Riley Lawless and friends sit atop the Northwest 2B/1B League standings. (Jackie Saia photo)
Why run, when you can walk?
Taking full advantage of 14 free passes Thursday, plus five Darrington errors, the Coupeville High School baseball squad kept its early season run of success going with a 6-2 win over the Loggers.
The victory, which came on a chilly, if relatively wind-free prairie, lifts the Wolves to 4-0 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 5-2 overall.
Coupeville will cap a busy week Saturday with its fourth game in a six-day period, hosting non-conference foe East Jefferson.
First pitch is set for 2:30 PM, and the baseball action will be accompanied by a Coupeville vs. Cancer fundraiser, with proceeds going to WhidbeyHealth.
Thursday’s win, which gives CHS a season sweep of Darrington, featured a stellar pitching performance from sophomore hurler Carson Grove, who set down 13 Loggers on strikes across six innings of work.
Tack on a scoreless seventh from relief ace Trent Thule, and the visitors had few scoring opportunities.
Though, to be fair, the Loggers did score first, pushing across a run in the top of the second thanks to a single, a stolen base, and a passed ball.
Coupeville had its chances to get out in front big in the early going, only to see Darrington escape each time.
The Wolves loaded the bags in the first with no outs, only to strand all three runners, then came away with just a single tally in the second despite once again cramming the basepaths full.
Grove scored the tying run after reaching on an error, but a groundout back to the pitcher with the bases juiced ended things prematurely.
Not to worry, as Darrington’s pitching staff couldn’t keep the ball in the strike zone and kept giving Coupeville opportunities until the Wolves finally hit pay dirt.
A three-run third inning proved to be the difference, with walks to Coop Cooper, Aiden O’Neill, Grove, and Chris Zenz setting the table, and a Leo Rodriguez single cracking things open.
Up 4-1, Grove gave one run back in the fourth, before reverting into shut-down mode the rest of the way.
Coupeville closed out the top of the sixth with a slick double play, the ball going from Cooper to Grove to Glover, then tacked on two insurance runs in the bottom half of the frame.
Malachi Somes provided one of Coupeville’s two hits to start things up, but again it was a familiar story of Wolf walks and Logger errors.
With their softball counterparts in the stands for the seventh inning, the Darrington hardball hitters had hopes of a comeback, but it wasn’t to be.
Glover made a strong play to start the inning, charging in from shortstop to snag a bouncer and gun down the runner, and Thule slammed the door shut to move Coupeville back into a first-place tie atop the NWL standings with Mount Vernon Christian.
Thursday stats:
Coop Cooper — Two walks
Camden Glover — Two walks
Carson Grove — Two walks
Riley Lawless — One walk
Aiden O’Neill — Two walks
Leo Rodriguez — One single, two walks
Malachi Somes — One single
Trent Thule — Two walks
Chris Zenz — One walk
Coupeville Sports 