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Posts Tagged ‘pitcher’s duel’

Maynes marvelous, Granite (almost) untouchable

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on April 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Wolf 8th grader Adeline Maynes delivered a stellar pitching performance Saturday. (Jackie Saia photo)

Adeline Maynes was ferocious Saturday, but Bella Frye was just a little better.

The Coupeville 8th grader struck out a varsity career-high 12 batters on the road in Granite Falls, but her junior rival came within one swing of a perfect game, leading the host Tigers to a 2-0 win on the softball diamond.

The non-conference loss, coming against a former league rival, drops the Wolves to 8-4 heading into a busy week.

CHS, coming off of back-to-back tough tangles with strong 1A teams, makes a bid to reclaim its Northwest 2B/1B League crown next week.

The Wolves, who are 5-0 in conference play, travel to Darrington Monday, then host Orcas Island Tuesday, Concrete Thursday, and Darrington Saturday.

Playing up against stellar competition in its non-conference games can only help a young Coupeville squad which starts three 8th graders and two freshmen.

Maynes may not be taking high school classes yet, but she more than held her own Saturday.

Striking out batters in all six innings she threw, the young gun finished hot, whiffing back-to-back hitters with runners at second and third to end Granite’s chances in its final frame.

The Tigers pushed across one run in that bottom of the sixth, thanks to two well-placed singles, but could get no more.

That gave Frye a little padding, as she had carried a 1-0 lead since the first inning.

The game’s first run came thanks to a two-out blow to left field from (who else?) Granite’s hurler, which curled away from the fielder, then got a nice bounce when it touched down.

Running full-tilt, Frye beat the incoming throw to give herself the only run she would end up needing.

Coupeville got out of the first inning thanks to catcher Teagan Calkins gunning down a would-be base stealer, her throw nailing the runner by several steps.

Between that first run, and the one which came across in the sixth, the two pitchers were lights out, with not a single walk issued, and almost every ball in play immediately snuffed out by defenders.

Frye, who struck out five Wolves, went through Coupeville’s lineup twice, retiring the first 18 batters she faced.

The spell finally broke when CHS leadoff hitter Haylee Armstrong scorched a single to center to start the seventh.

The fab frosh got all the way to third base, but that was it as Granite Fall’s ace ended the game with three consecutive groundouts.

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A hit, a hit, my kingdom for a hit

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on March 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Jonathan Valenzuela drops straight heat. (Morgan White photo)

For one batter, the hit attack was ready to go.

And then it ended.

Unable to get a second hit after leadoff batter Scott Hilborn whacked a first inning single Saturday, the Coupeville High School varsity baseball squad lost a pitcher’s duel, falling 2-1 to visiting Forks.

The non-conference loss drops the Wolves to 3-2 heading into the first of three regular season clashes with Northwest 2B/1B League arch-rival Friday Harbor.

The first meeting between the conference heavyweights goes down this Tuesday, Mar. 28, with Coupeville having to endure a long bus and ferry ride to get to the game.

When they meet the Wolverines, CHS will strive to have its bats beating out a merry tune on the incoming baseball.

That wasn’t the case Saturday, as Forks hurlers Ryan Rancourt and Gunner Rogers combined to throw a one-hitter, making life tough on the Wolves.

Coupeville did eke out six walks, including one batter who was bonked with a wayward pitch, but it couldn’t push across more than one run.

That lone tally came in the bottom of the third, when Hilborn walked, stole second and third, then scrambled home on an error to knot the game at 1-1.

Forks had struck first, pushing across a run thanks to a two-out RBI double from Walker Wheeler in the top of the second inning.

With the game tied at 1-1, the two teams struggled to break free of the tyranny imposed by the pitchers.

While Rancourt and Rogers were on point for Forks, Coupeville got equally strong work from its chuckers — Hilborn and fellow senior Jonathan Valenzuela.

The Wolf duo combined to strike out eight Spartans and held the game close until Forks used a well-timed hit and some alert base-running in the sixth inning to create the game-busting run.

Coupeville put two runners aboard in the fourth, thanks to Cole White and Jack Porter walks, and had the tying run at first in the seventh, represented by freshman Aiden O’Neill.

Both times, however, the Wolves were left wanting, unable to get a hit and prolong the game.

Hilborn finished with his team’s lone base knock, walked twice, and stole four bases, while Chase Anderson, White, Porter, and O’Neill also walked.

Peyton Caveness, Valenzuela, Coop Cooper, Landon Roberts, and Seth Woollet also saw game time for Steve Hilborn’s squad.

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Wolves blank Hurricanes

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on March 29, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Peyton Caveness cracked two hits Tuesday as Coupeville beat Mount Vernon Christian. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Same stats, different results.

