Xavier Murdy piled up a hit, a walk and two runs Thursday as Coupeville Babe Ruth played at regionals in Portland. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Not all teams are created equal.
When the Coupeville Babe Ruth 15U baseball squad went to the state tourney, they had 13 players on their roster, the same boys (and one girl) who played together all season.
Now, as the Wolves fight through regionals in Portland, they have 11 in uniform, as Ulrik Wells and Drake Borden couldn’t make the trip.
Thursday’s opponent, the KWRL Centerfield Roosters, representing South Washington, are a true all-star team. The squad pulls players from Kalama, Woodland, Ridgefield and La Center, all meccas of teen sports excellence.
So, it’s not a total surprise the under-staffed Coupeville diamond dogs, despite a chippy effort, fell 14-4.
The loss drops the Wolves to 17-5 on the season, with one contest left to play.
That comes Friday afternoon, when Coupeville faces Montana in its fourth and final game in pool play.
After taking a close loss to Calgary and more lopsided defeats at the hands of Portland and KWRL, the Wolves have no hope of advancing to the semifinals portion of the 10-team tourney.
But, after picking up an unexpected run of games (it’s subbing for North Washington state champ Columbia Basin at regionals), Coupeville will return home with valuable experience from the big stage.
The Wolves fell behind early Thursday, giving up three runs in the first and six more in the second, as KWRL whacked the stuffing out of the ball.
The all-star unit racked up eight hits in just the first two frames, including a triple and a pair of doubles.
The South Washington crew finished with 13 hits before the game was called after five innings due to the 10-run mercy rule.
Coupeville plated a run in the first, another in the third, and two more in its final at-bats.
The opening Wolf run came on a nice two-out, no-one-on-base rally, as the Islanders strung together a single from Daniel Olson, a walk to Gavin Knoblich and an RBI double off the bat of Cody Roberts.
In the third, it was base-knock city, as singles from Xavier Murdy, Andrew Score and Olson brought a runner around.
Roberts was in a groove, smoking a lead-off double in the fourth for his second two bagger, but he died a lonely death on the base-paths as his teammates were unable to help him tap home.
Needing three runs to keep the game alive, Coupeville almost got there in the fifth, but came up a few inches short.
Four consecutive walks — with Murdy, Scott Hilborn (he was plunked by a wayward pitch), Score and Olson outlasting the KWRL hurler — plated one, while a sac fly from Knoblich closed out the rally.
Roberts and Olson paced the Wolves at the plate with two hits apiece, with Murdy scoring twice.
Hawthorne Wolfe, Chelsea Prescott, Ashton Leland, Sage Sharp and Johnny Carlson rounded out the active roster for Steve Hilborn’s squad.
Coupeville Sports 