Coupeville Sports

Wolf first-baseman Riley Lawless smacked a pair of hits Friday in a rivalry game with South Whidbey. (Jackie Saia photo)

They didn’t get a hit until the fourth inning, and didn’t score until the sixth, yet almost pulled off the comeback win.

Unfortunately for the Coupeville High School baseball squad, a torrid finish couldn’t quite overcome a slow start Friday, as the Wolves fell 7-6 to visiting South Whidbey.

The non-conference loss, coming on a rare sunny spring afternoon on the prairie, drops CHS to 9-5 on the season while the upstart Falcons improve to 3-11.

Friday’s fracas was a pitcher’s duel for most of the day, with eight of the 13 runs not being scored until the final inning-and-a-half.

South Whidbey did put together a five-run rally in the top of the third, however, accounting for the only scores until the late going, and that was tough to overcome for the scrappy Wolves.

The big blows were a pair of two-run doubles from Levi Batchelor and Weston Dill, and they staked the Falcons to a lead they never relinquished.

Meanwhile, Coupeville put four runners aboard through the first three innings — all on walks — but came away empty-handed.

In the fourth, the Wolves got another walk, this one from Trent Thule, before Riley Lawless broke up the no-hitter. Once again, however, the runners were stranded far from home.

Steve Hilborn’s squad finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth, pushing three runs across to tighten things up.

Two runs came home on Falcon miscues, while Lawless smoked an RBI single to the left side of the infield to account for the other score.

South Whidbey proved resilient, tacking on two insurance runs in the top of the seventh to go up 7-3, then turned out to need both runs as the Wolves rallied hard in their final at-bats.

Chase Anderson led off the bottom of the seventh by getting drilled in the back, then stole second and third before scooting home on a Camden Glover RBI single.

An RBI groundout from Thule cut the deficit to 7-5 and a bases loaded walk to Killian Shaw made it a one-run game, but South Whidbey hurler Easton Niemi came out of the bullpen to end the game with a strikeout, allowing longtime Falcon coach Tom Fallon to exit with another win.

Friday stats:

Chase Anderson — One walk
Coop Cooper — One single
Camden Glover — Two singles, one walk
Carson Grove — One walk
Riley Lawless — Two singles, one walk
Aiden O’Neill — One single
Leo Rodriguez — Two walks
Killian Shaw — One walk
Malachi Somes — One single
Trent Thule — Three walks

Camden Glover, here crashing in to score in an earlier game, reached base three times Friday afternoon. (Julie Wheat photo)