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Posts Tagged ‘CHS Wolves’

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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Halfway to nirvana!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on March 28, 2018| 2 Comments »

   Veronica Crownover had two hits and three RBI Wednesday as Coupeville mashed Klahowya 15-1, taking the upper hand in the race for a league crown. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

The mission is simple.

Beat Klahowya twice this season and the Coupeville High School softball squad wins its first league title since 2002.

And now it’s halfway there.

Led Wednesday by the booming bats of junior sluggers Veronica Crownover and Sarah Wright, the Wolves shellacked KSS 15-1 in Silverdale, capturing the first round in a three-game season series.

With the victory, Coupeville improves to 3-1 overall, 1-0 in Olympic League play, while Klahowya falls to 5-2, 0-1.

Conference mates Chimacum and Port Townsend suspended their softball programs during the first week of practice, citing a lack of players, which left only two teams standing in what had been a four-team league.

So now, beat the Eagles Apr. 20 on Whidbey, and the Wolves will exit the Olympic League — CHS joins the new North Sound Conference in the fall — as champs.

The third, and final, regular season meeting between the two schools is Apr. 30 back in Silverdale.

Wednesday Coupeville struck early and late, both times inflicting serious damage.

While Wright “had a monster game,” lashing three hits including a triple while driving in six, and Crownover was hot on her heels with two hits and three RBI, every Wolf contributed.

And I do mean EVERY Wolf, as all nine starters recorded at least one hit and one run as CHS showed remarkable balance.

Coupeville came off the bus swinging from the heels, dropping a three-spot on Klahowya pitcher Amber Bumbalough before she even got properly warmed-up.

Lauren Rose led off with a single, promptly stole second and third, and scored the game’s opening tally when she and Katrina McGranahan, aboard on a walk, scampered home on a two-run single from Wright.

Crownover capped the opening surge with an RBI single of her own, and a rout looked like a distinct possibility.

Bumbalough is a two-time Olympic League MVP and D-1 recruit, though, and she settled down, matching goose eggs with McGranahan from that point on until the top of the fifth.

CHS got back-to-back hits from Scout Smith and McGranahan to lead off the third, but was ultimately stiffed. In the fifth, the Wolves went in a different direction, and it paid off.

This time they had two outs and no one on base, then fired the ignition.

Sophomore sensation Smith, who played superbly against Klahowya as a mere freshman, was just as sharp Wednesday, and ripped one of her three hits on the day to trigger things.

McGranahan followed with a base-knock of her own, before Wright went medieval on the ball, dropping a two-run triple into the farthest reaches of the ballpark.

While a 5-0 lead was nice, the Wolves decided to triple their fun in the top of the sixth, knocking Bumbalough out of the pitcher’s circle en route to a 13-batter, 10-run inning.

Crownover started things, reaching on an error, then came back around to drive home the final nail with a booming double that caused dad Darren to nearly lose his voice with all of his good-natured screaming and caring on.

It’s rare to look at a score-book and see an inning where every player on a team scores, but it was nothing but a gorgeous string of filled-in diamonds in the sixth for CHS assistant coach Justine McGranahan.

Everyone chipped in, with Chelsea Prescott, Emma Mathusek, Hope Lodell and Coral Caveness all collecting their first hits of the game in the inning.

With the game in hand, Coupeville coach Kevin McGranahan made sure all 12 girls in uniform saw playing time, with Nicole Laxton, Mollie Bailey and Mackenzie Davis hitting the field in the bottom half of the inning.

Klahowya scraped out a single, solitary run in its half of the sixth to stave off the shutout, but the blowout remained intact.

CHS spread out 15 hits among its nine starters, with Wright and Smith each having a three base-knock afternoon.

Crownover and Katrina McGranahan chipped in with two hits apiece, while Rose, Prescott, Lodell, Caveness and Mathusek each added one of their own.

“Huge win for us and now we are in the drivers seat for the league title,” said Kevin McGranahan. “Now they have to come to us.

“Sarah was clutch all day (at bat) and picking a girl off at third. Coral also had a great game, with a big hit off Amber,” he added. “Hang on tight; it is gonna be a wild ride this year.”

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Photo mania rules the land!!

Posted in Baseball, Girls Tennis, Softball, tagged , , , , , on March 27, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Thora Iverson keeps a watchful eye on the runner. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Jake Pease holds the line at third, slapping on the tag.

Sage Renninger perfects the art of Zen tennis.

Chloe Wheeler crunches a hit as she helps propel the Wolves to another win.

Johnny Carlson is comin’ home, mama.

   Wolf netters Kameryn St Onge (left) and Maggie Crimmins are trapped in a chain-link fence of emotion.

You can see Chelsea Prescott’s pitches, but that doesn’t mean you can hit them.

