Coupeville Sports

Hailey Hammer

“Locked and loaded. Strasburg Super-Awesomeness ready to go!!”

A win would have been the cherry on top.

Unfortunately, a four-run rally in the top of the seventh wasn’t quite enough to get them all the way back, and the Coupeville High School softball squad fell 8-6 at Granite Falls Tuesday.

Still, the loss couldn’t overshadow one of the team’s stronger performances of the season, and two phenomenal individual displays, one with the bat and one with the glove.

The leather came courtesy of third-baseman Hailey Hammer, who snared everything that came within a mile of her.

“Hailey made three great plays on shots to her glove side to get the batter,” said Wolf coach David King. “She played the hot corner perfect.

“Not many third-baseman in our league would have been able to make a play on any of those,” he added.

The booming bat came courtesy of fellow sophomore sensation Madeline Strasburg, who crunched four hits, including a mammoth, 220-foot triple that missed being a home run by mere inches. She also drove in four runs, carving a legend in Granite that will linger for years.

Coupeville swung the bat aggressively all afternoon, rapping out 12 hits, with Hammer and McKayla Bailey cracking doubles. Bessie Walstad and Maria Rockwell both collected a pair of singles.

Granite Falls capitalized on an early fielding error by the bus-weary Wolves to build an early lead, then held on desperately at the end as Coupeville strung together a final-inning rally.

Bailey punched a one-out double, then after a single from Rockwell put runners at the corners, Hammer lifted a long sacrifice fly to plate a run.

Down to their final out, the Wolves refused to bow, with Walstad forcing a base on balls. Then Strasburg nearly went yard, with a blast to deep right center that transfixed everyone.

“The ball hit the top of the fence about five inches from the top for a triple,” King said. “Any other field and fence in our league, this would have been a home run.”

Breeanna Messner followed Strasburg’s bomb with a beautifully-placed RBI single, but the rally finally died with the next batter.

“Overall we played really well,” King said. “Pitching was on, defense was good and we had some really good at-bats and hits.”

Now 4-5 overall, 3-5 in Cascade Conference play, the Wolves return home Thursday to face Sultan, a team they have already beaten once this season.

Plagued by rain-outs like no other CHS team (baseball has played 14 games to their nine), the softball sluggers will play catch-up with a pair of just-announced road doubleheaders.

The Wolves will make attempt #5 to play Cedarcrest April 24, then travel to Archbishop Thomas Murphy May 3.

Regardless of who or where they play, the Wolves are rounding into mid-season form, something that pleases King and co-coach Amy King.

“One comment Amy mentioned was, that when we stepped off the bus, we stepped off ready to play. So true,” King said. “Defensively we are really starting to jell and play well.

“We are making almost all of the plays we are supposed to be making and then making some that are difficult,” he added. “I will take that every single day.”