Coupeville Sports

Cody Roberts tossed 2+ innings of scoreless ball Wednesday in Sultan as Coupeville rolled to a third-straight win. (Photo by Karen Carlson)

What a difference a week makes.

Through the first 12 games of the season, the Coupeville High School baseball squad eked out just 13 runs, making life rough on its pitching staff.

And then the bats came alive. And how.

After drilling host Sultan 14-7 Wednesday, while pounding out 12 hits, the Wolves have rung up 31 runs on the scoreboard across their last three games.

Not surprisingly, that’s resulted in three straight wins.

It started with a major upset of high-flying South Whidbey, and now, after back-to-back wins over cellar dweller Sultan, Coupeville has risen to 3-8 in North Sound Conference play, 3-12 overall.

The Wolves, who wrap their series with the Turks Friday at home, have come off life support and now control the race for the fourth, and final, playoff berth from the NSC.

Wednesday, Coupeville jumped on Sultan early, running out to a 6-0 lead.

While the Turks eventually clawed back to within two runs twice, at 7-5 and 9-7, the Wolf hitters responded with a late surge, freshman reliever Cody Roberts tossed 2.1 innings of shutout ball, and the bus ride home was a happy one.

The Wolves opened the game by putting their first five hitters aboard, with four coming around to score.

Singles from Matt Hilborn, Hawthorne Wolfe and Gavin Knoblich, paired with a walk to Jake Pease and an error on a ball smashed to center by Dane Lucero proved to be a potent mix.

Lucero came back around in the second inning to pop a big double, pushing CHS out to its 6-0 lead, then, after a scoreless third, Coupeville tacked on a run in the fourth when Wolfe singled and scampered around the bases.

While the Wolves scored in six of seven innings, Sultan lumped its runs together, getting two in the third, three in the fourth, and a final two in the fifth.

But every time the pesky Turks surged, Coupeville beat them back.

With the lead trimmed to 7-5, the Wolves used singles from Knoblich, starting pitcher Daniel Olson, and Sage Sharp to increase the margin back to four runs.

Sultan scraped together two runs in the bottom of the fifth, once again cutting their deficit back to two runs, this time at 9-7, but Roberts, Coupeville’s third pitcher on the day, slammed the door shut.

Coming on in relief of Jonny Carlson, the Wolf frosh got his team out of a jam by inducing a ground-out to Hilborn at short.

Once in control of his own destiny, Roberts played dangerously, loading the bases in both the sixth and seventh innings, but never broke, twice escaping with big pitches.

He whiffed a Turk with the bags juiced to end the sixth, then punched out Sultan one final time in the seventh.

The Wolf hitters gave him a progressively bigger lead to work with, dropping in a single run in the top of the sixth, then using three singles and three walks to plate four more runs in their final at-bats.

Knoblich paced the torrid offense with three singles, while Pease walked three times.

Hilborn, Wolfe, and Olson had two base-knocks apiece, and Lucero, Sharp, and Ulrik Wells rounded out the attack with singles.