Coupeville Sports

   Coupeville High School senior Jake Hoagland whacked an RBI double Saturday at the Battle of the Bats in Sumner. (John Fisken photo)

The Wolves stayed on the field a lot longer this time around.

Getting an immediate rematch with Honda Baseball at Battle of the Bats, Coupeville High School put up a much better fight Saturday than it did a day before.

While they still fell 9-4 at Sumner High School to the Bellevue select team, which boasts two former MLB players among its alumni, that was markedly better than Friday’s three-inning 15-0 loss.

This time around, the Wolves were tied 4-4 into the bottom of the fourth inning and stayed on the field until the game was called in the sixth inning due to a two-hour limit on games.

Now 1-2 on the weekend, CHS closes the tourney with a Sunday morning game at Bellarmine Prep against the PBC Zips, a select team from Seattle.

Having split two games in pool play Friday, the Wolves entered bracket play seeded #15 out of 25 teams, which set up the unexpected rematch with Honda Baseball.

After falling behind 4-0, Coupeville rallied in the top of the third, turning three hits into four runs of its own.

Gavin Knoblich started things off by eking out a walk.

The CHS sophomore moved to second on a sac bunt by Jake Pease, then scampered home when Matt Hilborn crunched an RBI double.

A walk to Joey Lippo kept things going, before Dane Lucero (a two-run single) and Jake Hoagland (an RBI double) came through with big base-knocks.

Hoagland tried to keep the fire burning extra bright, but was nailed at third while trying to stretch his hit into a triple.

While he departed the field, he took a rival with him after accidentally blowing up the guy’s ankle on the bang-bang play.

Coupeville had two more chances after its big rally, getting doubles from Thomas Anderson in the fourth and Lippo in the fifth.

Both blows turned out to be one-time shots, however, as both Wolf runners were left stranded on base.

Honda Baseball chipped away against CHS hurlers Austin Boesch, Jonathan Thurston and Hilborn, breaking through for two runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth.

The select squad, which will have a chance to play for a title in its bracket Sunday, has been in business since 1988.

There is an extensive list of players who went on to play college ball listed on the team’s web site, with its greatest claims to fame being pitchers John LeRoy and Sean White.

LeRoy had a cup of coffee with the Atlanta Braves in 1997 and can boast a MLB win on his resume, while White appeared in 105 games for the Seattle Mariners from 2007-2010.