Coupeville Sports

Wade Schaef and Co. are headed to tri-districts next Saturday. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

Wolf catcher Jake Tumblin has been swinging a hot bat lately.

One chance down, two more to still play out.

Despite taking a 4-0 loss to arch-rival South Whidbey Saturday in the championship game of the 1A District 1 baseball playoffs, Coupeville High School still has very valid dreams of punching its ticket to the state tourney.

They’ll just have to wait a week to make it a reality.

Having beaten the odds by winning two of three to finish second at districts, after entering as the #5 seed, the Wolves (12-10) will get two cracks to win one game at tri-districts next Saturday, May 17.

Coupeville will be the home team in a 10 AM game at Sehome High School that day against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.

Win and they hop on the bus and head to Meridian High School for the 3rd place/4th place game at 4 PM. Lose and they stay at Sehome to play in the 5th place game, also at 4 PM.

A win in either game and they join South Whidbey (15-7) as one of 16 teams at state, which kicks off at regional sites May 24. The final four meet in Yakima May 30-31.

The week off between districts and tri-districts should hopefully help Coupeville rediscover its offensive touch, which vanished Saturday after two strong games.

The Wolves only managed to get runners on in a few innings against the Falcons, and didn’t provide as much of a challenge as coach Willie Smith had hoped.

“Well, certainly not how we thought we would play today,” Smith said. “Probably our worst all-around game all season.

“I am certainly not going to take anything away from South Whidbey, because they got the hits when they needed to, made the defensive stops they needed, and got good pitching,” he added. “But, we really didn’t offer them a championship caliber effort until it was too late and our offensive approach was anemic at best.”

The game was scoreless into the third, when South Whidbey broke through, using a Wolf error, a dropped relay at home, a walk and a single to scratch out two runs.

The Falcons added two more in the fourth off of back-to-back CHS errors and a blooper that was misplayed.

Still, every team can have a bad day, and with two shots at still advancing to state, Smith remains confident in his squad.

“Our season goal is still intact and alive,” he said. “We just need to get back to what got us there: good pitching, solid defense, and timely hitting.”