Landon Roberts played strongly while patrolling the outfield Wednesday. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Welcome to Willie Smith Day, sort of.
The Coupeville High School Athletic Director was a busy bee buzzing around the prairie Wednesday afternoon.
First, he brought me both candy and a sizzlin’ batch of donated DVDs — “Dick Tracy vs. Cueball” to “True Grit” to “Willy Wonka” and much more!
Then, he watched his old-old team (Sequim) beat his old team (Coupeville) 10-0 in a baseball battle played out in front of former CHS greats like Bill Jarrell and Sandy Roberts.
With two packs of Wolves scrapping, it created some confusion for fans as they hollered support.
Even more reason Coupeville should mix it up and find a hip new mascot like the Mighty Mussels or Mosquitos or Geoducks and sell a ton of merch to hipsters across America.
Create a cartoon character featuring a Penn Cove mussel, flexing its muscles, and slap that sucker on t-shirts, mugs, and hoodies and sell ’em from Bangor to Bangladesh.
Rake in that sweet, sweet Mighty Mussels moola, and there’s your balanced budget right there, baby!
But anyway, back in reality — where I scored DVDs featuring both Clint Eastwood and One Direction — Wednesday’s non-conference tilt was a fairly one-sided one.
Sequim, reppin’ a 2A school, outhit the 2B Wolves from Cow Town 9-3, earned a 9-1 advantage in walks, and played perfect defense while Coupeville committed five errors.
The visitors, who packed the bleachers with fans, opened the game with a quick one-two shot, pushing across a pair of runs in the top of the first to seize an early advantage.
Meanwhile the hometown Wolves had a little trouble getting their own offense kick-started.
The first trip through the lineup produced just one baserunner from nine at-bats, and it only happened because of a great deal of pain.
CHS shortstop Cole White got blasted by a wayward pitch, the ball burrowing nice and deep into his Gonzaga-bound flesh.
As he hobbled down to first, waves of pain rolling out of every pore on his body, even his mom, Morgan, averted her eyes and grimaced.
Her pale prairie prince survived — he’s a tough kid as shown by the 1,371 times he bled during basketball season — but Cole will likely have a deeply impressive bruise to show off in the morning.
“You wore the pitch. Respect.” (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Unable to bring White home, Coupeville at least held the line on defense, thwarting a potential steal of home in the top of the second.
With the bags juiced, a Sequim runner tried to catch CHS pitcher Aiden O’Neill napping, but the sophomore hurler pegged the ball to catcher Peyton Caveness in time.
Trying to avoid the tag, the incoming player awkwardly went airborne at the last moment, then realized too late that, unlike disgraced singer R. Kelly, he really didn’t believe he could fly.
Coupeville third baseman Yohannon Sandles made a nice play on a hot grounder to end the inning, and the good version of the Wolves stayed close for a bit.
Sequim tacked on a run in the third to make it 3-0, then made its move with a three-run fourth and a four-run fifth.
CHS finally got its bats clicking, at least a bit, but couldn’t put enough base knocks together to mount a rally.
Caveness thumped a double but was stranded when Sequim tracked down a long fly ball off the bat of Landon Roberts to end the third.
Jack Porter lashed one of Coupeville’s three hits, while also making a strong defensive play on a long fly to left. (Ember Light photo)
Then, in the fourth, after Sandles and Jack Porter delivered back-to-back one-out singles, Sequim dodged a bullet by pulling off superb defensive stops on hard-hit balls from Coop Cooper and Camden Glover.
O’Neill and senior Seth Woollet got their first major pitching work of the season, while Sequim countered with Ayden Holland, who had himself a day.
The 12th grade chucker held Coupeville largely in check while throwing the shutout, and also reached base four times with two hits and two walks while operating as a batter.
The Cow Town hardball squad, which sits at 2-5 after the loss, continues a busy week with a trip Friday to Concrete for a league clash.
After that, Coupeville’s nine are back on their home field Saturday for an Island rumble with South Whidbey.
Coupeville Sports 