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Posts Tagged ‘Jonathan Thurston’

A little bad, a lot of good!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on July 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Taylor Consford ripped a pair of hits Friday as Coupeville’s 17U baseball squad won its tourney opener. (John Fisken photo)

One was a beauty, one was a beast.

Playing back-to-back games Friday morning at the 3rd annual Battle of the Bats tournament at Curtis High School, Coupeville’s 17U baseball squad found wildly different results.

In the opener, the Wolves controlled things from the first batter and strolled to a 9-2 win over the Swing Center Shockers.

Ten minutes after that victory, CHS was back on the same diamond, but this time, everything went terribly, horribly wrong.

A mere three innings later, the Wolves staggered off the field, having been thrashed 15-0 by Honda Baseball in a game called early thanks to tournament mercy rules.

After the split in pool play, Coupeville moves to bracket action Saturday.

The final tournament of the summer season for the Wolves, Battle of the Bats features 25 teams in the 16/17 division and another 13 squads squaring off in the 15U flight.

Big win:

Four runs in the bottom of the first staked CHS hurler Jonathan Thurston to a big early lead, and he responded, carrying a shutout into the fifth inning.

The top of the fourth was his moment in the sun, as the lanky hurler gunned down three straight Shocker hitters.

Nick Etzell came on in relief in the fifth and closed out the game emphatically for Thurston.

At the plate, everything worked for Coupeville.

The Wolves picked up three hits in the first — a double from Taylor Consford and singles by Joey Lippo and Jake Hoagland — and mixed those in with a bevy of walks, many of the “batter getting plunked” variety.

CHS tacked on another three runs in the second, again getting a trio of base-knocks (this time singles from Matt Hilborn, Consford and Dane Lucero), before adding a single run in both the fourth and sixth.

Both of those scores came courtesy of bases-loaded walks, with Austin Boesch and Kyle Rockwell picking up RBIs as they strolled to first with a free pass.

Thomas Anderson, one of three Oak Harbor players (along with Boesch and Donny Kloewer) tagging along with Coupeville for this tourney, reached base all four times he came to the plate in game one.

A well-hit single and three walks made Anderson a frequent visitor to first base.

Big loss:

Coupeville, which got roughed up to the tune of three runs in the first, five in the second and seven more in the third, had its shots on offense, but couldn’t capitalize.

The Wolves loaded the bases in both the first and second inning, packaging four walks and singles from Consford and Kloewer.

It wasn’t to be, though, as Honda baseball dodged a bullet both times, getting inning-ending ground-outs to strand all three runners.

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Wolves pull out a thriller!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 24, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Jonathan Thurston, seen here last season, got the win Monday as Coupeville pulled out an extra-innings thriller. (John Fisken photo)

Hope lives.

Refusing to lose, the Coupeville High School baseball squad rallied time and again Monday, eventually pulling out a wild 6-5 win at Chimacum in 10 hard-fought innings.

The victory lifts the Wolves to 3-2 in Olympic League play, 8-7 overall, and hands them sole possession of second-place with four conference games left on the schedule.

Coupeville sits two off of Klahowya (5-0, 6-3), while Chimacum (2-3, 4-5) and Port Townsend (0-5, 0-7) round out the race.

The Wolves, who still face an uphill climb to defend their league title, return home Wednesday to face the win-less RedHawks, before trekking back to Chimacum Friday.

Monday afternoon CHS never trailed, but also could never quite pull away from the Cowboys until the third extra inning.

Having seen a 4-1 lead evaporate, and then having exchanged runs with their hosts in a tense ninth inning, the Wolves snatched the momentum for good in the tenth.

Dane Lucero, who was hit-less up to that moment, led off the top of the tenth with a resounding double, then moved to third and came around to score on wild pitches.

With the lead in hand, Wolf hurler Jonathan Thurston slammed the door shut.

After giving up a one-out walk to put the tying run on base, Thurston promptly cut that runner down on a fielder’s choice, hitting shortstop Hunter Smith for the force at second.

He then closed the game by inducing a ground-out, with the throw safely landing in first-baseman Kory Score’s glove.

“Good game, very big win for us in our league standings,” said CHS coach Chris Smith.

The Wolves had jumped out to a 4-1 lead, getting a run in the second, two more in the third and another in the fourth.

The game’s first tally came courtesy Joey Lippo, who laced an RBI single to plate Julian Welling, who had bashed a double.

Welling was right back at it an inning later, this time driving in Taylor Consford and Clay Reilly with his second base-knock of the game.

In the fourth, Matt Hilborn doubled and came around to score on a well-placed single by Consford, Coupeville’s starting pitcher.

Chimacum played catch-up, though, netting a run of its own in the fourth, then knotting things up at 4-4 with two more in the fifth.

Lippo kept the Wolves alive, however, gunning down a runner at the plate while wandering in center field.

It was his second strong throw of the game, coming after he doubled a runner off of first moments after snagging a fly ball in the first inning.

Coupeville had a golden, and somewhat surprising, opportunity to reclaim the lead in the sixth, but it wasn’t to be.

