Aiden Crimmins (right) was one of six seniors honored Monday by CHS baseball coach Chris Smith. (Jodi Crimmins photo)
It was a mixed bag.
Score-wise, Monday’s baseball match-up with visiting Klahowya did not finish the way many Coupeville supporters would have liked.
Surrendering nine runs in the top of the first inning, the Wolves spent the afternoon fighting from behind and fell 15-4 in a game called after six innings.
The loss drops Coupeville to 5-3 in Olympic League play, 10-8 overall and snaps a three-game winning streak.
But there were positives for the Wolves, who have already locked in the conference’s #2 seed for the playoffs and will open the postseason May 9 at home.
For CHS coach Chris Smith, the game was a prime chance to honor his six seniors — Jonathan Thurston, Ethan Marx, Clay Reilly, Aiden Crimmins, Kory Score and Taylor Consford.
All of them started together for the first time this season, and, after the game, as a large group of fans and family remained in attendance, Smith said heartfelt words about each of the players.
Most of the group have played a full four seasons for CHS, and Chris Smith, first as an assistant under Willie Smith and Marc Aparicio, and then as head coach, has enjoyed the opportunity to work with the six.
“Just a good group of guys,” he said with a big smile as he reflected on their time together.
Three of the seniors played prominent roles during the game, as Consford bashed a triple, Score laced a single and Reilly knocked in two runs.
After falling behind 9-0 in the first frame, as Klahowya picked up seven of its 15 hits, Coupeville chipped away at the lead.
The Wolves plated one in the first, as a ground-out off the bat of Reilly plated Consford, then put together a three-run rally in the second.
Score and Matt Hilborn dropped in singles, wrapped around Marx reaching on an error, before Hunter Smith smashed a two-run double.
Reilly knocked in another run on a ground-out to first, but then the runs stopped cold.
The two teams, after combining for 13 runs in the first two innings, went the next three without a single runner reaching home.
Klahowya (8-0, 10-4), league champs for the second time in three years (Coupeville won in 2016), closed things out with a six-run sixth, then stepped to the side so the Wolves could honor their graduating players.
One player who won’t be leaving, junior shortstop Hunter Smith, paced the attack with two hits, but the Wolf bats were mostly muffled, as Coupeville totaled just five base-knocks.
The Wolves close the regular season with road games at Port Townsend Wednesday and South Whidbey Thursday, before prepping for the start of the district playoffs.
Coupeville Sports 