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Take a final gaze, then move on

Posted in Baseball, Girls Tennis, Softball, Track, tagged , , , , , on May 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Wolf diamond man Avery Eelkema strolls over to look at the final standings for spring sports teams. (Jackie Saia photo)

The turn is made.

Regular season play has wrapped, with three of four Coupeville High School spring sports teams making the transition to the postseason.

Wolf girls’ tennis heads to Seattle Wednesday for the District 1/2 tourney, where the top two finishers in singles and doubles punch their tickets to state.

A day later CHS softball plays in the district tourney in Mount Vernon.

As the top seed in the three-team tourney, the Smash Sisters face the survivor of a loser-out game between Friday Harbor and Orcas Island, taking the field in the championship game.

Win or lose in that bout, Aaron Lucero’s squad has already clinched its second-straight trip to the big dance.

Then Saturday CHS track and field hosts the District 1/2 meet at Mickey Clark Field, with the top two finishers in each event advancing to the 2B state meet.

The only Wolf team already sidelined is baseball, which came up just a game short of advancing to the playoffs.

And with the regular season done, this is the final standings story for the 2025-2026 school year.

If we’re still around in the fall, we’ll rev it back up.

But for now, I can stop venting to my computer about the Northwest 2B/1B League website and its inability to stay on top of things.

So, there’s that…

 

Northwest League baseball:

School League Overall
MV Christian 12-0 18-2
Friday Harbor 8-4 10-8
Orcas Island 8-4 10-8
Coupeville 7-5 9-9
La Conner 3-8 4-12
Darrington 3-9 4-15
Concrete 0-11 0-11

 

Northwest League girls’ tennis:

School League Overall
Friday Harbor 3-1 5-3
Coupeville 1-3 4-5

 

Northwest League softball:

School League Overall
Coupeville 10-0 17-2
Friday Harbor 8-2 12-7
Orcas Island 6-4 7-8
La Conner 3-7 6-9
Darrington 2-8 4-12
Concrete 1-9 1-10

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All the diamond numbers your heart desires

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on May 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Trent Thule flies for home. (Julie Wheat photo)

Time to put the mitts away and add up the stats.

The Coupeville High School baseball squad reached the end of a 9-9 season Thursday, falling at Mount Vernon Christian to end its bid for a playoff berth.

But while the games are done, the numbers are forever.

Thanks to GameChanger, which is used by Wolf coaches to record the action, here’s what we have for the 2026 campaign:

 

HITTING:

 

At-Bats:

Coop Cooper – 52
Camden Glover – 50
Carson Grove – 48
Chase Anderson – 47
Riley Lawless – 43
Aiden O’Neill – 42
Leo Rodriguez – 40
Trent Thule – 35
Killian Shaw – 25
Chris Zenz – 23
Malachi Somes – 21
Avery Eelkema – 7
Aiden Tingley – 6

 

Hits:

Glover – 21
Anderson – 17
Cooper – 12
Grove – 12
O’Neill – 10
Rodriguez – 9
Thule – 7
Lawless – 5
Somes – 5
Shaw – 4
Zenz – 2
Eelkema – 1

 

Runs:

Anderson – 19
Glover – 18
Grove – 17
O’Neill – 13
Rodriguez – 12
Thule – 10
Cooper – 7
Zenz – 7
Shaw – 4
Lawless – 3
Somes – 2
Tingley – 2

 

2B’s:

Anderson – 6
Cooper – 4
Glover – 4
Rodriguez – 3
O’Neill – 1

 

3B’s:

O’Neill – 3
Grove – 1

 

HR’s:

Anderson – 1
Grove – 1

 

RBI:

Grove – 15
Cooper – 13
Glover – 12
Anderson – 9
Rodriguez – 4
Thule – 4
Lawless – 3
O’Neill – 3
Somes – 3
Zenz – 3
Tingley – 2
Shaw – 1

 

Walks:

Thule – 24
Grove – 21
O’Neill – 18
Rodriguez – 18
Glover – 17
Lawless – 15
Cooper – 14
Anderson – 10
Zenz – 6
Tingley – 5
Shaw – 4
Somes – 3
Eelkema – 1

 

Stolen Bases:

Anderson – 26
Glover – 22
Grove – 14
O’Neill – 12
Cooper – 11
Rodriguez – 11
Lawless – 4
Zenz – 4
Thule – 3
Eelkema – 2
Somes – 2
Shaw – 1

 

Batting Average:

Glover – .420
Anderson – .362
Grove – .250
O’Neill – .238
Somes – .238
Cooper – .231
Rodriguez – .225
Thule – .200
Shaw – .160
Eelkema – .143
Lawless – .116
Zenz – .087

Coop Cooper eyeballs a runner. (Julie Wheat photo)

 

PITCHING:

 

Games:

Glover – 13
Anderson – 8
Cooper – 8
Thule – 7
Grove – 6
Somes – 1

 

Starts:

Anderson – 6
Glover – 6
Cooper – 3
Grove – 2
Thule – 1

 

Hits:

Glover – 33
Anderson – 18
Grove – 16
Cooper – 11
Thule – 10

 

Runs:

Glover – 35
Anderson – 31
Cooper – 26
Grove – 18
Thule – 15

 

Earned Runs:

