Katrina McGranahan, fireballer. (Joe Lippo photo)
My real job prevents me from following little league baseball and softball on a regular basis, so it’s nice to get a guest shot or two from Joe Lippo.
If you like his work here, check out his other stuff over at http://11andcounting.blogspot.com/.
It was a dreary day at Rhody Park, but the Central Whidbey Dirt Devils and the Oak Harbor Angels showed up to play anyway.
Rain threatened, but never really made an appearance. Present and accounted for was a good part of the Central Whidbey Giants, one of the boys baseball majors teams, there to cheer on their softball counterparts.
As parents, I suppose we will be seeing a lot of this in the coming years… You know, girls…boys….right?
The game started, and I was hoping for some action to write about before I had to leave to take the boys away to Oak Harbor for their own game, and I thought I was about to be disappointed.
Katrina McGranahan started the day on the mound (as it were) and whipped about 10 pitches past 3 batters for three straight outs. The only action the field saw was a dropped third strike, which catcher Lauren Rose casually tossed to first baseman Veronica Crownover for the third out.
The top of the first lasted roughly three minutes. People started heading for the coffee.
The Angels took the field and the Dirt Devils put on their batting helmets. They wouldn’t take them off for quite a while.
The Angels pitcher whipped her first pitch over the plate, which Rose casually hit into deep left for a home run.
Deep breath now…
Jasmine Nostali walked, Payton Aparicio hit a double, McGranahan hit a double, Chelsea Prescott walked, Sarah Wright hit a single, Crownover hit a double, Tomika Nostali hit a single, Heather Nostali walked, and back to the top of the order.
As you can see, there are no outs. There were no outs until the eleventh batter of the first inning, and then not again until Crownover was picked off at home somewhere around the 16th batter.
I saw Aparicio ask her coaches “Again???” as she was told she was batting for a third time in the inning.
The first five batters came to the plate three times each in the first inning, allowing the Angels pitcher a good look at 23 total batters. 19 of those crossed the plate, effectively putting the game on ice before the fourth Angels batter came to the plate.
Seriously. The game winner came when Rose casually trotted across the plate for the 11th run of the first inning. You almost felt bad for cheering. Almost.
Coach Kevin McGranahan informed me that the last time the Dirt Devils played the Angels, something similar happened, resulting in a 33-3 win.
He had time to talk to me because after the first inning, he left the game play to the girls. I had time to ask questions because the boys’ game was inexplicably cancelled halfway through the first inning.
Speaking of the girls, they switched up positions and even tried some switch hitting, and even put six more runs across the plate in the shortened five inning game, while the Angels managed 10 runs. The Dirt Devils increased their record to 11-1 and have high hopes for the All Star tourney.
I’ll tell you what — coach McGranahan and staff are going to hand the HS coaches a team on a silver platter. A GOOD team.
Key word here is “TEAM”.
He is coaching at a higher level and challenging the girls to step up. Which they are (See above … 11-1 anyone?) The other teams in the league may not be the pushovers that the Dirt Devils make them look like.
That slobbering sound you hear is the Coupeville HS softball coaches drooling. Ever see the movie “Aliens”? Yeah, like that.
Oak Harbor probably cancelled the boys’ game because they saw what the girls were doing to their softball team…
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