Diamond rally falls short

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Diamond rally falls short

April 8, 2024 by David Svien

Chaos reigns on the baseball diamond. (Ryan Blouin photo)

The good news is they rallied. The bad news is it was too little, too late.

Returning from Spring Break Monday, the Coupeville High School varsity baseball squad started off cold, then warmed up a bit in the latter stages of a 9-4 loss to visiting Sultan.

The non-conference defeat drops the Wolves to 3-7 on the season and kick-starts what could be a very busy week.

CHS is slated to travel to Darrington Tuesday, host La Conner Thursday, then trek to Forks Saturday, with the first two of those rumbles against Northwest 2B/1B League rivals.

With 10 regular season games down and nine left to play, the Wolves hope the second half of the campaign plays out like the second half of Monday’s game.

Held hitless until Cole White plunked a leadoff single in the bottom of the fourth, Coupeville was in a 7-0 hole at that point.

Four errors on defense stung, and an inability to get anything going on offense didn’t help on a cold, windy, slightly rain-splattered day.

White’s base knock finally lit a fire under the Wolves, as they scratched out two runs in the fourth, one more in the fifth, and a final tally in the seventh.

But while Coupeville sliced the lead down to 7-3, it never got closer than that.

Sultan tacked on a pair of runs in the top of the sixth to stretch the margin back out to six runs, before CHS briefly mounted a rally in its final at-bats.

Peyton Caveness thumped his second double of the day, followed by an RBI triple from Johnny Porter, but the Turks escaped thanks to a double play and strikeout.

Sultan finished the day with an 8-5 lead in hits, though the Wolves eked out a 6-4 advantage in walks.

Steven Gonzalez, Aidyn McDermott, and Landon Roberts each earned a pair of free passes, while Coop Cooper collected a single to round out the hit parade.

Coupeville used four pitchers on the day, with Seth Woollet whiffing five in 4.2 innings of work to carry the biggest portion of the load.

He was joined on the hill by Jack Porter, Camden Glover, and Cooper, who combined for another five strikeouts.

It was Cooper’s season debut on the mound, and the Wolf sophomore pitched a perfect seventh inning, setting two batters down on K’s before inducing a groundout back to his glove.