Coupeville and Mount Vernon Christian each racked up four hits and three walks Tuesday, but the Wolves took full advantage of their opportunities, while preventing the Hurricanes from doing the same.

That was enough to lift Coupeville’s varsity baseball squad to a 3-0 win on its home diamond, kicking off a busy week of Northwest 2B/1B League action.

The victory lifts the Wolves to 2-0 in conference play, 3-3 overall, with another NWL bout set for Wednesday at home against Darrington.

CHS wraps the week with a doubleheader Friday on the road at defending league champ Friday Harbor.

Tuesday’s tilt was a pitcher’s duel, with the wham-bam combo of Wolf hurlers Cody Roberts and Scott Hilborn combining to whiff 12 Hurricanes.

“Scott and Cody pitched awesome!” said Coupeville coach Will Thayer.

After escaping a big-time jam in the top of the first, Roberts was largely lights out, putting up 10 K’s.

Cody Roberts brings the heat.

The senior righty had the bags full after giving up a pair of singles and a walk, but brought the hammer down with a vengeance, ending the danger with his third punch-out of the frame.

After that, the best Mount Vernon Christian could do was put just a single runner aboard in a given inning, with Roberts and Hilborn stranding every Hurricane who (momentarily) breached their defense.

Coupeville pushed across one runner in the bottom of the second, and two more in the third to claim an advantage it would not surrender.

Xavier Murdy was plunked by a pitch to set up the game’s first run.

After moving to second on a ground-out, X-Man stole third, before scampering home when a third strike — which would have ended the inning — was dropped.

In the third, Wolf 8th grader Chase Anderson whacked a single and Jonathan Valenzuela walked, with the former coming around to tap home on a Hilborn groundout, and the latter scoring on an RBI single from Peyton Caveness.

Coupeville had a couple of other chances, most noticeably in the fourth inning when it had two runners on base, but MVC’s pitching staff held the Wolves at bay.

Not that it mattered much as solid teamwide defense and crackling fastballs from their pitchers helped the Wolves close things out.

Caveness paced CHS with a pair of hits, Anderson and Jack Porter added base-knocks, and Valenzuela (2) and Murdy (1) accounted for Coupeville’s walks.

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Power outage on the prairie!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Shortstop CJ Smith and the Wolf defense played flawless ball behind Ben Etzell Monday. They just couldn't score any runs for him. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

 Shortstop CJ Smith and the Wolf defense played flawless ball behind Ben Etzell Monday. They just couldn’t score any runs for him. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Ben Etzell was nearly flawless Monday, but still lost.

Despite retiring the final 17 batters he faced, eight on strikeouts and the final one on a wild popup he chased face-first into the fence to snag, the Coupeville High School senior hurler was let down by his offense.

When the Wolves stranded the tying run at third in the bottom of the seventh, all Etzell could do was take his mitt and move on to the next battle.

The 1-0 loss to visiting Granite Falls meant his squad had scored a grand total of one run in his last three starts.

The loss hurt Coupeville’s pursuit of South Whidbey for the #1 seed among 1A schools in the 1A/2A Cascade Conference.

The Wolves are 5-7 in league play, 6-7 overall, while the Falcons, who upset Archbishop Thomas Murphy 1-0 Monday, are 8-5 in the conference and have opened a 2.5 game lead.

Coupeville has six to play (two more against Granite, a makeup game against Lakewood and three against Sultan) and own the tiebreaker, having taken two of three against South Whidbey to open the season.

But if they have any hopes of playing catch-up, they will have to find a consistent offensive flow.

With back-to-back wins over 2A Lakewood, it looked like they had. And they did hit the ball Monday, but just right at defenders with waiting mitts almost every single time.

Coupeville didn’t get its first base-runner until #9 hitter Josh Bayne whacked a two-out single to left center in the third inning.

After that, all they could muster until the seventh was a Kurtis Smith single, and he, like Bayne, was stranded at first.

With the stands filling up a bit in the seventh with the arrival of CHS softball players whose practice across the street had just ended, the Wolves seemed set to pull-out a comeback win.

“Do you smell that? I smell a rally!!,” bellowed center-fielder Wade Schaef, and Coupeville immediately responded.

Aaron Trumbull led off by crushing a pitch into the wind in right field that the Granite outfielder misplayed, then skipped in to second while the Tigers tried to track down the loose ball.

But it wasn’t to be, as Aaron Curtin, still battling a shoulder injury, was unable to get a bunt down to advance Trumbull.

Korbin Korzan hit into a fielder’s choice to move the runner up, but with two outs, sophomore Cole Payne went down on strikes to end Coupeville’s lone threat of the afternoon.

Granite got the only run it turned out to need without hitting the ball out of the infield in the first.

