Coupeville’s Izzy Wells struck out 12 in five innings but it wasn’t enough as the North/Central Whidbey 11/12 Little League softball team lost to Sedro-Woolley 9-5 in the opening game of the District 11 tournament Monday, June 27, in Oak Harbor.

The two teams meet again at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 28, at Oak Harbor’s Volunteer Fields in the second game of the best-of-three series. The third game, if necessary, will be 6 p.m. Wednesday at Volunteer Fields.

North/Central Whidbey led 5-3 after four innings on just one hit — an inside the park home run by Kayla Carr. Walks, errors, stolen bases and wild pitches helped fuel the North Whidbey offense.

Walks to Emily Wilson and Macy Oliver led to two runs for North Whidbey in the first inning. An error and walks to Megan Sumner, Abby Mulholland and Jayden Erickson helped push across three more runs in the second.

Sedro-Woolley scored six runs in the fifth inning behind two hits and four walks.

Wells pitched “five strong innings,” according to coach Gerry Oliver. Macy Oliver tossed the sixth and recorded a pair of strikeouts.

“Sedro-Woolley caught the big mo” at the end and North/Central Whidbey couldn’t recover, according to coach Oliver.