CJ Smith delivered a strong pitching performance Wednesday, one that made a teammate yell “That was filthy!” after a strikeout. (Shelli Trumbull photo)
CJ Smith was magnificent, but it wasn’t quite enough.
Despite a stellar game from the junior hurler, the Coupeville High School baseball squad came up just short of upending the #1 team in 1A Wednesday, falling 3-1 to visiting Klahowya in a game that could have easily gone the other way.
With Smith dealing on the mound (“That was filthy!” screamed one of his teammates after a nasty strikeout), the Wolves, now 7-8 overall, 3-3 in Olympic League play, had their chances.
“One of the better pitching performances we’ve had this season,” said CHS coach Willie Smith. “CJ mixed it up, never lost his composure and really kept them guessing.
“He stepped up big for us, as he has done all season.”
Unfortunately, the Eagles (14-0, 5-0) managed to find just a few chinks in Coupeville’s armor and exploit them for the few runs they would need.
Klahowya cracked a scoreless tie in the third, using a single, a passed ball and an error — on a play where the Wolf fielder had a tough read on the ball with the runner moving right in front of him.
The Eagles then added two in the fourth, taking advantage of a blown rundown play.
Coupeville had the runner nailed, but the player who was supposed to backup the play failed to cover the bag, letting the dead-in-the-water Eagle slide into second as another runner shot across home plate.
A long, corkscrew RBI single that landed just a fraction inside the left field foul line plated Klahowya’s final run.
But while the visitors scratched out a few runs, CJ Smith recovered each time and bore down, refusing to let the Eagles break out a big inning.
Helping him were three standout defensive plays.
Wolf catcher Carson Risner threw out a runner trying to steal second to kick the game off, Aaron Curtin made a spectacular sliding catch in left and Josh Bayne notched an impressive double play.
Bayne corralled a shot to center, then came up firing, gunning down a lollygagging Klahowya runner who had drifted way too far off of first to admire his teammate’s moon-ball.
While their defense was generally solid, the Wolves struggled at the plate, garnering just one hit.
It was a well-hit single to center from lead-off hitter Cole Payne in the first inning, and it would be their only base knock.
Payne and Bayne each walked twice, with Payne eating dirt after being plunked on the brim of his batting helmet by a wild pitch, but that was it for a very limited offensive attack.
Coupeville’s lone run came in the sixth, when Payne zipped home on a squeeze play.
Unfortunately, the Wolves left runners stranded at second and third with an inning-ending strikeout, one of 11 whiffs they absorbed in the game.
Still, pushing the state’s #1 team in a game where one play could have changed the outcome was a huge step back up after Coupeville’s previous game, when they fell to a previously winless Chimacum squad.
“We played with the right attitude today,” Willie Smith said. “Now we need to keep that going.”
With three regular season games left — one each against league rivals Port Townsend, Chimacum and Klahowya — the Wolves want to hold onto the #2 seed out of the conference, which would give them a home playoff game May 9.
