Each game was just three innings in length with a maximum of nine batters coming to the plate in any inning at Saturday’s cold and windy Oak Harbor baseball jamboree. But the games gave coach Willie Smith from Coupeville and Oak Harbor’s Jim Waller the opportunity to take a look at a lot of players prior to the opening games of the season for both teams.

Under the three-team format the Wolves and the Wildcats had the opportunity to play against one another, and also to square off against Jackson, the defending Class 4A state champion.

The first game of the jamboree had Oak Harbor and Coupeville going head-to-head for three innings with the Wildcats coming out on top 15-2.

The Wolves scored two runs in the top of the first inning off Wildcat starting pitcher Brendan Kays, but that was the extent of Coupeville’s scoring.

Oak Harbor came back with three runs in the bottom half of the inning and then blew the game wide open, sending nine batters to the plate in the bottom of the second as they put six more runs on the board.

Errors played a major role in the contest with the Wolves making three miscues in both the first and second innings.

Despite the sloppy fielding, Smith was upbeat about the Wolves’ performance.

“I thought both our pitchers threw the ball well,” he said. “They threw strikes, kept the ball in the zone and changed speeds. If we clean up the errors, we’ll be fine.”

Kyle Wilcox stroked a double in the first inning for the Wolves and Tony Prosser had an RBI single.

Chris Valencia had a pair of hits including a double for Oak Harbor. Marshall Lobbestael had a single and a triple and James Cardinal collected a pair of singles as part of the Wildcats’ 12-hit attack.

“I really think Coupeville has a good team and the game was a lot closer than the score would indicate,” Waller said. “They helped us out a bit by making errors and then we got a couple of really big hits right after they made an error that would have gotten them out of the inning. We hit the ball well but in my book, we struck out too many times. A coach is never satisfied.”

In the second game of the jamboree, Jackson defeated Coupeville 7-0.

The Timberwolves scored one run in the top of the first inning and added five more in the top of the second.

“We’re a pretty young team and we played a lot of freshmen and junior varsity players today,” Smith said. “We made some errors, but that’s why we play jamborees so we can get things sorted out. I thought our top guys hit the ball well and I’m not disappointed at all.”

In the final game of the day, Jackson scored one run in the top of the first inning off Oak Harbor starting pitcher Andrew Bighouse and three more in the top of the second to claim a 4-2 victory.

Oak Harbor struck back with two runs in the bottom of the third inning, but the Wildcats were unable to pull the game out.

“I thought we did fine,” Waller said. “We made one error and then they got a key hit that cost us. I have no complaints. They have a good team and so do we.”