Coupeville Sports

Chase Anderson waits for his pitch. (Duke Kutz photo)

A second-half slump will prevent the Coupeville High School baseball squad from making the playoffs.

Once flying high at 7-2, the Wolves absorbed their fifth-straight loss, and seventh in their last nine games, falling 12-1 at Mount Vernon Christian Thursday night.

That defeat, combined with wins this week for Friday Harbor and Orcas Island, breaks a three-way tie for the final two postseason slots for 2B schools in the Northwest 2B/1B League.

Coupeville finishes at 7-5 in conference action, 9-9 overall, while MVC (12-0), Friday Harbor (8-4), and Orcas (8-4) are headed to the District 1/2 tourney.

The Wolves swept Friday Harbor early in the season, but a mid-season split with La Conner (3-8), in which both games were decided by a single run, looms large now.

CHS was still 7-1 in league play heading into its final two regular season series, only to be swept by both Orcas and MVC.

Thursday’s loss was a lot like the one Coupeville suffered Tuesday against the Hurricanes, as a tepid offense and way too many errors combined to make life tough for the Wolves.

CHS only put five runners on board across five innings Thursday, while committing seven errors on defense a game after racking up 10 miscues.

The first inning was a scoreless duel this time around, with Camden Glover stroking a two-out single in the top of the frame, while MVC eked out a walk in the bottom half.

But, after the Wolves went down 1-2-3 in the second, the ‘Canes struck for seven runs in the bottom of the second, scoring all of them after they had two outs.

Mount Vernon Christian only plunked a pair of singles in the inning, but four Wolf errors and three wild pitches conspired to allow the host team to stage an impressive rally.

The Hurricanes tacked on three more runs in the third to push the lead out to 10-0 before Coupeville scored its final run of the season in the fourth.

Chase Anderson belted a leadoff double to left, and three batters later fellow senior Aiden O’Neill laced an RBI single in his final high school at-bat.

But that was it for Steve Hilborn’s squad, as Trent Thule got plunked by a wayward pitch in the fifth to represent Coupeville’s final base runner of the campaign.

Anderson and Thule combined to rack up three strikeouts while pulling mound duty.

Thursday stats:

Chase Anderson — One double
Camden Glover — One single
Aiden O’Neill — One single
Trent Thule — Two walks

Camden Glover, here using his Jedi skills to freeze a ball in midair, played his final high school baseball game Thursday night. (Melanie Wolfe photo)