Glover – 23
Anderson – 14
Cooper – 12
Grove – 10
Thule – 5

 

Walks:

Glover – 30
Cooper – 28
Anderson – 26
Thule – 14
Grove – 13
Somes – 1

 

Strikeouts:

Glover – 68
Anderson – 46
Cooper – 36
Grove – 22
Thule – 20
Somes – 1

 

Innings Pitched:

Glover – 39.1
Anderson – 25
Cooper – 18
Thule – 16.1
Grove – 14
Somes – 1

 

Hitters Faced:

Glover – 189
Anderson – 126
Cooper – 96
Thule – 80
Grove – 72
Somes – 3

Aiden O’Neill (left) and Chase Anderson were senior leaders for the Wolf diamond program. (Jackie Saia photo)

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Playoff ticket eludes diamond men

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on May 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »

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)

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Playoff push takes hard hit

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on May 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Malachi Somes (left), Camden Glover, and crew are still in the playoff hunt, but the margin of error has tightened. (Jackie Saia photo)

The ball slipped through their hands, and now the playoffs may as well.

Committing a season-high 10 errors Tuesday, the Coupeville High School baseball squad fell 14-1 to visiting Mount Vernon Christian in a mercy-ruled game which complicates the Wolves pursuit of a postseason berth.

Now 7-4 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 9-8 overall after absorbing its fourth straight loss, CHS sits in a tie with Friday Harbor (7-4) and Orcas Island (7-4) in the battle for the #2 and #3 tickets to the district tourney.

MVC, at 11-0, will be the top seed and face the winner of that #2 vs. #3 loser-out game May 14 in the District 1/2 championship game at Skagit Valley College.

Both teams in the finale advance to state.

But first Friday Harbor faces La Conner (3-7) Wednesday, while Orcas clashes with Darrington (2-8) Thursday to close out regular season league play.

Coupeville will have a more difficult task, travelling to Mount Vernon Thursday for a rematch with the Hurricanes.

Steve Hilborn’s diamond men will need a short memory heading into that game, as there is probably little they want to dwell on from Tuesday’s home swan song.

MVC jumped on the Wolves for two runs in the top of the first, before capitalizing on a rash of CHS errors to push seven more across in the second.

Coupeville garnered its lone run in the bottom of the third, after trailing 13-0, as Chase Anderson thumped a double, stole third, then scooted home on one of two errors committed by the ‘Canes.

That was largely it for offense, though, as the Wolves only had a handful of runners, stranding two in the first, and leaving lone runners short of home in three of the other four innings.

CHS used four pitchers, with Anderson, Camden Glover, Coop Cooper, and Trent Thule combining to whiff five batters across five innings of work.

Thule, the lone non-senior in that group, had the most success, recording a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth.

 

Tuesday stats:

Chase Anderson — One single, one double
Camden Glover — One walk
Riley Lawless — One walk
Aiden O’Neill — One single

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Falcon diamond guru retires

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on May 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

South Whidbey High School baseball coach Tom Fallon (right) is retiring after a long, successful diamond career. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

It’s been a good run.

After decades of wearing a South Whidbey High School baseball uniform, first as a player than a coach, Tom Fallon delivers his final lineup card to the ump Monday afternoon.

The Falcons host Sultan in a 4:00 PM game, bringing their season to a close.

For Fallon, who graduated from the school in 1987, it also marks a time to reflect on a lifetime spent on the diamond.

“I would like to thank all of the coaches I’ve got to compete against or share the dugouts with,” he wrote on Facebook.

“All of the volunteers that have helped thru the years.

“The student athletes that have worked so hard to compete and learn and grow.

“The parents for supporting the kids and program.

“It’s truly been an amazing 42 years of being a Falcon player and coach. GO FALCONS!!! And tight lines and long drives.”

Fallon became a paid coach for SWHS in 2000 and jumped to head coach in 2013.

He was tabbed as the Cascade Conference Coach of the Year after his first and second seasons at the helm of the Falcons, with South Whidbey advancing to state in 2014.

Then, in 2015, Fallon led the Falcons to a 2nd place finish at the 1A state tourney, with his squad beating Seattle Christian, Cascade Christian, and Cashmere to advance to the championship game.

South Whidbey came up just short in that royal rumble, falling 6-4 to Hoquiam, but still brought home an impressive chunk of hardware.

Aong with being the high school coach in Langley, Fallon also coached American Legion teams in the summer which often included Coupeville players joining their South Whidbey rivals to thrash off-Island squads.

While the Falcons and Wolves have had an often-intense rivalry over the years in many sports, Fallon’s longest-tenured CHS counterpart, Willie Smith, speaks glowingly of his former dugout compatriot.

“Very good guy and coaches the right way!!” Smith said. “Tom has always been a coach that has held a high level of accountability and excellence at South Whidbey.

“I always looked forward to games with Tom because even though we were rivals I always felt mutual respect and believed that he did an excellent job of coaching the game the right way.

“He and I had, and still have, a good relationship, because we both enjoyed the competition but understood that it was a game, played by 15–18-year-old kids that hopefully enjoyed the game as much as we did.

“South Whidbey has been very fortunate to have a coach with Tom’s integrity, class, and high level of knowledge and I wish him nothing but the best as he moves forward.”

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