Trent Thule gets his bench riled up. (Jackie Saia photo)
The Wolves dug themselves a hole, twice, yet almost made it all the way back.
Unfortunately for the Coupeville High School baseball squad, a late rally fell just short for the second straight game, with Steve Hilborn’s team nipped 14-11 Monday afternoon on Orcas Island.
The loss drops CHS to 7-2 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 9-6 overall, with a rematch against the Vikings set for Wednesday in Cow Town.
With three conference clashes left to play, the Wolves sit in second place in the NWL, a game-and-a-half back of Mount Vernon Christian (8-0) and a game-and-a-half up on Orcas (6-4).
Monday’s royal rumble was a fairly close affair, with Coupeville winning the hit battle 8-5, Orcas edging the Wolves 14-12 in drawing walks, and both teams committing three errors apiece.
But the Vikings spent most of the day out in front on the scoreboard, forcing their visitors to play catch-up.
Carson Grove got CHS on the board first in the top of the first, sacrificing his body by being plunked by a pitch before coming around to score on an RBI single to left off the bat of Chase Anderson.
Orcas responded quickly, however, plating four runs in the bottom half of the opening frame, before pushing across three more in the second to take a commanding 7-1 lead.
Coupeville’s pitchers clamped down after that, tossing three consecutive scoreless innings, while the offense chipped away at the deficit.
Chris Zenz (left) and Chase Anderson combined to smack four hits on Orcas Island Monday. (Julie Wheat photo)
Anderson, having reached base on catcher’s interference in the third, scored on a passed ball, while Leo Rodriguez zipped for the plate in the fourth thanks to an Orcas error.
The Wolves sliced the margin to 7-5 in the fifth, capitalizing on big hits from Anderson and Riley Lawless, but then things went wrong in the bottom of the sixth.
Using a string of walks and two well-placed hits, the Vikings suddenly relit the pilot light on their offense, scoring seven runs to turn a tense tilt into a potential blowout at 14-5.
CHS was not ready to go down easily, though, and launched its own run-scoring barrage while facing its final at-bats in the top of the seventh.
Anderson smacked a leadoff double, followed by four walks — with Aiden O’Neill and Coop Cooper being drilled — before Chris Zenz and Rodriguez popped back-to-back RBI singles to pull Coupeville within 14-9.
The Wolves weren’t done, forcing home two more runs thanks to bases-loaded walks to Grove and Anderson, and had the bases juiced with just one out.
Orcas needed a hero to stop the bleeding and found it, though, with Joe Stephens coming out of the bullpen to whiff both of the batters he faced, ending Coupeville’s rally a few runs short of a complete celebration.
Four pitchers combined to toss six innings for CHS, with Anderson, Cooper, Glover, and Grove sharing mound duties.
Cooper emerged as top dog, whiffing eight Vikings across 4.1 frames.
Monday stats:
Chase Anderson — Two singles, one double, one walk
Coop Cooper — One single, two walks
Camden Glover — One single, one walk
Carson Grove — Two walks
Riley Lawless — One single
Aiden O’Neill — One walk
Leo Rodriguez — One single, two walks
Malachi Somes — One walk
Trent Thule — Two walks
Chris Zenz — One single
