Aiden O’Neill tracks a fly ball. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
The silence was deafening.
Held without a hit Tuesday afternoon, the Coupeville High School varsity baseball squad absorbed a 6-2 loss to visiting Friday Harbor in the conference opener for both teams.
Despite strong work on the mound from Landon Roberts and Camden Glover, the Wolves tumble to 1-3 on the season heading into another Northwest 2B/1B League tilt Friday afternoon.
That bout will be against Mount Vernon Christian, with the first pitch set for 4:00 PM.
The hope is to have the bats humming again, after a lack of solid contact killed Coupeville’s chances against Friday Harbor.
Held to just five baserunners — four reaching on walks and one via an error — the Wolves went down 1-2-3 in five of seven innings.
That gave the visitors, who had been outscored 47-0 across two non-conference losses prior to Tuesday’s game, a chance to capitalize on their own semi-limited opportunities.
Which Friday Harbor did.
The Wolverines, bouncing back after being whacked by Meridian (33-0) and Nooksack Valley (14-0), scraped out a run in the top of the first, and another in the second.
Both runners tapped home with two outs.
Heading into the third, Coupeville had just a single walk, with senior Cole White eking out the free pass, and then Friday Harbor stretched its lead to 5-0.
A couple of walks set the table, with an RBI double the big blow before a wild pitch and a fielder’s choice plated two more runs.
Any hopes of a quick comeback were blunted by the Wolves failing to get a runner aboard in their half of the third, or the fourth, with Johnny Porter finally breaking through after getting plunked in the fifth.
Roberts also reached base thanks to a dropped third strike, with an error and a wild pitch allowing CHS to finally put some runs on the scoreboard.
Friday Harbor responded by tacking on one final run in the top of the sixth, while the Wolves were set down boom-boom-boom in the final two frames.
Camden Glover fires a fastball. (Morgan White photo)
Glover and Peyton Caveness provided a final hurrah for CHS, with the hurler picking up two late strikeouts before his catcher nailed a runner trying to steal second.
“Not on my watch, skippy!” was the response as the senior sprang up firing and lobbed a perfect strike right onto the waiting mitt to erase the straying Wolverine.
Caveness was one of the four Coupeville hitters to earn a walk, joined by Aiden O’Neill, White, and Johnny Porter.
While the bats were cold, the defense was solid, as the Wolves played error-free ball.
Roberts whiffed eight batters across 5.2 innings of work, joining with Glover to give Coupeville 10 K’s on the afternoon.
Friday Harbor freshman hurler Jackson Feliz, who threw a complete game no-hitter, struck out 13.
Coupeville Sports 