Coop Cooper and company need to regroup before facing league leader Mount Vernon Christian next week. (Jackie Saia photos)
Joe Stephens had a pretty impressive game Wednesday afternoon on the sun-drenched Coupeville prairie.
Unfortunately for Wolf Nation, he plays baseball for Orcas Island and not CHS.
Thus, when Stephens whiffed 16 batters in 6.2 innings of work, plus belted an over-the-fence home run, it led to the visiting Vikings collecting a 9-2 win and a season-sweep of their two-game series with the Wolves.
Now stuck in a three-game losing skid, Coupeville falls to 7-3 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 9-7 overall, with two games left on the regular season schedule.
Those come May 5 and 7, when the Wolves, who sit a half-game up on Orcas (7-4) in the battle for second place, square off with league leader Mount Vernon Christian (8-0).
When Coupeville takes the field against the Hurricanes, they’ll be hoping for a higher-charged offense than the one on display Wednesday afternoon.
Held to just two hits by Stephens, the Wolves also got five batters on board thanks to walks, but were outdone by Orcas, which had eight base knocks and 11 free passes.
Six errors in the field didn’t help either for Steve Hilborn’s squad.
Still, the game was tight for two innings, with the teams knotted up at 1-1, before Orcas began to pull away.
Aiden O’Neill thumped a three-bagger against Orcas.
Coupeville got on the board in the second thanks to the big bat and fleet feet of Aiden O’Neill, who socked a triple to right field before stealing home to send the crowd into a tizzy.
That was where the offense stalled out for CHS however, as Orcas tacked on two runs in the third and a game-busting four in the fourth to go up 7-1.
The tally which broke the tie was a home run belted over the left field fence by Stephens, who was intentionally walked the next three times he came to the plate.
The Wolves finally got a run back in the fourth, with walks to Chase Anderson and Camden Glover starting a brief rally, but a prime opportunity failed in the fifth, with Stephens picking up an inning-ending strikeout to escape a brief bases-loaded jam.
While they didn’t match the totals of their Vikings rival, Wolf pitchers Glover and Anderson did combine for 10 strikeouts, with both seniors picking up five K’s while on the mound.
Wednesday stats:
Chase Anderson — Two walks
Camden Glover — One walk
Riley Lawless — One single
Aiden O’Neill — One triple, one walk
Trent Thule — One walk
Coupeville Sports 