Consecutive two-out singles from Nick Etzell, Hilborn and Hunter Smith juiced the bags, but the Cowboys escaped unscathed when they found an inning-ending strikeout at just the right moment.

Both teams battled scoreless through the sixth, seventh and eighth, then traded runs in the ninth.

After recording his third hit of the day, Hilborn scored for Coupeville on a ground-out off the bat of Reilly, but a crucial error stung the Wolves in the bottom of the inning.

Which merely set the table for Lucero to be a hero and send his squad back to the ferry wearing smiles.

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Complete and utter annihilation!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 20, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   After crunching a pair of doubles in a 19-0 win, Hunter Smith gives lil’ sis Scout, whose softball team won 19-9, a ride. (Charlotte Young photo)

Jonathan Thurston was dealing.

The Coupeville High School senior hurler was flat-out nasty Thursday, shredding a young La Conner squad while his own teammates smacked the crud out of the ball en route to a 19-0 win.

The lopsided non-conference victory lifts the Wolves to 7-6 heading into a key Olympic League showdown Friday at Klahowya.

Wolf coach Chris Smith plopped the ball into his senior’s hand, sat back and enjoyed the show.

“Johnny threw a great game!”

La Conner got its first two hitters on base, thanks to a walk and a single, and then, after that, it was lights out.

Thurston stranded both Brave runners, striking out three in a row to escape the first, then eventually ran his streak to 10 straight hitters retired.

He gave up a one-out single in the fourth, but Coupeville promptly erased the runner when catcher Taylor Consford threw him out trying to steal second.

For the afternoon, Thurston finished with 10 strikeouts, while facing only two batters over the minimum in a game called after five innings thanks to the mercy rule.

And La Conner needed mercy, as Coupeville’s hitting mixed with its own inability to hang on to the ball doomed the Braves.

By the time the Wolves were done, they had rung up 14 hits.

Tack on 13 La Conner errors and the runs were flying across the plate in season-high numbers.

Coupeville plated seven in the first, added three in the second, another four in the third, then coasted home with five in the fourth.

In a game in which eight different Wolves notched at least one hit, Dane Lucero had the hottest bat, rapping out three singles and piling up five RBIs.

Four other CHS sluggers — Hunter Smith, Joey Lippo, Matt Hilborn and Clay Reilly — had two base-knocks apiece, with both of Smith’s being doubles.

Julian Welling, Kory Score and Consford added singles, with Hilborn, Welling and Score notching three RBIs apiece.

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Wolves walk to wild win!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on March 24, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Jonathan Thurston struck out nine in four innings Friday, leaving with a 4-2 lead in what turned into a 14-7 win. (John Fisken photo)

A whole lot of runs, a whole lot of screaming.

Playing on a windy, often very chilly Friday afternoon, the Coupeville High School JV baseball squad took advantage of an endless stream of walks and errors, drilling visiting North Mason 14-7 in their first game of the season.

With the Wolves piling up 16 walks and the Bulldogs committing 10,904 errors (give or take one or two), the game went more than three hours, eventually being called after five innings because of encroaching darkness.

Before the game ended, fans were treated to a solid pitching outing from CHS starter Jonathan Thurston, who whiffed nine and gave up just two unearned runs in four innings of work.

They were also treated to either the world’s most entertaining, or annoying (depending on your pain tolerance) rival player.

We may never know the name of North Mason’s catcher, but his voice, which ripped across the diamond on every single pitch for 180+ minutes — it was like he was channeling a young Ozzy Osbourne working as a baseball announcer when he was in the dugout — will never be forgotten.

Well played, young sir, well played.

The game he was so deeply committed to started with a quick run in the top of the first for North Mason, and it was a run which set a tone for the next 20.

A Bulldog hitter struck out, but reached base when the pitch got loose and bounced off the backstop.

A pick-off throw went wild to move him to second, then a steal of third was capped by the ensuing throw landing deep in left field while the North Mason runner skipped home.

Luckily for Coupeville, while that style of creating runs continued all afternoon, after that it was the Wolves pulling off the creative scoring.

CHS collected two of its four hits in the first — singles from Joey Lippo and Kyle Rockwell — and combined that with four Bulldog errors and two walks to retake the lead 3-1.

The Wolves added another run in the second, off of an RBI single from Lippo, and the game actually played out as a bit of a pitcher’s duel for three-and-a-half innings.

Then, with Coupeville up 4-2 headed into the bottom of the fourth, things got kooky, to the tune of 15 runs in the next inning and a half.

A whopping 12 batters strolled to the plate in the bottom of the fourth, with six different Wolves reaching on a walk.

Add in four North Mason errors — coming on four consecutive plays — and a string of stolen bases, and Coupeville threw six runs on the (non-existent) scoreboard in the inning.

Without once hitting the ball out of the infield.

Up 10-2 with the bases still juiced and just one out, CHS was rolling, but a strikeout and a force at home kept the Wolves from entering 10-run territory.

Still, they were in solid control of the game … until they weren’t.

