Coupeville Sports

   Clay Reilly, seen here eyeballing a pitch last year, reached base all three times he hit Saturday in a season-opening loss. (John Fisken photo)

As the field got wetter Saturday, the ball (and the game) slipped away from Coupeville.

Committing four of its five errors in the late going, the Wolf baseball squad saw a 2-2 tie turn into a 9-2 non-conference loss to host Lynden Christian in a season-opener called after five innings.

“Ugly weather. Hit well. Found some areas we need to work on,” said understated (and very damp) Coupeville coach Marc Aparicio.

The Lyncs, who only out-hit CHS 4-3, took advantage of wild throws and juggled balls to score four runs in the bottom of the third, then tack on three more in the fourth.

The miscues negated often-strong pitching from Coupeville, which racked up eight strikeouts combined from a four-pack of pitchers — Julian Welling, Jonathan Thurston, Nick Etzell and Hunter Smith.

The Wolves put runners on base in four of five innings, but only brought them around in the third.

Trailing 2-0, Coupeville seized an opportunity after Taylor Consford walked and Smith reached on an error to start the inning.

Clay Reilly and Thurston put together back-to-back one-out RBI singles to tie things up, before Lynden recovered to get out of the inning.

The Wolves put two runners on in both the first (walks to Reilly and Welling) and fifth (walks to Reilly and Kory Score) but couldn’t plate them.

A possible two-out rally in the fourth was also snuffed. Consford stroked a triple, but was left high and dry when a strikeout ended any Coupeville hopes.

With the rain coming down in waves, the varsity game was ended prematurely and the JV game, which was to follow, was called off.

The Wolves return to action Wednesday, when they launch defense of their 1A Olympic League title with a game at Chimacum.

After that, CHS plays six of its next seven at home.