James Vidoni had three hits and three RBI Friday, propelling Coupeville to a 12-8 win. (Melissa Losey photos)
Beautiful day, beautiful win for the Wolf JV.
The prairie was hot, but James Vidoni was hotter.
The Coupeville High School slugger crunched three hits Friday, including a game-breaking two-run single, to spark the Wolf JV baseball team to a 12-8 win over visiting Klahowya.
Coming on the rarest of days, when fans shed nearly every last layer of clothing and openly scorched their milky-white skin under a rare object in the sky we were told is called “the sun,” Coupeville erupted for nine runs during a 15-batter third inning.
The win, coming a day after a narrow loss at South Whidbey, lifts the Wolf JV to 2-5 on the season.
Facing off with an Olympic League rival for the first time this year — neither Chimacum or Port Townsend have JV squads — Coupeville rapped out nine hits.
Starting pitcher Elliott Johnson punched out four singles on mom Mimi’s birthday to pace the attack, while Jake Pease and Gavin Knoblich added singles.
But it was Vidoni who lit the fuse.
“That was great to see James hit like that,” said CHS coach Mike Etzell. “Really got everyone on the team going.”
Vidoni started by launching an RBI double over the head of the Klahowya left fielder in the bottom of the second, plating Knoblich to knot things up at 1-1.
Jump to the bottom of the third and the Wolves were trailing 2-1.
Johnson had whiffed four Eagles, but a seeing-eye single into the gap snuck through, allowing the visitors to (briefly) recapture the lead.
Then the game took a hard turn, and a positive one for Coupeville.
After juicing the bags with no outs on a Johnson single and walks to Pease and Kyle Rockwell, the Wolves started dropping runs at a rapid pace.
Johnny Carlson and Knoblich eked out bases-loaded walks to make it 3-2, before Vidoni cranked a single.
Rockwell scored easily, while Carlson, practically running out of his shoes, pulled off a nifty hop-skip-and-jump ballet move at the plate to avoid a possible tag.
As he dodged the catcher’s mitt, the decently-sized and rabidly pro-Wolf crowd sucked in its collective breath, then exploded in delirium, shock mixing with respect for Carlson’s surprisingly nimble toes.
Two more bases-loaded walks, earned by Cameron Dahl and Shane Losey, stretched the lead to 7-2, before Johnson collected an RBI single, his second base-knock in the inning.
Not to be outdone, Pease lobbed his own two-run single into center to cap the nine-run explosion, effectively sealing the deal for the Wolves.
Klahowya scraped together four runs in the fourth to tighten the game a bit, but Johnson and Pease, who came on in relief, combined to blunt the Eagle attack the rest of the way.
Johnson and Knoblich added RBI singles for Coupeville’s final two runs, while the Wolves played often-inspired defense behind their tag-team pitching staff.
Rockwell pulled off a pair of sweet defensive gems at first base, throwing out a runner headed into second off of a grounder into the hole and later snagging a ball down the line for an unassisted put-out.
Losey erased another Eagle by remaining alert at all times.
A Klahowya runner successfully stole second in the sixth inning, but came off the bag without calling time and Losey, who had taken the throw from Dahl, sprinted up from behind, tagging him out before he realized his mistake.
Coupeville got something from all 11 players on the day’s roster, with Jacob Zettle, Seth Weatherford and Gavin Straub chipping in to the effort.
“Just a good team win for these guys,” said an elated Etzell as he congratulated his players afterwards.