With Thurston done for the afternoon, Coupeville hit a rough patch in the top of the fifth, suddenly committing the same kind of wild-eyed errors the Bulldogs had been in love with all game.

Taking advantage of throws sailing from the pitcher’s mound into deep right field, and a missed tag here and there, North Mason picked up a five-spot of its own, tightening things back to 10-7.

The Wolves escaped though, after relief pitcher Lippo teamed up with infielder Nick Etzell to pick two straight runners off of second base, ending the threat.

CHS padded the lead out in the bottom half of the inning, and took long enough doing it to run through the remaining daylight.

Freshman Ulrik Wells punched a single to load the bases, before the Wolves plated four more, three on walks to Elliott Johnson, Cameron Dahl and Jonathan Carlson.

For the game, 14 of the 15 Wolves to see action reached base, with Jake Pease getting on four times, thanks to three walks and a Bulldog error.

Jacob Zettle walked three times, Shane Losey turned two errors and a walk into three trips around the base-paths and Gavin Knoblich reached base twice, while spending his “down” time sprinting from the dugout like a madman every time a foul ball landed within 200 feet of him.

James Vidoni, Gavin Straub and Seth Weatherford rounded out the Wolf roster, with Vidoni and Weatherford collecting walks.

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Refs knife Wolves (lightning quick)!!

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , , on October 17, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Teo Keilwitz stormed in from the two-yard line Monday for Coupeville's lone TD in an 18-6 loss. (John Fisken photo)

   Teo Keilwitz stormed in from the two-yard line Monday for Coupeville’s lone TD in an 18-6 loss. (John Fisken photo)

Mother Nature (and the refs) pulled off a fast one Monday night.

With the ball in its hands and more than seven minutes left on the clock, the Coupeville High School JV football squad was planning how to pull out a come-from-behind win over visiting Bellevue Christian.

Then things were taken out of their hands, and the Vikings got to go home early with an 18-6 win.

The game was called because of what seems to be a misinterpretation of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s rule book.

Several lightning flashes were seen in the far distant clouds.

How far distant? Like off-the-Island far away.

Like far enough away the refs hadn’t even noticed, until they were alerted.

At which point they bailed, called the game and (in the case of at least one of them) peeled out of the parking lot in his car.

Except … that’s not what the rule book says.

The WIAA rules state (and let’s highlight the important part):

When thunder is heard, or a cloud to ground lightning bolt is seen, the thunderstorm is close enough to strike your location with lightning.

Suspend play and take shelter immediately.

Once play has been suspended, wait at least 30 minutes after the last thunder is heard or flash of lightning is witnessed prior to resuming play.

Any subsequent thunder or lightning after the beginning of the 30-minute count, reset the clock and another 30-minute count should begin.

So, stop right there.

Was thunder heard? Not in the slightest.

Was a cloud-to-ground lighting bolt seen? Not even close.

A couple of far-off (and I do mean far-off) flashes in the sky, and we’re done, as Bellevue Christian didn’t want to sit out a 30-minute (non-necessary) delay, as they were dead set on catching an early ferry.

Perhaps the same ferry being taken by the refs…

The game itself was a scoreless battle until the final two minutes of the first half, when Coupeville was stung on back-to-back plays.

Taking over at Bellevue’s 30-yard line after a fumble recovery by freshman Sean Toomey-Stout, the Wolves seemed primed to open the scoring.

Unfortunately they had a bad exchange on the first-down hand-off, and the ball bounced right into the hands of a Viking defender who returned it 70 yards for a touchdown.

CHS stiffened on defense, prevented the two-point conversion, then tied the game on the ensuing kickoff, as Toomey-Stout bolted 85 yards down the left sideline.

Except the refs threw a late flag at the tail end of the run, calling a Wolf for a block in the back (despite the fact the “offending” party was in FRONT of the guy he hit) that brought the TD back.

After falling behind 12-0 early in the third (BC ripped off a 79-yard scoring run), Coupeville rallied to cut the lead back to a single score.

They did so by pulling off two precision plays.

Facing fourth and 15 from the 25, Wolf QB Dawson Houston dropped a ball in between two defenders and receiver Jonathan Thurston came back to get it, hauling it in for a 23-yard gain.

Two plays later Teo Keilwitz slammed into the end zone over the right side, knocking down and dragging three defenders with him.

Bellevue pulled off its own fourth-down miracle on the next drive, sliding a short touchdown pass over the middle after nearly being picked off on third down.

With Keilwitz and Andrew Martin running well, and Houston starting to find a groove, Coupeville looked like it still had plenty of fight left, only to have the refs deliver a lightning-quick wedgie.

While his squad fell to 1-3, Wolf JV coach Ryan King was encouraged by a lot of what he saw.

“As a unit we played well with a team that matched up well with us,” he said. “They played their hearts out and definitely worked really well together.”

As the refs ankled for the exit like they had dinner reservations, Bellevue Christian’s team and a chunk of the Coupeville players met at midfield for a BC-led prayer.

I might not be much of a lip-reader, but I’m pretty sure the invocation ended with “and thank you for the lousy refs, Lord, much appreciated.”

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