Wolf catcher Taylor Consford had two hits Friday, but Coupeville fell to Klahowya. (John Fisken photo)
Slip-sliding away.
Coupeville’s chances of repeating as Olympic League champs in baseball took a shot to the ribs Friday, and while its hopes aren’t dead, they’re getting closer to flat-lining.
A rough fifth inning in which the Wolves surrendered five runs with two outs allowed host Klahowya to break open a close game and make off with an 11-6 win.
The loss, the second in as many games against the Eagles this season, drops Coupeville to 2-2 in league play, 7-7 overall.
That leaves the Wolves in a second-place tie with Chimacum (2-2, 4-4), two-and-a-half games off of Klahowya (5-0, 6-3).
Port Townsend (0-5, 0-7) is firmly stuck in the cellar.
CHS still has time to rally, with five league games left on the schedule, but to keep the Eagles from regaining the title they won in 2015, the Wolves will absolutely have to finish with a better record.
By taking the first two games of the three-game season series, Klahowya holds a tiebreaker over Coupeville should they finish with identical records.
The Wolves jumped out to an early lead Friday, scoring a run in the first on a double by Hunter Smith and an RBI single by Clay Reilly, but their hosts never blinked.
Klahowya rallied for three in the bottom half of the opening inning, then plated another run in the second to build a 4-1 lead.
Coupeville twice cut the margin back to one, first at 4-3, then at 5-4 heading into the bottom of the fourth.
The Wolves picked up two runs in the third — Taylor Consford drilled a double to score Matt Hilborn, then came around himself when the Eagles booted a ball hit by Reilly.
Kory Score reached on an error in the fourth, moved up on a steal and a single off of Joey Lippo’s bat, before shooting across home on a passed ball and the game looked like it would come down to a single play.
Then, things kind of fell apart.
After answering with their own run in the fourth, the Eagles exploded for a ten-batter, five-run fifth to bust the game wide open.
All the damage came after there were two outs, as a deadly mix of walks, Wolf errors and a balk or two conspired to doom the visitors.
Coupeville rallied for two in the top of the seventh, on RBI singles by Consford and Reilly, but it wasn’t enough.
The Wolves did manage to pile up 10 hits, with Hilborn and Consford collecting two apiece, but Klahowya hurler Dylan Zuber managed to spend most of the afternoon getting out of trouble while suffering minimal damage.
Coupeville Sports 