Willie Smith told Wade Schaef to go throw some strikes, so he did. (Shelli Trumbull photos)
Wolf frosh Cole Payne crushed a double in his first varsity at-bat.
It wasn’t the sweep they wanted, but it was a series win.
Despite the best efforts of Cole Payne and Wade Schaef and a furious late rally, the Coupeville High School baseball squad fell 8-5 to visiting South Whidbey Friday.
The loss snapped a four-game winning streak and prevented the Wolves from taking all three games in their battle with their Island rivals.
Still, having won two of three against the Falcons, the only other 1A school to play baseball in the Cascade Conference (King’s is a no-show), Coupeville is guaranteed to be the number one seed out of the league when playoffs start in May.
Now 4-3 overall, 2-3 in Cascade Conference play, the Wolves face a seriously schizophrenic schedule.
Its next six games are against the big boys (Cedarcrest and Archbishop Thomas Murphy are both 6-0 in league play), then the following six games are against teams that have yet to win a game (Granite Falls and Sultan are both 0-7 overall).
Tuning up for the gauntlet, Coupeville staged a four-run rally in the bottom of the sixth Friday, cutting an 8-1 lead back to a contest, but couldn’t keep the momentum going.
They were stung all game by the bat of Ricky Muzzy, who went 4-for-5 and blasted a three-run home run.
The Wolves countered with an epic two-run shot over the outfield fence from Schaef, who also pitched strongly in relief, and big hits from the Payne brothers. Both Morgan and Cole whacked doubles (as did Ben Etzell), with Cole’s pinch-hit RBI two-bagger coming in his first-ever varsity at-bat.
He also had the quote of the day, as related to Wolf coach Willie Smith.
“I’m not going to lie, I was nervous. On a scale of 1-10 I was definitely a 12!,” Cole Payne said.
Schaef drove in a pair, while the Paynes and Aaron Trumbull each chipped in with one apiece. Josh Bayne, Korbin Korzan and Schaef shared pitching duties, with Schaef throwing strikes on 17 of his 24 pitches.
“Wade threw extremely well for us,” Smith said.
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