The celebration was on after Jake Tumblin (far left in batting helmet) smacked a home run Friday afternoon. (Shelli Trumbull photos)
CJ Smith brings the heat.
Wolves (l to r) Tumblin, Willie Smith, CJ Smith and Ben Etzell confer on the mound.
Eight teams came to the 1A Northwest District baseball playoffs, and the only two still standing undefeated heading into Saturday are the pride of Whidbey.
With Coupeville thunking Lynden Christian 5-2 Friday and South Whidbey slipping past Friday Harbor 4-3, the district title game will be an all-Island affair, only played on the road at Kamiak High School.
The Falcons (14-7) and Wolves (12-9) will face off at 12 PM Saturday, and the winner clinches a berth to state.
South Whidbey will be the home team, but Coupeville has an emotional edge, having taken two of three from their arch-rivals to open the season.
Win or lose, both teams advance to tri-districts Saturday, May 17 at Sehome High School.
The district champ will face the winner from district 3 in the tri-district title game, while the runner-up will have two shots to win one game to advance to state.
Surging at the right time — having won eight of its last 11 games — Coupeville stormed past Lynden Christian, the #1 seed in the district tourney, with ease.
The Wolves did it riding the booming bat of senior catcher Jake Tumblin and the fireball-throwing arm of sophomore CJ Smith.
Tumblin, echoing the glory days when he helped lead Central Whidbey to a state little league title as an eighth grader, thumped three hits, including a home run to left, scored twice, stole two bases and knocked in a pair of runs.
“Heck of a game for the young man!” said Coupeville coach Willie Smith.
The Wolves actually got their runs multiple ways, using smart base-running and a couple of Lync mistakes to tack on scores around Tumblin’s solo shot and his later RBI single that plated Wade Schaef.
Korbin Korzan scampered home in the second inning when Lynden Christian’s second baseman ran into the umpire while trying to field a bunt by CJ Smith.
Ben Etzell also took advantage of what the Lyncs offered.
The Wolf senior walked, stole second, took third on a wild pitch, then came across to score on another wild pitch.
Coupeville capped its scoring with an RBI single from Kurtis Smith.
With run support to play with, CJ Smith induced a string of inning-ending ground-balls and stayed one step ahead of the Lync hitters all afternoon. He whiffed three and benefited greatly from opportunistic defensive plays by his teammates.
Kurtis Smith gunned down a runner at third by a solid five feet, while Etzell made a running catch on a pop up in foul territory while on a dead sprint.
“That’s kind of the way it went for CJ,” Willie Smith said. “Pitching in and around trouble all day, but never being touched by it.”
Lynden Christian loaded the bags in the bottom of the seventh, but Etzell, Coupeville’s #1 pitcher, came in to get the final out — in poetic fashion it was a bouncer to CJ Smith, who had moved back to second.
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