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“Time to dig deep”

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on May 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Chelsi Stevens dreams of big hits. (Aleksia Jump photo)

It was a little taste of their own medicine.

A Coupeville High School softball squad which has inflicted the 10-run mercy rule on 13 of its first 17 opponents had the tables flipped by Klahowya Tuesday afternoon.

In a rematch of former Olympic League rivals, the red-hot Wolves were largely stifled by Eagles hurler Bailey O’Brien, falling 12-2 in five innings while playing in Silverdale.

The non-conference loss snaps a five-game winning streak for The Smash Sisters, dropping them to 16-2 on the season.

Coupeville will have one more tune-up before heading to the district tourney, travelling to Port Townsend Friday to play East Jefferson, a team it routed 21-3 during the first week of April.

There was supposed to also be a trip to Langley Wednesday to play South Whidbey, but the Falcons bailed at the last second, perhaps still in shock after being routed 17-1 by the Wolves a week-and-a-half ago.

While he wasn’t thrilled with his team’s performance, CHS coach Aaron Lucero had scheduled the game with Klahowya, a 1A school whose 9-11 record is a bit deceiving, intent on getting a challenge.

And like with Forks, the only other team to knock off the Wolves, and 3A Oak Harbor, which gave Coupeville an early-season extra-inning battle, mission accomplished.

“I think this is good for them in the long run to face a quality team,” Lucero said. “I have been telling them for a couple of weeks that Klahowya’s record does not tell the story.

“They are playing some very tough teams and getting very close. And talking with their coaches, that’s exactly how their season’s been.”

Tuesday’s tilt started as a nailbiter and remained close for 92% of the game.

Coupeville pushed a run across in the top of the first thanks to back-to-back base knocks from Teagan Calkins and Chelsi Stevens, before Klahowya answered back with a tally of its own in the bottom of the frame.

The game started to change in the second, however, when Eagle slugger Shyanne Kilmer bashed a two-run home run to right — the first of two taters for her on the afternoon — pushing the host team ahead 3-1.

CHS sliced the deficit to 3-2 on an RBI double off of Calkin’s always-electric bat in the third, but left runners stranded at second and third, unable to open their customary can of whup-ass.

Coupeville is deadly down its lineup from one through nine, but O’Brien whiffed 11 and walked just one Tuesday, and Klahowya never trailed again.

A run in the third made it 4-2, two more in the fourth stretched it to 6-2, and then a six-run rally in the fifth turned a close game into a romp.

For his part Lucero is already ready to get back at it, first with a couple of days of practice, then the regular season finale.

“We did not play the ball we are capable of,” he said. “We didn’t get the timely hits, and we did not play well defensively to back up our pitcher.

“I think this was a good gut check game for the team and definitely needed. Soooo, time to dig deep, get our minds right, and get ready to play the next game.”

 

Tuesday stats:

Haylee Armstrong — Two singles
Teagan Calkins — One single, one double
Chelsi Stevens — One single
Cami Van Dyke — One walk

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Wolves rally, Vikings escape

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Trent Thule gets his bench riled up. (Jackie Saia photo)

The Wolves dug themselves a hole, twice, yet almost made it all the way back.

Unfortunately for the Coupeville High School baseball squad, a late rally fell just short for the second straight game, with Steve Hilborn’s team nipped 14-11 Monday afternoon on Orcas Island.

The loss drops CHS to 7-2 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 9-6 overall, with a rematch against the Vikings set for Wednesday in Cow Town.

With three conference clashes left to play, the Wolves sit in second place in the NWL, a game-and-a-half back of Mount Vernon Christian (8-0) and a game-and-a-half up on Orcas (6-4).

Monday’s royal rumble was a fairly close affair, with Coupeville winning the hit battle 8-5, Orcas edging the Wolves 14-12 in drawing walks, and both teams committing three errors apiece.

But the Vikings spent most of the day out in front on the scoreboard, forcing their visitors to play catch-up.

Carson Grove got CHS on the board first in the top of the first, sacrificing his body by being plunked by a pitch before coming around to score on an RBI single to left off the bat of Chase Anderson.