The Tiger lead-off hitter beat out a slow chopper to short, then Etzell plunked a batter.

With catcher Jake Tumblin’s throwing hand bandaged after a recent injury, he and Etzell got crossed up on how many fingers were being shown and what pitch was called, and a passed ball moved the runners up.

With the infield back, a fielder’s choice to shortstop plated what, at the time, seemed like an insignificant run.

After that it was lights out for Etzell, who surrendered a bloop single to right in the second, then went off on his run, going one batter shy of two complete runs through the Granite lineup.

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This game had everything … but a win

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , on April 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Ben Etzell (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Ben Etzell whiffed 15 Cedarcrest batters Monday. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

If there weren’t children reading this blog, this is where we would put the profanity…

On an absolutely perfect day for baseball on the prairie Monday, with sun, blue skies, no wind — real shirt sleeves, almost feel like it’s July kind of weather — the Coupeville High School baseball team came 99.9% of the way to grabbing a season-defining win.

But it didn’t.

Ben Etzell was all kinds of nasty on the mound, striking out 15 Cedarcrest batters over eight super-sized innings, but his team’s inability to put together an offensive charge of their own left him high and dry, sitting on the bench in the ninth, only able to watch as the Wolves fell 1-0.

The extra-innings loss, coming at the hands of the biggest 2A school in the Cascade Conference, was Coupeville’s fourth straight.

After jumping out to a 3-1 start to the season, the 1A Wolves (now 3-5 overall, 2-5 in league play) have gone deadly cold at the plate against the league’s top two 2A teams.

Coupeville garnered just one run in a three-game sweep by Archbishop Thomas Murphy, and were shutout for the third straight game Monday.

The Wolves had a beautiful chance in the bottom of the sixth to break the scoreless streak and give Etzell the lead heading out to win the game in the 7th.

Morgan Payne led off with a long single to left, the team’s first hit since an Aaron Trumbull single in the second. Unfortunately, he was quickly picked off.

Undaunted, Coupeville juiced the bags on a single from Wade Schaef, having Etzell plunked (the second of three times the senior was nailed by a pitch at the plate) and then getting an infield single from Jake Tumblin, whose speed flustered Cedarcrest’s shortstop into making a hurried throw.

It wasn’t to be, however, as the visitors went to the bullpen and their reliever went all Mariano Rivera on the Wolves, whiffing Trumbull and Aaron Curtin with straight heat.

The two teams kept the scoreless tango going through the regulation seven innings and on into extra time.

Tumblin gunned down a Cedarcrest runner at second in the eighth, off of a pitch-out craftily called by CHS coach Willie Smith.

The Red Wolves responded right back, with their center-fielder, who had been limping, chasing down a moon ball launched by Tumblin in the bottom half of the inning.

Seriously favoring one leg afterwards, he was removed by his coach and dragged his leg into the dugout, slamming his mitt off the bench as his teammates and fans cheered his gutsy play.

In a game where one play was all it was going to take to win, Cedarcrest finally found the right combo in the top of the ninth.

With Etzell having been pulled after tossing close to 120 pitches, Schaef came on in relief. After a walk and a strikeout, he gave up a booming double to Cedarcrest’s #9 hitter, then a sac fly to straight-away center for the game’s only run.

Coupeville had one final shot at redemption in the ninth.

Curtin led off by smashing a shot to the wall in left, but the Cedarcrest outfielder made a spectacular diving, rolling catch for the out.

Maybe.

Since his back was to the field when he went down, it was hard to tell if he really caught it or merely trapped it, and when he raised the ball, it was in his OTHER HAND, not his glove hand.

Did he flip it from glove to throwing hand, or pick it up off the ground?

The second base ump stayed firm to his call that it was a catch, while the crowd, spurred on by rabid super fan Brian Norris, booed lustily while Willie Smith had an animated chat with the home plate ump.

Down to their final out, the Wolves got a spark from sophomore Cole Payne, who whacked a hit to right and scooted to second when the ball went between the fielder’s legs.

With the tying run at second, Kurtis Smith spanked a hard chopper off the infield dirt and came within a step of beating the throw to keep the game alive.

Cedarcrest’s first baseman was just long enough to outstretch the speedy Wolf senior, however, the ball disappearing into his mitt a fraction of a heartbeat before Smith’s foot hit the bag.

Coupeville travels to Duvall Wednesday for a rematch, then welcomes Cedarcrest back to Whidbey Friday. After that, the league opponents left on the schedule start getting easier.

If nothing else, Etzell’s performance will go down as one of the better ones seen on the CHS diamond.

He recorded his first six outs via the strikeout and whiffed at least one batter in each of his eight innings. Willie Smith couldn’t say off the top of his head whether the 15 K’s were a school record, but they are certainly the most in recent memory.

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