Coupeville Sports

Tom Fallon and South Whidbey won round one Friday, but Coupeville baseball gets a rematch in Cow Town Mar. 30. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

First batter, great.

After that, not so great.

Coupeville High School senior catcher Peyton Caveness led off his team’s road game at South Whidbey Friday with a double to center field.

But then the Wolves lost their groove offensively, and couldn’t find it defensively either, falling 11-1 to the Falcons in a game mercy-ruled after five innings.

The non-conference loss drops CHS to 0-2 on the still-young season, with another tilt in less than 24 hours.

Coupeville returns home Saturday to face North Mason (1-2) in a game set to begin at 1:00 P.M.

Friday’s Island rumble with their next-door neighbors was a fairly rough one for the scrappy Wolves, who were outhit 11-2. Overall CHS only put four runners aboard.

The mitts weren’t cooperating either for Coupeville, which committed six errors, allowing the Falcons to keep rallies alive.

One positive was the Wolves only walked three South Whidbey hitters, after surrendering 20+ free passes in their season opener.

Lanky lefty Landon Roberts got the start on the mound for Coupeville, and almost got out of the first relatively unscathed.

Unfortunately, a dropped third strike on what would have been the third out kept the frame alive, and the hometown mashers promptly responded with back-to-back RBI singles to make it 3-0.

South Whidbey tacked on a run in the second, helped by two Wolf errors, then pushed the lead out to 6-0 through three innings.

CHS, which had nine straight hitters go down after Caveness’s two-bagger, finally cracked the seal in the top of the fourth with Yohannon Sandles reaching on an error.

But then it was right back to it, as the Falcons erased the next three hitters to make it 12 of 13.

Roberts kept South Whidbey at bay in the bottom of the fourth, stranding a runner at second, and Coupeville notched its lone run of the day in the fifth.

Cole White eked out his squad’s only walk, then came around to tap home plate on a pinch-hit RBI single from Wolf sophomore Steven Gonzalez.

That would be it for the Coupeville offense, however, and South Whidbey ended the game early with a five-run surge in the bottom half of the inning.

Roberts struck out four across four frames, with Camden Glover coming on in relief for the Wolves.