Kaleb Otis fired a complete game four-hitter with seven strikeouts and helped his cause with two runs scored, Angus Poprycz lined a pair of base hits and drove in a run, and Emmitt Alvord delivered a key tally with a sharp grounder as the La Conner Braves edged league rival Coupeville 3-2 at home last Thursday.
“That was real baseball,” an elated La Conner coach Preston Stewart said after the April 16 game. “Kaleb was in command the whole game and Angus came up big at the plate.”
With the win, the Braves avenged a 5-4 setback at Coupeville earlier in the week and earned a split of the teams’ two-game regular season series. In addition, La Conner handed the visitors their first setback in six NW2B/1B contests.
La Conner (3-6 overall, 2-3 in league action) enjoyed what Stewart termed his club’s best effort of the season, a classic pitching duel between Otis and Coupeville hurler Cam Glover.
Glover matched Otis by fanning seven batters and checking La Conner on just four hits. But the hosts were slightly better when it came to advancing base runners. A classic example came in the decisive sixth frame.
With the score tied 2-2, Otis led off with a solid single to center. Kamien Lopez followed with a textbook sacrifice bunt that moved Otis up 90 feet. After Nolan Elde was hit by a pitch, Poprycz plated Otis with the game-winning single to right.
“I was looking for a slow curve,” Poprycz said of his crucial at bat, “but I got a fastball and was still able to make contact.”
La Conner erased an early 1-0 Coupeville lead in the second inning with Poprycz again playing a key role. He lined a leadoff single up the middle, advanced to second on a wild pitch and took third when Glover was called for a balk. Poprycz then scampered home on Alvord’s hard grounder to the right side.
The Braves edged in front 2-1 in the third.
After Brent Bobb opened the inning with a bunt single, Otis took first on a fielder’s choice that forced Bobb out at second. Otis then rattled Glover into an errant pickoff attempt and motored all the way to third. He scored moments later on a wild pitch.
Coupeville squared the score at 2-2 in the top of the sixth. Glover got on base via a Braves error. After swiping second, he came around on an RBI two-bagger by Carson Grove.
That set the stage for La Conner’s heroics in the home half of the sixth.
Otis protected La Conner’s 3-2 edge in the final stanza by inducing a groundout and lineout to Alvord at third base, and a strikeout of Glover.
In all, Otis threw 104 pitches and seemed to get stronger as the game progressed. He yielded just one run and two safeties after the first inning when infield hits by Leo Rodriguez and Chase Anderson and a Glover sacrifice fly staked Coupeville to its short-lived 1-0 lead.
Softball
There was no such drama in the Coupeville-La Conner softball matchup elsewhere on campus. Coupeville kept its perfect 10-0 season mark intact with a 30-1 blowout win over the Braves.
Coupeville pitching checked La Conner on two hits, a double each by Jade Damien and Yami Ocampo Contreras. The Braves fell to 3-5, 2-2 in league contests. Coupeville has won all five of its NW2B/1B games to date.
The La Conner baseball and softball teams resume league play this week. The Braves squads are scheduled for 4 p.m. April 21 at Orcas Island and entertain Orcas in rematches here that begin at 4:30 p.m. April 23.
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
Photo courtesy Sarah Walls / Cedarbrook Studio
