Nick Etzell rapped out four hits at a weekend baseball tourney. (John Fisken photo)
Ignore the record and focus on the lessons learned.
That was the mantra for the Coupeville High School baseball squad after it absorbed four losses in as many games at a three-day tourney in Anacortes.
“It’s not a weekend we are going to brag about, but we put together a team and now we need to learn to play together and work as a team,” said CHS coach Chris Smith.
“We had a very good chance to win three of our four games and unfortunately we lacked the mental maturity and toughness to do so under less than ideal situations.”
Coupeville had to fight through player availability issues and injuries to field a squad.
“We had a lot to work around this weekend,” Smith said. “There were some big challenges and overall as a team we just couldn’t quite overcome them to pull off a W.”
The Wolves were one-runned in two of their games, being nipped 6-5 by Oak Harbor and 2-1 by host Anacortes.
CHS also fell 16-7 to Meridian after having the early lead and 20-2 to Lake Stevens.
While scrambling to get enough bodies, Smith also had to juggle those he had, with several players in new spots.
“As a coach I had the opportunity to see a number of guys in different positions, which was very helpful for me,” Smith said.
He praised the play of outfielder Kyle Rockwell and catcher Gavin Knoblich, as well as the hot bat of Nick Etzell, who delivered “some offensive firepower that apparently he has been waiting to unleash all year.”
Hunter Smith ripped five hits, including a pair of doubles, to pace the Wolf attack.
Etzell (four hits), Matt Hilborn (3), Jake Pease (3), Jake Hoagland (2) and Jonathan Thurston (2) had multiple hits, while Taylor Consford, Joey Lippo and Jacob Zettle chipped in with a base-knock apiece.
Consford and Hoagland had triples, while Lippo’s hit was a resounding double.
“Overall, we have got to keep learning, we have got to keep working to get better and we have to form into a cohesive unit if we want to do well as a team,” Chris Smith said.
Coupeville returns to action at a tourney in Gray’s Harbor June 30-July 3.
