Cole White reached base three times Tuesday, propelling Coupeville to a 10-0 win. (Jackie Saia photo)
What a difference a month makes.
Back on March 26, the Coupeville High School varsity baseball squad fell 14-1 on Orcas Island in a game marred by too many walks and too many errors.
Jump forward to April 23, and it was a completely different story.
Continuing a hot streak of late, the Wolves ran the Vikings off the prairie Tuesday, blanking them 10-0 in a game mercy-ruled after six innings.
The victory, Coupeville’s sixth-straight in league play, lifts it to 7-2 in Northwest 2B/1B League action, 8-8 overall.
It also moves the Wolves into a first-place tie with Orcas (7-2, 10-4) with three games left to play.
Both CHS and the Vikings close against the same three teams — Concrete, Darrington, and La Conner — with Cow Town’s hardball squad playing two of its final three at home.
The Wolves host Concrete Thursday, welcome Darrington to town Saturday for Senior Night, then trek to La Conner May 2 for the regular season finale.
After that comes the playoffs, with it looking increasingly likely Coupeville will be the #1 seed among 2B schools in the NWL.
If that holds, the Wolves will need to win just one district game to punch their ticket for a return trip to the state tourney.
But that’s still in the future.
Landon Roberts and Coupeville are peaking at the right time. (Ember Light photo)
Tuesday was all about the now, and Steve Hilborn’s diamond dogs played to perfection, outhitting Orcas 10-2, while Wolf hurler Seth Woollet tossed a gem.
The senior went all six innings, walking just two batters and whiffing a pair, while deftly sliding out of the few troublesome spots he found himself in.
Orcas punched a two-out triple in the third, but Woollet stranded the runner there, getting the next batter to meekly fly out to Aiden O’Neill.
Then, in the top of the fifth, the Vikings had two runners aboard, but the crafty CHS pitcher induced a weak pop out to Coop Cooper at first base to prematurely end the last gasp the Vikings could muster.
Meanwhile, the Wolves peppered the rival pitchers, scoring three runs in the first, two more in the second, and a lone tally in the third to run the score to 6-0.
The opening rally was set up by a single from Peyton Caveness and a walk to Cole White, with Chase Anderson mashing an RBI single to right to nab the only run that truly mattered.
Two more came home off of a Jack Porter bunt single, however, as Orcas melted down on the play and made wild throws.
Up 3-0, Coupeville pushed it to 5-0 on a pair of big-time RBI base hits in the second inning.
Caveness, who has been a holy terror abusing the baseball all season, smoked a triple to left, before White socked a run-scoring two-bagger to dead center.
Woollet aided his own cause with an RBI single in the third, before CHS closed out the game with four more runs in the bottom of the sixth.
The key hits came from Johnny Porter, Caveness, and Anderson, with Caveness coming around to score on an error to officially close the game by enforcing the 10-run mercy rule.
Tuesday stats:
Chase Anderson — Two singles
Peyton Caveness — Two singles, one triple
Coop Cooper — One walk
Steven Gonzalez — One walk
Jack Porter — One single, one walk
Johnny Porter — One single
Landon Roberts — One walk
Cole White — One single, one double, one walk
Seth Woollet — One single, one walk
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Coupeville Sports 