Playoff races tighten up for Wolves

They had post-season destiny in their own hands, but the Coupeville fastpitch team couldn’t come through Friday afternoon against La Conner.

The Wolves took an early lead over the Braves, but failed to hang late, losing 4-2.

“It’s just been kind of rough, we just haven’t been executing like we need to,” CHS head coach Jim Wheat said.

Coupeville took an early 1-0 lead off of La Conner pitcher Molly Olsen. After allowing the game to get tied, CHS went up again 2-1 and held the advantage until late in the game.

A couple of defensive miscues and base running mistakes, however, allowed the contest to get away in the closing innings.

“We had an opportunity to go ahead,” Wheat said. “A couple of mistakes really hurt us.”

A win would have guaranteed the Wolves at least a tie for the third and final playoff spot in the Northwest A. The loss, however, bumped them to 3-6 in league and gave La Conner, also 3-6, the season tie breaker between the teams. All La Conner had to do was defeat Darrington, who is winless in league play on Tuesday. CHS had to beat Friday Harbor yesterday and hope for Darrington’s first league win in 10 attempts.

The Coupeville baseball team also lost a close 4-2 contest to La Conner Friday afternoon, but it still held playoff hopes in its own hands as of last night against Friday Harbor.

With a win yesterday, CHS would force a three-way tie for second place between Concrete and La Conner. All three teams would play in a three-inning round robin tournament either Friday or Saturday at a time and location yet to be determined. Only one of those teams would advance to the playoffs.

A loss to Friday Harbor and the season is over.

Results from last night’s games occurred too late to appear in the News-Times. Full results and playoff information will appear in the Saturday edition.

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