Matt Hilborn and Coupeville baseball stomped Port Townsend Wednesday, and have won 11 of their last 12 games. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Coupeville’s seniors went 8-0 at home this year. L to r, Hunter Smith, Jake Hoagland, Jacob Zettle, Kyle Rockwell, coach Chris Smith, Julian Welling, Joey Lippo, Nick Etzell, James Vidoni.
They love it when a plan comes together.
Other than a couple of bobbled balls in the field, the Coupeville High School baseball squad was on point Wednesday, closing the regular season with an emphatic win.
Coasting to a five-inning 11-0 thumping of visiting Port Townsend, the Wolves finished 8-1 in Olympic League play en route to their second conference title in three seasons.
Sitting at 14-4 overall, the Wolves have won seven straight and 11 of their last 12 games.
In the past decade, only one CHS hardball squad, the 2014 team which went to state, has won as many games in a single season.
That ’14 unit finished 14-11 and was eliminated by Rochester in the round of 16.
This year’s Wolves, who open the playoffs May 8 in Tacoma against Charles Wright Academy, came dangerously close to going 17-1, with three of their four losses by a single run.
Two of those defeats came to 2A schools.
Coupeville also finished a flawless 8-0 on its home diamond, with Wednesday’s win coming on a Senior Night in which eight Wolves were honored.
One of those 12th graders, Olympic League MVP-in-waiting Hunter Smith, closed out his home career in style.
Captain Cool tossed a six-strikeout no-hitter from the mound, then knocked in four runs while reaching base in all four of his plate appearances.
And, just to make sure local fans would really remember how amazingly consistent and explosive he has been over the past four years, Smith pulled off maybe the most stunning play of his career.
It came in the bottom of the first, after he had been plunked with a pitch.
A quick steal got Smith to second, a passed ball nudged him to third, and walks to Julian Welling and Dane Lucero juiced the bags and set the stage.
With Jake Hoagland at the plate, Smith, not betraying a single emotion on his carefully-crafted game face, edged down the base-path, teasing and tormenting the flustered RedHawk hurler.
He stepped backwards, for just a second, perhaps arched an eyebrow ever so slightly at coach/dad Chris Smith, who was bobbing in the third-base coaching box, and then … HOLY CRUD ON A FREAKIN’ STICK!!
Hunter Smith bolted down the line, a burst of fiery speed shining brighter than the blazing sun that was scorching the prairie.
Port Townsend’s bench screamed, Coupeville’s bench screamed twice as loud, and at least one Wolf parent fell out of their seat. Maybe more.
As Hoagland did a nimble backwards jump away from the plate at the last second, Captain Cool slid under the late tag, pulling off the most difficult play in baseball.
It was just one run, maybe, but, in that instant, he went from mere legend to mythic figure.
The kind of dude who can toss a no-hitter AND steal home on the same day, and make you imagine Matthew McConaughey leaning against a tree down the right field line, chewing on a wheat stalk, murmuring “alright, alright, alright, my man.”
If the game had been a movie script, that would have been the finale.
Instead, back in reality, the Wolves still had four innings to play and 10 more runs to score, so they got at it quickly.
The only base-runners Port Townsend could get aboard came thanks to a handful of errors by the normally sure-handed Wolf infielders.
They made up for the occasional bobble, however, such as in the top of the second, when Matt Hilborn triggered a bang-bang double play to erase a rare RedHawk base-runner.
Scooping up a bouncer at short, he didn’t have time to transfer the ball from glove to hand, so merely flipped it from his glove while on the run.
The ball plopped into Joey Lippo’s hand, the Wolf second-baseman spun and fired a dart to Welling at first, and presto, a “rally” spiked before it could begin.
With Smith humming on the mound, Coupeville tacked on five runs in the second, added two in the third and put a stamp on things with three more in the fourth.
The Wolves, being extremely patient at the plate, eked out a string of walks to set the table in the second, with a bases-loaded free pass to Smith making it 2-0.
After that, it was time for the big boppers to eat.
Welling smoked a two-run single to left, Lucero bopped an RBI single that dropped in front of a charging outfielder and Hoagland arced a long sac fly to cap things.
In the third, Coupeville got creative, with Nick Etzell pulling off an inspired bit of base-running.
Standing in for Wolf catcher Gavin Knoblich, who rapped a one-out single, Etzell, who hasn’t been able to play in the field in recent games as he rehabs a PE-related arm injury, made sure to get his bit of the spotlight.
After stealing second, minus his wrist guard after an over-zealous ump made him remove it, Etzell took third on a passed ball, then shot for home when another ball got away from the Port Townsend catcher.
Well, he shot for two steps, at least.
Unfortunately, the RedHawk backstop recovered the ball quicker than expected and seemed to have Etzell dead to rights.
Au contraire, mon frère.
Etzell faked back towards third, drew the throw, then narrowly missed snapping his own ankles as he spun on a dime, streaking home to beat the return throw.
From there the Wolves coasted home with Smith swatting an RBI single, before a bases-loaded walk to Lippo and a two-run single from Smith in the fourth wrapped the onslaught.
Knoblich and Smith paced the offense, each delivering a pair of base-knocks.
The win marked the final home game for Wolf seniors Kyle Rockwell, Jacob Zettle, James Vidoni, Lippo, Smith, Etzell, Hoagland and Welling.
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