Jered Brown pops in for a quick visit at third. His real destination? Home plate.

Just about everything went right for Coupeville High School athletics Tuesday afternoon.

The Wolves swept to three wins in four games, knocking off a pair of 2A schools in tennis and softball and nabbing a landmark win on the soccer pitch.

Plus, after a lot of rain, the day was dry and somewhat sunny and noted camera bug John Fisken was in town and clicking away.

During his visit to the prairie, the paparazzi hit JV softball, varsity tennis and JV baseball bouts, delivering a smorgasbord of glossy pics.

The photos above are courtesy Fisken, but, if you want to see everything he shot, pop over to:

Baseball:

http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-Baseball-2017-2018/2018-03-27-JV-vs-Sequim/

Girls Tennis:

http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/2017-2018-Coupeville-Tennis/2018-03-27-Girls-vs-Granite-Falls/

Softball:

http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-Softball-2017-2018/2018-03-27-JV-vs-Sequim/

And, when you do, remember, purchases help fund college scholarships for CHS student/athletes.

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Edge of your seats!!

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

   Shane Losey snags a grounder Tuesday during an extra-innings game. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

In a game of rallies, the final one fell just a hair short.

The Coupeville High School JV baseball team made it back from six runs down Tuesday to force extra innings, but couldn’t quite overcome a five-run deficit in their final at-bats.

Leaving the tying runner aboard, the Wolves fell 11-10 to visiting 2A Sequim in a game which went nine innings, two beyond the normal allotted schedule.

The loss drops Coupeville’s young guns to 1-3 on the season.

That the game went nine innings might have been a surprise to anyone who walked by midway through the game, glanced at the scoreboard, then moved on to other events.

CHS surrendered five runs in the third inning, and had some early trouble getting its own offense on track, trailing 6-0 heading to the bottom of the fifth.

That was where the Wolves finally put together a sustained rally, using a handful of walks, a Sequim error and a single from freshman Daniel Olson to plate four runners.

Two more came around in the sixth, with Jacob Zettle and Olson delivering key base-knocks.

After rambling through scoreless seventh and eighth innings together, the two teams decided to heat things up, a lot, in the ninth, scoring almost half of the game’s runs in one frame.

Sequim dropped a five-spot on the scoreboard for the second time in one day, but Coupeville answered with four of its own in the bottom of the inning.

The Wolves put their first five hitters on, with Johnny Carlson, Olson, Jered Brown and Mason Grove all coming around to score, but then the visitors clamped down.

A strikeout changed the flow of the game, and, two batters later, Sequim escaped with the win on a come-backer to the mound.

Olson (3) and Zettle (2) paced the Wolf offense in the loss, combining for five hits.

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Fight till the final goal!!

Posted in Boys Soccer, tagged , , , , on March 27, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Wolf defender Axel Partida sports a shiner Tuesday after CHS boys soccer beat Port Townsend in a rough-and-tumble affair. (Photo courtesy Partida)

They broke through, but not without a fight.

Riding a hat trick from sophomore Derek Leyva, the Coupeville High School boys soccer squad knocked off host Port Townsend 3-1 Tuesday, the first time the Wolf booters have beaten the RedHawks in the four-year run of the Olympic League.

The hard-fought victory, which lifts the Wolves to 2-1 in conference action, slides CHS into sole possession of second-place behind Klahowya (3-0).

Port Townsend (1-2) and Chimacum (0-3) bring up the rear at the moment.

Coupeville, which sits at 3-2-1 overall, hadn’t beaten Port Townsend in a boys soccer game since 2012.

The schools were in different conferences back then, and since uniting in the Olympic League in 2014, the RedHawks had won all seven meetings, outscoring the Wolves 23-7.

That includes shutting out Coupeville in three meetings last season.

This time around, the Wolves have added Leyva, who transferred to Coupeville for his sophomore year.

With his three goals Tuesday, two of which came in the first half, he has 13 scores in six games.

That pulls him within seven of cousin Abraham Leyva’s single-season Wolf boys scoring record of 20 goals.

None of his goals came easy Tuesday, as Port Townsend brought the heat, with frequent back-and-forth action erupting between the two teams.

“It was a lil’ tussle fest,” said Wolf senior defender Hunter Downes, as he described a game that came close at times to breaking into a full-on brawl.

Teammate Axel Partida finished the game with an impressive shiner after taking one nasty shot, but also emerged with the win, which makes even a black eye a little easier to deal with.

His coach, Kyle Nelson, generally remains the very picture of calm and cool while patrolling the sidelines. But just because the outer surface is placid doesn’t mean his insides aren’t roiling.

“It became quite a battle,” he said. “They missed a penalty kick opportunity and we put it away with five minutes left.

“It was an exciting game, and gave me a few more grey hairs.”

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