Daniel Olson and the Coupeville Babe Ruth baseball squad are in Portland this week, playing in the 15U regional tourney. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Stop, take a breath and then get back at it.
After a close opening game Monday, the Coupeville Babe Ruth baseball squad was roughed up Tuesday at the 15U regional tourney in Oregon.
The Wolves, who almost pulled off a wild come-back win before falling 9-5 to Calgary, were blasted 17-1 by host Portland.
Coupeville has a bye day Wednesday, then wraps up pool play with games Thursday against South Washington and Friday against Montana.
There are two five-team pools and the top two teams from each advance to the semifinals. The winner of the tourney is off to the World Series.
After finishing second at the state tourney, Coupeville got an unexpected chance to advance to regionals after state champ Columbia Basin bowed out at the last second.
While the Wolves didn’t get a hit until the fifth inning of their opener against Calgary, they used solid pitching and defense to keep the game close.
The two teams were knotted at zero until the bottom of the fourth inning, when the Canadians scratched out a pair of runs.
The bottom fell out for a moment in the fifth, as Calgary put together three extra-base hits to slap five runs on the board, running its lead to 7-0.
Coupeville, which got its first hit when Johnny Carlson slapped a two-out single in the fifth, finally came alive in the sixth.
Peppering four hits (base-knocks courtesy Scott Hilborn, Hawthorne Wolfe, Andrew Score and Chelsea Prescott) and collecting four walks (thanks to the eagle-eyed Daniel Olson, Gavin Knoblich, Carlson and Xavier Murdy), the Wolves put up five runs of their own.
Calgary escaped the inning, though, and added two runs in the bottom of the sixth to stretch the lead back out.
Olson, who struck out three in five innings on the hill, whacked a one-out single in the top of the seventh, but that was it for offensive fireworks.
Game two? The less said probably the better, as Portland crunched 13 hits, while Coupeville had a solitary base-knock.
It was a big one, though, as Score drilled a two-out RBI triple in the top of the fifth and final inning, plating Olson, who had walked and stolen second.
Coupeville’s only other base-runner was Cody Roberts, who eked out a third-inning walk.
As the Wolves prep for the second half of pool play, they sit at 17-4 on the season.