Orcas responded quickly, however, plating four runs in the bottom half of the opening frame, before pushing across three more in the second to take a commanding 7-1 lead.

Coupeville’s pitchers clamped down after that, tossing three consecutive scoreless innings, while the offense chipped away at the deficit.

Chris Zenz (left) and Chase Anderson combined to smack four hits on Orcas Island Monday. (Julie Wheat photo)

Anderson, having reached base on catcher’s interference in the third, scored on a passed ball, while Leo Rodriguez zipped for the plate in the fourth thanks to an Orcas error.

The Wolves sliced the margin to 7-5 in the fifth, capitalizing on big hits from Anderson and Riley Lawless, but then things went wrong in the bottom of the sixth.

Using a string of walks and two well-placed hits, the Vikings suddenly relit the pilot light on their offense, scoring seven runs to turn a tense tilt into a potential blowout at 14-5.

CHS was not ready to go down easily, though, and launched its own run-scoring barrage while facing its final at-bats in the top of the seventh.

Anderson smacked a leadoff double, followed by four walks — with Aiden O’Neill and Coop Cooper being drilled — before Chris Zenz and Rodriguez popped back-to-back RBI singles to pull Coupeville within 14-9.

The Wolves weren’t done, forcing home two more runs thanks to bases-loaded walks to Grove and Anderson, and had the bases juiced with just one out.

Orcas needed a hero to stop the bleeding and found it, though, with Joe Stephens coming out of the bullpen to whiff both of the batters he faced, ending Coupeville’s rally a few runs short of a complete celebration.

Four pitchers combined to toss six innings for CHS, with Anderson, Cooper, Glover, and Grove sharing mound duties.

Cooper emerged as top dog, whiffing eight Vikings across 4.1 frames.

 

Monday stats:

Chase Anderson — Two singles, one double, one walk
Coop Cooper — One single, two walks
Camden Glover — One single, one walk
Carson Grove — Two walks
Riley Lawless — One single
Aiden O’Neill — One walk
Leo Rodriguez — One single, two walks
Malachi Somes — One walk
Trent Thule — Two walks
Chris Zenz — One single

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Long trip, rough day

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Trent Thule whiffed four while pitching in Forks Saturday afternoon. (Melanie Wolfe photo)

Some days very little seems to work.

That was sort of the feeling Saturday as the Coupeville High School baseball squad struggled in all aspects of the game far away from home, absorbing its most lopsided loss of the season.

Falling 12-2 to non-conference foe Forks in a game mercy-ruled after five innings, the Wolves drop to 7-4 but will quickly turn their attention back to more pressing matters.

Steve Hilborn’s squad returns to action with Northwest 2B/1B League clashes against Concrete next Tuesday and Thursday, as they chase a conference crown.

When it squares off with the Lions, Coupeville will look to put Saturday’s performance in the rear-view mirror and not dwell on a day when its defensive errors (7) outnumbered its hits (2) and walks (2) combined.

CHS actually got on the board first in Forks, with Carson Grove using nimble base-running to slap a run on the board in the top of the first.

After reaching on a fielder’s choice, the Wolf sophomore stole second, skittered to third on an error by the Forks catcher, then scooted home on a wild pitch.

The Spartans responded almost immediately, pushing two runs across in the bottom half of the frame, before Coupeville briefly knotted things up at 2-2 in the top of the second.

Senior speed demon Aiden O’Neill led off the inning by belting a triple to left field, before later bolting for home on yet another wild pitch.

Unfortunately for Coupeville, that was about it for offense as the Wolves only got two more runners aboard across the game’s final three-plus innings, with both runners being left stranded.

Forks blew the game wide open in the bottom half of the second, piling on seven runs thanks to a motley mix of walks and CHS errors, before tacking on three more in the fifth to bring an early end to things.

Young Wolf pitchers Trent Thule (4) and Carson Grove (2) combined to rack up six strikeouts in the game, partially balancing things.

 

Saturday stats:

Coop Cooper — One single
Carson Grove — One walk
Aiden O’Neill — One triple
Leo Rodriguez — One walk

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CHS netters swat Rivals

Posted in Girls Tennis, tagged , , , , on April 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Tenley Stuurmans rolled to a straight sets win Monday afternoon. (Jackie Saia photos)

They flipped the script.

