Jonathan Thurston, seen here last season, got the win Monday as Coupeville pulled out an extra-innings thriller. (John Fisken photo)
Hope lives.
Refusing to lose, the Coupeville High School baseball squad rallied time and again Monday, eventually pulling out a wild 6-5 win at Chimacum in 10 hard-fought innings.
The victory lifts the Wolves to 3-2 in Olympic League play, 8-7 overall, and hands them sole possession of second-place with four conference games left on the schedule.
Coupeville sits two off of Klahowya (5-0, 6-3), while Chimacum (2-3, 4-5) and Port Townsend (0-5, 0-7) round out the race.
The Wolves, who still face an uphill climb to defend their league title, return home Wednesday to face the win-less RedHawks, before trekking back to Chimacum Friday.
Monday afternoon CHS never trailed, but also could never quite pull away from the Cowboys until the third extra inning.
Having seen a 4-1 lead evaporate, and then having exchanged runs with their hosts in a tense ninth inning, the Wolves snatched the momentum for good in the tenth.
Dane Lucero, who was hit-less up to that moment, led off the top of the tenth with a resounding double, then moved to third and came around to score on wild pitches.
With the lead in hand, Wolf hurler Jonathan Thurston slammed the door shut.
After giving up a one-out walk to put the tying run on base, Thurston promptly cut that runner down on a fielder’s choice, hitting shortstop Hunter Smith for the force at second.
He then closed the game by inducing a ground-out, with the throw safely landing in first-baseman Kory Score’s glove.
“Good game, very big win for us in our league standings,” said CHS coach Chris Smith.
The Wolves had jumped out to a 4-1 lead, getting a run in the second, two more in the third and another in the fourth.
The game’s first tally came courtesy Joey Lippo, who laced an RBI single to plate Julian Welling, who had bashed a double.
Welling was right back at it an inning later, this time driving in Taylor Consford and Clay Reilly with his second base-knock of the game.
In the fourth, Matt Hilborn doubled and came around to score on a well-placed single by Consford, Coupeville’s starting pitcher.
Chimacum played catch-up, though, netting a run of its own in the fourth, then knotting things up at 4-4 with two more in the fifth.
Lippo kept the Wolves alive, however, gunning down a runner at the plate while wandering in center field.
It was his second strong throw of the game, coming after he doubled a runner off of first moments after snagging a fly ball in the first inning.
Coupeville had a golden, and somewhat surprising, opportunity to reclaim the lead in the sixth, but it wasn’t to be.
Consecutive two-out singles from Nick Etzell, Hilborn and Hunter Smith juiced the bags, but the Cowboys escaped unscathed when they found an inning-ending strikeout at just the right moment.
Both teams battled scoreless through the sixth, seventh and eighth, then traded runs in the ninth.
After recording his third hit of the day, Hilborn scored for Coupeville on a ground-out off the bat of Reilly, but a crucial error stung the Wolves in the bottom of the inning.
Which merely set the table for Lucero to be a hero and send his squad back to the ferry wearing smiles.
Coupeville Sports 