In a battle for third in the Cascade Conference baseball standings, Lakewood dumped Coupeville 12-7 Friday, April 30, at Sherman Field.

The Wolves now head to the 1A district baseball playoffs. They travel to Lynden Christian Wednesday, May 5, for a loser-out contest against the Lyncs (2-16) at 4 p.m.

If Coupeville (8-10, 10-10) wins, it will advance to the double-elimination portion of the tournament Saturday, May 5, and face Meridian (13-6), the No. 1 seed, at noon at Blaine’s Pipeline Fields.

The Wolves would also play a second game Saturday. Nooksack Valley (5-12) and Friday Harbor (13-4) round out the field. Three of the four teams will move on to the tri-district tournament.

Coupeville could have avoided the loser-out game with Lynden Christian had it defeated Lakewood (10-8, 11-8) Friday and earned third-place. The loss, however, dropped Coupeville into a tie with Granite Falls for fourth. The Tigers topped the Wolves twice in their three-game series this season; that pushed the Wolves to fifth based upon the tie-breaker formula.

A five-run second inning helped Coupeville jump to a 6-2 lead against Lakewood, but the Cougars out scored the Wolves 10-1 over the final four innings to snare the win.

Defensive breakdowns burned Coupeville again. After averaging just 1.5 errors per game the first five weeks of the season, the Wolves committed over five per game the final two weeks – including seven errors Friday.

The Coupeville offense was hot in the early innings and got a home run from Chase Griffin and doubles from Ian Smith and Kevin Eaton.

The Jekyll-Hyde Wolves are frustrating coach Willie Smith: “We went back into our unfocused defensive mode (Friday), and we stopped hitting. We just kind of shut down. We were playing well; I’m not sure what changed.”

Smith said he is undecided if he will start J.D. Wilcox or Smith on the mound in Wednesday’s playoff.