Defense lapses and the lack of timely hits sent the Coupeville High School baseball team to a 3-0 loss at Sequim Wednesday, March 18.

Coupeville’s starting pitcher, Aaron Trumbull, threw a good game, coach Willie Smith said, but “not making routine plays” behind him proved costly.

“Dropped pickoffs, overthrows, a dropped fly ball and failed executions on our first-and-third defense led to all three of their runs,” Smith said.

The Wolves’ offense had its problems as well.

With one out in the first inning, Aaron Curtin doubled but C.J. Smith was thrown out at the plate trying to score from first. Curtin went to third on the play but was left stranded.

In the fourth with one out, Josh Bayne singled and stole second and third but was stuck there after a strikeout and popup.

Kyle Bodamer beat out an infield single and Cole Payne doubled to put two runners in scoring position with one out in the fifth. A blown squeeze bunt and strikeout ended the threat.

A base-runner blunder in the sixth erased another scoring chance, coach Smith said.

“The good news is that the mistakes we are making are the result of not focusing and executing things we work on every day, so we can fix those,” Smith said.

“We are getting strong pitching, but we need to play solid, fundamental defense and that is, right now, a work in progress,” Smith added. “But, we will get there and put it all together.”

Coupeville (1-2) goes to Duvall to meet Cedarcrest (2-0) at 4 p.m. Monday, March 23.