Garnering a bit of revenge, the Coupeville High School girls’ tennis team nipped host East Jefferson 3-2 Monday in Port Townsend to split the season series with their non-conference foes.

The victory, a reversal of a season-opening 3-2 loss to the Rivals, lifts the Wolves to 2-1 on the season, with a home match against Granite Falls set for Friday.

This time out, CHS swept the singles matches, while also collecting a win at #1 doubles to stay ahead of a team that is a mash-up of Chimacum and Port Townsend players.

The match was a tight one, however, with that doubles victory coming down to a third-set tiebreaker for Dahlia Miller and Aleksia Jump.

 

Monday’s results:

 

Varsity:

1st Singles — Tenley Stuurmans won 6-0, 6-0

2nd Singles — Milana Light won 6-3, 6-3

1st Doubles — Dahlia Miller/Aleksia Jump won 6-4, 4-6, 10-3

2nd Doubles — Kauri Hamilton/Jovanah Villagomez lost 7-5, 6-3

3rd Doubles — Hailey Goldman/Hazel Goldman lost 6-2, 6-0

 

JV:

4th Doubles — Rowan Stoner/Lakshmi Erickson won 5-1

5th Doubles — Miles Gerber/Savannah Coxsey lost 5-1

6th Doubles — Jade Peabody/Annabelle Cundiff lost 5-0

7th Doubles — Natalie Driscoll/Joanna Hagen lost 5-1

Jovanah Villagomez makes sure her shoes don’t run away.

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Rivals edge Wolves in close contest

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on March 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Chris Zenz rapped an RBI single Monday afternoon. (Jackie Saia photo)

They were a hit or two away.

The Coupeville High School baseball squad put 14 runners aboard Monday in Port Townsend but couldn’t get enough of them home in what became a 7-5 loss to East Jefferson.

The non-conference defeat, which kicks off a week in which the Wolves are slated to play four games in six days, drops CHS to 3-2 on the season.

Coupeville gets right back at it Tuesday with a trip to Darrington for a Northwest 2B/1B League clash, before hosting Darrington Thursday and East Jefferson Saturday in a rematch which will feature a cancer fundraiser.

Monday’s tilt started in favor of the hosts, who are a mash-up of Chimacum and Port Townsend, before the Wolves made things interesting in the middle of the game.

East Jefferson pushed two runners across in the bottom of the first, then tacked on another tally in the second, while Coupeville struggled to get its offense going.

The Wolves wiped away a somewhat sluggish start by showcasing a solid knowledge of the strike zone in the top of the third. And a willingness to embrace the pain.

Three consecutive walks, with Leo Rodriguez and Chase Anderson getting plunked, loaded the bases, with Camden Glover lofting an RBI sac fly to left to get his team on the board.

While East Jefferson escaped after that, the Wolves put together their best offensive surge in the fourth, plating three runners to retake the lead at 4-3.

Walks were again key, but a Chris Zenz RBI single — Coupeville’s first hit on the afternoon — was big.

In a recurring theme, though, the Wolves left runners on base, as they frequently came close to breaking things wide open, only to come up just short.

East Jefferson, which outhit CHS 10-3, put together its own three-run rally in the bottom of the fourth, reclaiming the advantage at 6-4.

This time, the Rivals didn’t give the lead back.

The teams traded runs to make it 7-5, with Coupeville scoring in the bottom of the sixth thanks to doubles from Anderson and Glover, but the Wolves were unable to get all the way back a second time.

CHS coach Steve Hilborn used three pitchers in the game, with Coop Cooper, Carson Grove, and Trent Thule combining to record nine strikeouts across six innings.

Thule, who also picked up four walks as a hitter, came on to throw the final two frames, topping the Wolf hurlers with four K’s.

Coupeville’s defense played strongly behind the mound trio, as well, playing error-free ball.

 

Monday stats:

Chase Anderson — One double, one walk
Coop Cooper — One walk
Camden Glover — One double
Carson Grove — One walk
Aiden O’Neill — Two walks
Leo Rodriguez — One walk
Trent Thule — Four walks
Chris Zenz — One single

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