Coupeville Sports

   Joey Lippo, seen bunting in an earlier game, and the Coupeville offense were largely shut down Monday by Sequim’s pitchers. (John Fisken photo)

The fourth inning was great.

Everything else on either side, not as much, however.

Only able to get the offense clicking during one brief spurt Monday, the Coupeville High School baseball squad fell 9-3 at Sequim.

The non-conference loss drops the Wolves to 6-6 on the season.

It was the second time CHS faced Sequim this season, and, while the score was slightly better (the Wolves lost 14-4 at home Mar. 17), they still struggled with their 2A foes.

“We couldn’t stop them from scoring,” said Wolf coach Chris Smith. “And they controlled us and kept us off balance in all but one inning.”

During that fourth inning Coupeville sent nine batters to the plate, brought three around, but left the bags juiced.

Things started off with a resounding triple off the bat of Clay Reilly.

Singles from Dane Lucero and Matt Hilborn, wrapped around an RBI ground-out by Kory Score and two Wolf hitters — Julian Welling and Jake Hoagland — reaching on errors, kept the good times rolling.

Other than that, though, the Wolf offense sputtered.

Through the first three innings, Coupeville only had two base runners, with Welling drilling a single and Hunter Smith walking.

Then, after the fourth inning breakout, the final 10 CHS hitters went down in order.

Sequim, by contrast, never had a breakout inning, but steadily chipped away at the Wolf hurlers.

The hosts put up a two-spot in the first, then added three in the third and a solo run in both the fourth and fifth, before capping things with two more in the sixth.

Coupeville used three pitchers, with Taylor Consford (3), Jonathan Thurston (3) and Hilborn (1) combining for seven strikeouts.