Julian Welling had two hits and two RBI in an 8-0 Coupeville win Friday. (John Fisken photo)
CJ Smith had a new target Friday, but came through with the same old results.
Throwing to younger brother Hunter Smith instead of normal starting catcher Cole Payne, who was out with an injury, the Coupeville High School senior hurler tossed a four-hit, six-strikeout, complete-game shutout in La Conner.
The 8-0 non-conference baseball win was the second victory in the last three games for the Wolves and raised their record to 4-6 at the halfway point of the regular season.
While the Coupeville offense kicked in hard during the latter stages of the game, providing him with some breathing room, CJ Smith didn’t really need it.
Pitching on girlfriend Sylvia Hurlburt’s birthday, he retired 16 of the final 17 hitters he faced.
After letting La Conner get a pair of base runners in both the first and second, CJ Smith recorded the final out of the second inning on a come-backer.
From that point on he was all but flawless, giving up just an infield single in the fifth, while retiring the side in order in the third, fourth, sixth and seventh innings.
With Payne sidelined by a shoulder injury suffered in practice, Hunter Smith swapped out his infielder’s glove for a catcher’s mitt and matched his big bro in playing flawlessly.
He pounced on a little nubber that hit in front of the plate and skipped to the side, snaring the ball and whipping a throw to Kory Score at first in one fluid motion to kick off the third, bringing an ooh or two from an overflow Wolf fan section.
Proving they travel better than any other school, Coupeville hardball fanatics outnumbered La Conner’s hometown fans, and they got some bang for their buck early.
CJ Smith and Julian Welling crunched back-to-back one-out doubles in the top of the first, giving the Wolves the only run they would need on the day.
The Braves soft-tossing lefty starter managed to escape after that, though, and kept a pitcher’s duel going until the fourth inning, when Coupeville pounced on La Conner errors to tack on a second run.
Score led off with a hard shot down the third-base line that the Braves fielder juggled for an error, before Clay Reilly was nailed with an errant pitch and Dane Lucero laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners to second and third.
Wolf freshman Matt Hilborn then rapped a one-hopper into the hole at short for a fielder’s choice that plated Score.
Up 2-0, and even though he didn’t need it, Coupeville decided to bestow presents upon CJ Smith, breaking the game open with two more runs in the fifth and four in the sixth.
Joey Lippo lofted a pinpoint single to center to kick off the fifth, eventually coming around to score on a throwing error several batters later.
Welling slapped an RBI single up the middle to cap the inning, before the Wolves really went wild in the sixth.
A single from Lucero, a gorgeous drag bunt for a hit from Hilborn and an error that put Gabe Wynn on first juiced the bags with no outs.
After that, it was wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am, as Cameron Toomey-Stout lofted a sac fly to plate Lucero, Hunter Smith lashed an RBI single to send Hilborn home and CJ Smith knocked in Wynn and his brother with a two-run double to right.
Coupeville closed the game in style, with the Smith brothers working in tandem to wrap the seventh.
Hunter Smith tracked down an errant pop up behind home, before CJ Smith collected his final K, punching out the Brave hitter with some nasty heat.
The final out?
Poetic, as it was a slow chopper back to the mound, giving CJ plenty of time to pocket the ball, turn and lob it to Score before strolling off the field and out to a birthday dinner with the patiently waiting Hurlburt.
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