Coop Cooper is a veteran leader on a young Wolf hardball squad. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
There’s bound to be some bumps in the road.
After back-to-back trips to the 2B state playoffs, the Coupeville High School baseball squad finds itself in a rebuilding year.
The Wolves have just 11 players total, with four freshmen and two 8th graders, while only three guys in the lineup were letter winners a season ago.
So, Tuesday’s season opener, an 18-0 loss to visiting Meridian, a tough 1A foe with a history of excellence, is not completely unsurprising.
The trick for Steve Hilborn’s very raw Wolf team will be to let things go, learn from the loss, and bounce back quickly with a road trip to Port Townsend to play East Jefferson coming up Thursday afternoon.
The tilt with Meridian was supposed to be game #2 on the season, but a weekend road trip to Blaine was washed away by Mother Nature.
The weather on the prairie was fairly tranquil Tuesday, but the visiting Trojans were a rough and tumble bunch.
Meridian outhit Coupeville 10-1 and took advantage of eight Wolf errors to jump out to a big lead and never look back.
Up 6-0 after the top of the first inning, the Trojans methodically tacked on runs in each frame, forcing the mercy rule to be enacted after the bottom of the fifth.
Coupeville’s best offensive output came in the bottom of the first, but the hometown hardball heroes couldn’t keep a brief rally going.
Senior Landon Roberts lashed a leadoff single, but it would be the only base knock for the Wolves on this day.
Walks to Carson Grove (who was hit by a pitch) and Jayden Little filled the bags, but Meridian escaped without surrendering a run.
Coupeville’s offense sputtered through the next three innings, with the Wolves going 1-2-3 in each frame.
Down to their final at-bats, the Wolves put two runners aboard in the bottom of the fifth, with Phin Rhodes reaching on an error and Roberts eking out a walk, but that was where things ended for CHS.
One definite positive for Coupeville came via the strikeout, as four Wolf hurlers combined to record 13 K’s.
Roberts led the way with six, while Grove whiffed three and Camden Glover and Coop Cooper each recorded two.
Meridian’s other two outs came on fly balls to the outfield, as the Trojans didn’t record a single out on a groundball.
Riley Lawless, Trent Thule, Chris Zenz, Leo Rodriguez, and Jesus Madrigal rounded out the Wolf roster, joining Rhodes in making their CHS baseball debuts.
