Johnny Porter and friends are headed to the state tourney for the second-straight season. (Parker Hammons photo)
As a head coach, Steve Hilborn only knows how to do one thing — take his team to the state tourney.
The Coupeville High School diamond guru made it two-for-two Saturday, guiding the Wolf baseball squad to a Bi-District title and a return trip to the big dance.
Last year, in Hilborn’s first year as head coach, CHS played two games at state, including capturing the program’s first win at the tourney since 1987.
This time around, fresh off a 12-2 drubbing of Friday Harbor at Lakewood High School, the Wolves will carry a seven-game winning streak with them when they hit the road.
It’s the first time CHS baseball has gone to state in back-to-back years since 1990-1991.
Loser-out first round games in the 12-team 2B state tourney go down this coming Tuesday, May 14.
Coupeville, now 11-8 on the season, will find out its foe and the location and start time Sunday when the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association seeds the field.
Run the win streak to eight and the Wolves advance to the state quarterfinals May 18.
Coupeville High School baseball coach Steve Hilborn (grey hoodie, far right) has taken the Wolves to state in both of his first two seasons. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
For the moment, however, the Wolves can bask in the glow of adding another plaque to the Wall of Fame in the CHS gym.
Saturday’s District 1/2 tourney was a three-team affair, with Friday Harbor, the #3 seed, eliminating #2 seed Northwest Christian (Lacey) 9-2 in the opener.
That sent the Wolverines into a winner-take-all affair with their Northwest 2B/1B League rivals, and, for a hot second, Coupeville got set back on its heels.
Friday Harbor scratched out a run in the top of the first, and another in the second, staking itself to a 2-0 lead.
CHS put two runners aboard in the bottom of the first, thanks to a Peyton Caveness single and Coop Cooper getting plunked by a pitch, but neither runner could make it home.
That problem got fixed in the second frame, when the Wolves made their move.
Jack Porter belted a one-out triple to center — the first of a pair of three-baggers on the day — before Wolf pitcher Seth Woollet rapped an RBI single to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Easton Green pinch-ran for his pitcher and promptly stole second, keeping the defense jittery.
Add in a walk to Landon Roberts, and then Coupeville struck, tying the game on a Chase Anderson RBI double to left, before taking the lead for good thanks to a sac fly from Cole White.
Friday Harbor escaped the inning before serious damage could be done, but the game was essentially over at that point.
Seth Woollet, scoring in an earlier game, came up big with his bat and arm Saturday. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Woollet had found his groove on the mound, retiring 11 of the last 12 hitters he faced, and once the Coupeville bats were awake, they got good and loud.
The Wolves busted the game open with an 11-batter, seven-run third inning, pushing the lead all the way out to 10-2 thanks to four hits, two walks, and a pair of Friday Harbor errors.
At one point six straight CHS batters reached base, with Camden Glover and Jack Porter connecting on back-to-back extra-base hits to fuel the fire.
Glover doubled, while Porter tripled, with balls erupting off of bats and sailing off into the wild blue yonder, coming back down to Earth way out in centerfield.
Another sac fly from the precision-minded White made life even sweeter, while two runs came flying in when Friday Harbor botched a ball hit by Cooper.
Coupeville took a brief hiatus from scoring in the fourth, before ending the game early with two more runs in the fifth, invoking the 10-run mercy rule.
Four batters, four hits, with Anderson, White, Caveness, and Cooper rapping base knocks, and the deed was done.
Now, it’s time to wait for the WIAA to decide Coupeville’s next foe, and then a team which has stormed back from a 4-8 start to the season will play on, chasing that state glory.
Saturday stats:
Chase Anderson — One double, one single, one walk
Peyton Caveness — Two singles
Coop Cooper — One single, one walk
Camden Glover — One double
Jack Porter — Two triples
Johnny Porter — One single
Landon Roberts — Two walks
Cole White — One single
Seth Woollet — Two singles, one walk
Your District 1/2 champs. (Photo courtesy Jeff Porter)
Coupeville Sports 