stroking his second RBI single in the fifth.

His rocket back up the middle, which hit the grass hard, bit off a chunk and shot into center, plated Hunter Smith, who smashed a lead-off double to left-center after narrowly missing a home run a pitch before.

Coupeville finished with five hits, with Welling’s pair of singles and Smith’s double being joined by singles off of the bats of Kyle Rockwell and Hilborn.

While it was a bit of a step back after the Wolves had smashed pitching the past couple of games, it was enough to nab a win, and that was what Chris Smith was most interested in seeing.

“Our bats were a little flat today for whatever reason, and we had trouble finding the grass in the middle of the field for awhile,” he said with a small smile. “But we adapted, and did what we needed to do in the situation.

“It’s a nice thing to see that we can go out there and play and adjust to whatever the situation might be.”

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Roll in, torch ’em, roll out!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on March 28, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Nick Etzell crunched a double Wednesday as Coupeville blew out Klahowya 13-3. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

   Wolf senior Julian Welling, who was hit by three different KSS pitchers in the game, shows off his war wounds. (Photo courtesy Jacob Zettle)

Everything was clicking.

Pitching, hitting, defense, intangibles — they were all on point for the Coupeville High School baseball squad Wednesday at it battered host Klahowya 13-3.

The win lifts the Wolves to 1-0 in Olympic League play and into a first-place tie with Chimacum (1-0).

Defending league champ Klahowya (1-2) and Port Townsend (0-1), which visits Whidbey Friday, hold down the bottom two slots at the moment.

The Wolves, who are 4-3 overall, jumped on the Eagles early and never let up, scoring in six of seven innings.

That gave starting pitcher Hunter Smith plenty of room in which to operate, and the senior ace responded with his third win in as many starts.

He scattered two hits (matching the total he himself racked up while hitting) and struck out five while going the distance.

Coupeville jumped out to a 7-0 lead, plating two in the top of the first, then rocking Klahowya pitching for five more in the second.

Matt Hilborn kick-started things with a lead-off single, then the Wolves juiced the bases thanks to Smith and Julian Welling’s willingness to be plunked.

While Coupeville’s lead runner was forced at home on a fielder’s choice, the Wolves broke through with an RBI single off the bat of Jake Hoagland and a bases-loaded free pass eked out by Kyle Rockwell.

With Klahowya’s pitcher unable to find the strike zone, CHS packaged five walks (including Hilborn wearing a pitch), a Nick Etzell double and singles from Joey Lippo and Jake Pease to bust things open in the second.

KSS shaved two runs off the lead in their half of the second, but continued to hand out walks like sweet, sweet candy, allowing Coupeville to stretch the margin back to 9-3 by the end of five innings.

Of course, “sweet, sweet candy” might be stretching it a bit, when Klahowya lobbed pitches off of the body parts of Wolf batters SEVEN times in one game.

Welling was their favorite target, getting nailed by THREE different Eagle pitchers.

One of the few times they didn’t hit him was the sixth inning, when Welling sent Smith home with an RBI ground-out, right after the Wolf hurler whacked a two-run triple.

Apparently wanting to play a full seven innings, the Wolves didn’t hit a 10-run lead until they notched a final tally in the top of the seventh, too late to kick in the mercy rule.

Still, it mattered very little, as Smith closed the game with one final punch-out from the mound and Coupeville exited Silverdale with a victory that was assured, very-balanced and fairly definitive.

The Wolves finished with 10 base-knocks, with Smith, Lippo and Hilborn leading the way with two apiece.

Pease, Hoagland, Dane Lucero and Etzell rounded out the attack, each collecting a hit.

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