Coupeville Sports

Morgan Payne closed out his junior season with a two-hit performance. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Nooksack Valley got its revenge.

A month-and-a-half after the Coupeville High School baseball team stormed back to beat the Pioneers 9-8 in 10 innings in a game lashed by freezing, sideways rain and unholy prairie wind, the two teams met Thursday far away from Whidbey Island.

It didn’t go as well.

Playing in a loser-out district playoff game in Blaine, Nooksack jumped out to an early lead, then held on late, beating Coupeville 5-2 and eliminating the Wolves from the postseason.

“A rather sudden and unexpected ending to an otherwise strong season,” said a disappointed Wolf coach Willie Smith.

Two losses in as many days (coming on the heels of a 2-1 defeat by Lynden Christian at home Wednesday), left the Wolves at 10-12 for the season. A team that had won five of six, all over 2A teams, heading into the playoffs, hit an offensive lull at the worst time.

“Not really sure what to say, except we did not come out very excited or focused and played fairly flat all game,” Smith said. “Defensively we were pretty solid but, once again, could not get anything going offensively.

“When we did get runners on, we didn’t execute well or run the bases well.”

The Wolves did rap out eight hits on the afternoon, with the trio of Kurtis Smith, Ben Etzell and Morgan Payne each delivering two apiece. Etzell crushed a double and the fleet-footed Smith whacked a triple, while Smith and Jake Tumblin each knocked in a run.

Aaron Curtin started on the mound for Coupeville and struck out two over five innings before giving way to Aaron Trumbull for the final two innings.

The game was the final one for second baseman Drew Chan, the lone Wolf senior, and he went out like the seasoned pro he is, turning a double play in his final time on the field.

The Wolves could return 13 of their 14 players next season and would be expected to get first baseman Brian Norris back. Norris suffered an off-field hand injury at the beginning of the season and spent his junior year helping keep stats instead of producing them.