Baseball: Archbishop Murphy slugs way past Wolves

Archbishop Thomas Murphy broke Coupeville's season-beginning two-game win streak in baseball by bashing the Wolves 18-3 on the Wildcats' field Monday, March 22.

Coupeville plays Archbishop Murphy twice more this week as the two teams finish up their three-game Cascade Conference series. The Wolves will host today, March 24, at 4 p.m., then the teams return to ATM Friday.

The Wildcats were picked to win the conference in the preseason coaches' poll, and they showed why. Offensively they pounded out 12 hits, including six doubles and a triple.

Defensively, starting pitcher Kevin Waldren limited the Wolves to two hits and struck out seven in four innings.

Things started out well for Coupeville as it pushed across two runs in the first inning. J.D. Wilcox tripled, Erik King walked and Jason Bagby doubled in both.

The euphoria was short as the Wildcats exploded for seven runs in the first and backed that up with another five in the second.

Coupeville coach Willie Smith said, "This is part of our maturation process as a pitching group; all three of our pitchers are pitching at this level for the first time so it is a major learning process for them. In our previous games we were able to keep the ball down, mix speeds for strikes and hit spots. Against Murphy, and all good hitting teams, you can’t get the ball up, which is what happened."

He added, "We were obviously disappointed in the outcome of the game, but we feel pretty good that we can fix the issues we had in the game and continue to get better."

Contact Whidbey News Times Sports editor Jim Waller at jwaller@whidbeynewsgroup.com or 360-675-6611 ext. 5060.

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