Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Dane Lucero’

Rally hats denied!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on March 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Dane Lucero

   Dane Lucero, seen here in an earlier game, combined with Hunter Smith for a strong outing on the mound Tuesday. (John Fisken photo)

One more hit.

That was about all that came between the Coupeville High School baseball squad and a comeback win Tuesday.

Playing on the road at Lynden Christian, the Wolves rallied to score four in the top of the seventh, but left the bags juiced and headed home with an 8-6 loss.

The non-conference defeat dropped CHS to 2-5 heading into the first 1A Olympic League game of the season.

That comes Thursday, when the Wolves play host to Port Townsend (0-5) in the only home contest Coupeville will have in a seven-game span.

Facing off with the Lyncs (3-5), Coupeville shot itself in the foot repeatedly in the early going.

Five errors and several bobbled balls in the outfield conspired to wreck the Wolves, who fell behind 8-2 despite strong work on the mound from sophomore Hunter Smith and freshman Dane Lucero.

“We struggled on defense,” said an understated Coupeville coach Marc Aparicio.

It wasn’t all bad, though, as first baseman Kory Score triggered a pair of double plays that came a hair away from being triple plays.

He also knocked in a run in his varsity debut.

Aparicio singled out the stellar defensive work of catcher Cole Payne, who kept Lynden Christian in check, gunning out a runner at second while narrowly missing on a second throw.

Read Full Post »

Lucero chases big baseball dreams!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on March 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Dane Lucero

Dane Lucero

Dane Lucero would like to be wearing red on the baseball field for a long time.

The Coupeville High School freshman, who started and whacked an RBI double Monday in the season opener for the Wolves, grew up rooting for another team that heavily features that color on their uniforms.

“I have played baseball since I was six years old,” Lucero, a Missouri native, said. “I started playing because I enjoyed baseball, wanted to play ball with my friends, and I wanted to play for the St. Louis Cardinals.”

He made an immediate impact in his Wolf baseball debut, swinging a big stick for Marc Aparicio’s young squad.

It’s something he hopes to keep doing as the season goes forward.

“I want to drive in as many runs as possible to help my team win and play to my potential in the field and on the mound,” Lucero said.

Also a football player for CHS, he can often be found putting in work in the weight room.

A hard worker all around, Lucero knows that’s the key to building on his early success.

“I’m a solid hitter, pitcher, and fielder, but I can improve those aspects of the game more,” he said. “This includes my speed and athleticism.

“I like the fact that it takes a lot of work to be good at the sport and it’s not a sport you can just pick up a bat and be great at.”

When he’s not playing, Lucero enjoys watching TV, hanging out with friends and exploring his new state. A fan of rap music and comedy and action films, he’s also strong in the classroom.

“I enjoy history, because I like learning about important things that happened a long time ago,” Lucero said.

As he moves forward in his baseball career, the hard-hitting frosh is quick to acknowledge those who have helped him, and continue to do so.

“I am thankful that God gave me the ability to play the game that I love,” Lucero said. “I am also thankful for my coaches and my parents for letting me play travel ball and always getting the coaching that I need to play at the next level.”

Read Full Post »

90 feet from paradise!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on March 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Cole Payne (John Fisken photos)

   Senior catcher Cole Payne is a rock behind the plate for the Wolves. (John Fisken photos)

Matt Hilborn

Freshman Matt Hilborn tossed a perfect seventh in his high school debut.

First games are tricky things.

When you’re a brand new coach stepping on the field for the first time, you can never fully know what to expect.

Jim Waller, currently the Sports Editor at the Whidbey News-Times, got ten-runned during his first game at the helm of the Oak Harbor High School baseball squad.

30 years, 300+ wins and one induction into the Washington State High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame later, and he recovered quite nicely.

Still, he remembers that game like it was yesterday.

Will the same hold true for Marc Aparicio?

Only time will tell.

The Coupeville High School grad, who once starred on the diamond for the Wolves, made his official debut Monday as their new head coach.

Like Waller, he took a loss, but this one was a tense one-run affair that ended with the tying run just 90 feet away.

Unfortunately for Aparicio and Coupeville, even though they got Joey Lippo to third with no outs in the bottom of the seventh, they couldn’t bring him home, letting Sultan slide away with a 6-5 non-conference win on Opening Day.

Fielding a very young squad — the Wolves had three freshmen and three sophomores in the starting lineup — CHS still came out aggressively.

Cole Payne, one of only two senior starters, knocked in sophomore Hunter Smith in the first to stake Coupeville to a 1-0 lead.

After falling behind 2-1, the Wolves rebounded with their best effort in the third, plating four base-runners, with the big hit, a double, coming from freshman Dane Lucero.

Coupeville couldn’t hold the lead, though, giving up three in the fourth to tie things up, then surrendering a go-ahead run in the fifth.

The Wolves made a bid to send the game into extra innings with a strong final inning.

After freshman reliever Matt Hilborn retired the side one-two-three in his debut, Lippo led off the bottom half of the seventh with a shot that was bobbled by a Turk defender.

Eventually perched on third, he was stranded, however, as Sultan’s hurler closed the game with a pair of strikeouts packaged around a come-backer.

While his squad lost, Aparicio came away largely happy with what he saw in his first go-around.

“We had a couple of errors in the beginning but recovered well,” he said. “I thought we got strong pitching from CJ (Smith), Hunter and Hilborn.

“My philosophy is to have us be aggressive on the bases and we were,” he added. “We missed a few signals, but we’ll work on that.”

Coupeville will hop right back into the thick of things with a home-and-away non-conference series against Concrete. Wednesday’s game (4:15 PM) is on Whidbey, followed by a road trip Friday.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts