Coupeville Sports

Cody Roberts pitched strongly in relief Saturday in Coupeville’s opener. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Erase the first half hour and things were pretty good.

Back on the baseball diamond for the first time since 2019, the Coupeville High School hardball squad dug itself a big hole Saturday, then almost clawed all the way back out again.

But it wasn’t to be, as the Wolves stranded the tying run on base in the final inning, falling 7-5 to visiting Friday Harbor.

The first baseball game played since the pandemic wiped out all prep sports last spring, it also marked Coupeville’s return after many years to the Northwest 2B/1B League, and the debut for new head coach Will Thayer.

The new diamond guru liked some of what he saw, but could have done without his pitching staff giving up 11 walks in the first two innings en route to falling behind 6-0.

“It was a good game,” Thayer said. “Rough first inning and a half, then we pulled together.

“It was a good gauge of where we stand, and, if we would have started fast, I believe we would have had a different outcome.”

Daniel Olson, the lone senior on this Coupeville squad, got the call on the mound and opened things by whiffing the leadoff hitter.

After that, however, he had some control problems, helped by an ump with a tight strike zone.

Without registering a base hit, and actually only making contact once, Friday Harbor still managed to put three runs on the board in the first, and another three in the second.

Wolf junior Cody Roberts came on in relief midway through the second inning, and started firing b-b’s, while Olson came back around to provide plenty of spark to Coupeville’s offense.

“Cody pitching was close to shut down,” Thayer said.

The Wolves almost immediately began to chip away at the lead, tossing a run on the board in the bottom of the second, two more tallies in the third, and a run in the fourth.

Olson had a key base-knock in the second — the first hit for either team — while Jonathan Valenzuela bashed an RBI double in the third which plated Scott Hilborn.

Finding a nice groove at the plate, the Wolves also got hits from Zane Oldenstadt and Hawthorne Wolfe in the fourth, narrowing the lead back to 6-4.

From there, the two squads exchanged runs in the fifth, before both pitching staffs clamped down on the hitters.

Trailing by two with two outs and no one on base in the bottom of the seventh, and final inning, Coupeville almost produced a rally for the memory books.

Olson and Roberts punched back-to-back hits, with the latter representing the tying run, but Friday Harbor escaped, ending the game on a strikeout.

In this pared-down pandemic season in which all the players, fans, and umps will wear masks, Coupeville has an 11-game schedule.

Up next is a home doubleheader Friday, March 12, with La Conner coming to The Rock.

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