Strong all-around game results in Coupeville win / Baseball

Published 1:30 am Monday, April 3, 2017

Combining an opportunistic offense and an errorless defense with a strong pitching performance, the Coupeville High School baseball team won 9-1 at Port Townsend Friday, March 31.

The Wolves won in coach Chris Smith’s debut. Smith took over for Marc Aparicio, who had to step down because of conflicts with work.

Coupeville took advantage of eight Redhawk (0-2, 0-4) errors, mixing the miscues with nine hits.

Sophomore pitcher Dane Lucero fired a three-hitter, facing the minimum through the first four innings.

Coupeville jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Taylor Consford led off with a walk and scored on an error off the bat of Joey Lippo. Lippo eventually scored on a passed ball.

The Wolves added three runs in the second. Singles by Jake Hoagland and Matt Hilborn and couple of PT errors led to two runs, then Julian Welling singled in another.

In the third with two outs, Hilborn reached on an error and scored on Consford’s triple.

Two errors and Lucero’s single resulted in a run in the sixth.

In the seventh, two errors and Hilborn’s single tallied the final two runs.

Consford, Welling, Hoagland and Hilborn each finished with two hits; Lucero added a single.

Lucero was efficient on the mound, using only 84 pitches to get through seven innings.

He collected six strikeouts — including three in the seventh — and had just one fly-ball out.

“Good, clean baseball game,” Smith said.

Coupeville (1-1, 5-3) hosts unbeaten Friday Harbor (6-0) in a non-league game at 2 p.m. Monday, April 3.