A big first inning propelled the Archbishop Murphy baseball team to an 11-2 win at Coupeville Wednesday, April 4.

The Wildcats, who are ranked sixth in the state 2A poll, stayed in first in the Cascade Conference with a 10-0 record.

Coupeville dropped to 0-6 (2-8 overall) and finished the tough part of its league schedule where it faced three teams (ATM, Lakewood and Cedarcrest) with a combined 25-3 season record.

The Wolves will finish out the league season against Granite Falls, Sultan and South Whidbey who have a combined record of 6-23. Four of the wins belong to Granite Falls, the Wolves’ next conference opponent. The teams meet in Coupeville at 4 p.m. Monday, April 9, and at Granite Falls Wednesday.

Before those games, Coupeville hosts 10th-ranked 1A Meridian (3-4) in a nonleague game at 1 p.m. Thursday, April 5.

Archbishop Murphy coach Stan Taloff called this year’s team his strongest in a line of good clubs, and it flashed its talent in the first inning. The Wildcats combined six hits off starter Brandt Bodamer with a Coupeville error to race to a 5-0 lead, then added tallies in all but the third inning to steadily pull way.

Coupeville plated a run in the first when Morgan Payne walked, stole second, moved to third on Wade Schaef’s infield hit and scored on an error.

The Wolves’ other run came in the third. Aaron Curtin led with a single, moved up two bases on a pair of ground outs and scored on Jake Tumblin’s single.

That made it 6-2, and Coupeville was still in the game, but ATM added single runs in the fourth and fifth and two in each of the final two innings to roll to the win.

Drew Chan and Aaron Trumbull earned the only two other Coupeville hits.

ATM finished with 13 hits and nine stolen bases.