The road to the Cascade Conference baseball pennant goes through Archbishop Murphy, and Coupeville is finding the path full of pot holes.

After losing to the Wildcats 5-1 Monday, March 31, the Wolves fell to Murphy once again, 8-0, in Coupeville Wednesday.

Coupeville believes it has the talent to challenge the Wildcats for the league crown, but Archbishop Murphy, who finished third in the state last year after winning the title in 2012, isn’t ready to give it up.

A six-run fifth inning by Archbishop Murphy Wednesday sunk Coupeville.

The inning was fueled by a lucky-bounce triple and a critical Wolf error.

“Between their hits, our mental lapses and, then, a physical error, we lose the game,” said Willie Smith, Coupeville coach.

“It felt like we were pretty flat and they were able to put the bat on the ball,” Smith added. “We just didn’t respond offensively at all against a guy that we should have been able to get after. We didn’t strike out a bunch and we did have some well-hit balls, but it seemed we hit the ball at them and they found every hole we had.”

The Wolves are frustrated, Smith said.

“This just wasn’t the expectation on any of our parts and we need to find a way to get back on track and feel good about ourselves this Friday.”

Smith did like the effort of relief pitcher Wade Schaef, who “did a great job of shutting them down” once he entered in the fifth.

Coupeville (2-3, 3-3) and Archbishop Murphy (7-0, 7-2) wrap up their series in Everett at 4 p.m. Friday, April 4.

entered in the fifth.