By Bill Reynolds
La Conner Community News
Facing long odds, La Conner High School baseball and softball teams came up short in their respective season-ending two-game sets against the Friday Harbor Wolverines last week.
The Braves baseball squad fell 13-5 and 9-7 in a home-and-away series with the Wolverines, wrapping up its 2026 campaign with a 5-12 overall record and 4-8 NW2B/1B mark.
The La Conner softballers came up short 13-2 and 17-7 to Friday Harbor, finishing the season 6-11 overall and 2-6 in league action.
With its two-game sweep of La Conner, the Friday Harbor baseball team squared its overall ledger at 8-8. The Wolverines won six of 10 league contests.
The Friday Harbor softball club posted a 12-7 record in all games and was 7-2 in NW2B/1B matchups.
The La Conner baseball losses were particularly heartbreaking.
The Braves were tied with Friday Harbor 5-5 in the third inning of last Monday’s home game before yielding eight unanswered Wolverine runs over the final four frames. Two days later, at Friday Harbor, La Conner bolted to an early 7-0 lead before giving up nine Wolverine tallies the rest of the way.
In the May 4 matchup, the Braves scored a run in the first inning on a single by Kaleb Otis and an RBI groundout from Angus Poprycz. La Conner exploded for four runs in the third when Kamien Lopez, Austin McClure and Poprycz were hit by pitches, Elde singled to left, and Emmitt Alvord and Jaydon Otis drew walks.
But Friday Harbor matched the Braves run-for-run through three stanzas, then posted one run in the fourth, two in the fifth, three in the sixth and another pair in the seventh.
At Friday Harbor, La Conner took advantage of free passes issued by Wolverine hurlers to jump in front 7-0. The lead evaporated, though, after a defensive hiccup.
“We were really doing well, taking advantage of Friday Harbor’s pitching,” La Conner coach Preston Stewart said, “and then we had an error and everything kind of fell apart.
“We’re really close to putting it all together,” Stewart added. “We’ll miss our seniors (Lopez, McClure, and Brent Bobb) but we’ll have three pitchers (Kaleb Otis, Poprycz and Elde) back next year. So, the future looks really good.”
Softball
On the softball side, in its home pairing with Friday Harbor, the Braves trailed 11-0 in the sixth and were on the verge of losing via the 10-run mercy rule when they extended the game with a two-run rally.
Jade Damien led off the home sixth with a double to center, moved up to third on a wild pitch, and plated on a double to left by Yami Ocampo Contreras. Kat Edwards delivered Ocampo Contreras with an RBI single.
Friday Harbor tacked on two more runs in the top of the seventh before holding the Braves scoreless in their final at-bat.
Aaliyah Gonzalez and Angie Pena each lined a single to round out La Conner’s five-hit attack.
Despite posting seven runs at Friday Harbor, La Conner lost what was the swan song for retiring longtime Braves coach Loran James and seniors Della Damien, Rachel Bill, Crystal Ellis, Ocampo Contreras and Edwards.
La Conner had entered the Friday Harbor series having split two of its prior four matchups, recording a 15–10 league triumph at Darrington and a 13-3 non-conference victory at Tonasket.
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
