Coupeville Sports

McKayla Bailey hit the ball so far she had to drive to find where it landed.

“Fear the bat of Turtle Shell!!” (John Fisken photo)

It took them five tries, but the Wolves finally got to Cedarcrest.

After a series of rain-outs and scheduling blunders by their hosts, the Coupeville High School softball players and coaches could be forgiven for thinking they would never actually play in Duvall this season.

But their dreams came true Wednesday — at least partially — when they faced off with the top team in the Cascade Conference.

And while the results weren’t quite what they wanted, as they were swept 12-4 and 9-2 in a twinbill, there were a ton of positives, including a thunderous home run from McKayla Bailey, a sparkling catch from Haley Sherman and four-hit afternoons for Breeanna Messner and Bessie Walstad.

Now 4-9 as they prepare for a road game next Monday at South Whidbey, a team they have beaten twice this season, the Wolves got some pop back in their bats that had been missing the past two games.

“We played better in the first game than we did in the Sultan and Lakewood games,” said Wolf coach David King. “And defensively, even better in the second game than we did in the first game of the doubleheader.”

Facing a ferocious offense, Wolf hurlers Bailey and Maria Rockwell held their own.

“Both McKayla and Maria pitched strong games. They used the whole strike zone and only had a few pitches that really hurt them,” King said. “Cedarcrest is a very good hitting team from top to bottom.”

Coupeville actually led 4-3 in the first game, and trailed by just two runs entering the bottom of the sixth, where a eight-hit, six-run explosion doomed its chances.

The Wolves grabbed all four of their runs in the second. Sherman and Sydney Aparicio each collected an RBI single before Madeline Roberts, who had put in extensive hitting practice long after everyone had gone home after her last game, whacked a two-run single.

Wanting to kick-start his team before game two, King shuffled the lineup, moving Messner up to the two hole and dropping his big bopper, Bailey, to sixth, where she could more readily swing away.

Both moves worked splendidly, as Messner, a surgeon with the bat who lays down skillfully-placed bunts that dig their way to China, put together a 4-for-4 performance at the plate. Bailey opted for the all-at-once method, launching her second home run of the season.

While Bailey was hammering the long ball, Sherman was taking them away, robbing a potential home run with a gorgeous catch right at the fence in left field.

On a day when nine Wolves collected at least one hit, and the team collected 18 base knocks total, Coupeville went down fighting. It loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh on singles by Roberts, Messner and Hailey Hammer, but saw the rally die on a line-out to right center.

With six games left in the regular season, including one more against Cedarcrest, King sees a team that is close to fully jelling and making a run.

“After our talk between games about our defensive effort, the whole team picked it up and played hard and we made plays we didn’t in the first game,” he said. “We did see improvement in both games with our approach at the plate and we are moving in the right direction.”