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Have bats, will thump!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on March 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Freshman Mackenzie Davis had a pair of RBI singles Saturday and was a defensive spark-plug in her debut as a high school catcher. (John Fisken photo)

Let the hits rain down.

With eight different players getting at least one base-knock Saturday, the Coupeville High School JV softball squad had plenty of offense to keep their faithful fans warm on a cold, chilly afternoon on the prairie.

By the time they were done knocking Vashon Island around, the Wolves had rung up 14 hits, one for every run they scored in a 14-7 win.

The offensive explosion, which included a pair of doubles from Scout Smith and a resounding inside-the-park grand slam off the bat of Veronica Crownover, lifts the young CHS players to 1-0 on the season.

Coupeville actually spotted the visiting Pirates a three-run lead after the first half inning, and still trailed 4-2 headed into the bottom of the third.

Then the fireworks went off.

A nine-run, seven-hit, 15-batter affair, the bottom of the third went on longer than some entire games do. And the Wolf fans wouldn’t have had it any other way.

An infield single from Tamika Nastali and a walk to Kyla Briscoe set the stage, then Wolf catcher Mackenzie Davis started the barrage.

Rifling an RBI single down the first-base line, she dropped the ball flawlessly in front of an oncoming outfielder, kick-starting a run of five straight Coupeville hits.

Melia Welling dumped a ball between the catcher and pitcher and zoomed into first, Nicole Lester whacked a shot to center, Jae LeVine crushed the ball to the same spot (but even deeper) and Emma Mathusek whipped a frozen rope into right-center.

All that was mere prelude, however.

After Smith walked to juice the bags, still with just one out, Crownover turned on a pitch and drove it to the base of the wall in center.

A couple of inches higher and her home run trot would have been conducted at half-speed as someone hopped the fence to retrieve the ball.

Instead, with the ball still in play and her teammates running wild in front of her, Crownover hit the jets and came crashing around third.

As she stamped on home, beating the throw, dad Darren pretended he wasn’t a cop who had just witnessed someone break the speed limit right in front of him.

Up 10-4 at that point, with all the air having been punched out of the Vashon players, Coupeville cruised home, adding a few more runs along the way.

Crownover and Davis both delivered late-game RBI singles, while the Wolves also scored twice off of double steals.

Smith led the hit parade, collecting two doubles and a single. She also collected a pair of walks, successfully reaching base all five times she came to the plate.

Backing her up, LeVine, Crownover, Davis and Nastali had two hits apiece.

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She has the Wright stuff!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on March 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Sarah Wright had three hits, four RBI and two dazzling defensive plays Saturday in a 13-5 Coupeville win. (John Fisken photo)

It took them a little while to get going, but then … wowza.

Heading into the bottom of the fifth inning Saturday, the Coupeville High School softball squad had just a lone infield single to its credit, and trailed visiting Vashon Island 4-2.

16 batters, seven hits and 11 runs later, the Wolves were finally done with their half of the inning and ready to coast home with a 13-5 win.

The non-conference victory lifts Coupeville to 2-0 on the season as it prepares to open Olympic League play.

The Wolves host Klahowya Wednesday, Mar. 29, then travel to Port Townsend Friday, Mar. 31.

With a rain-out in between, CHS had been off a full week since its opening day win, and maybe that contributed a bit to their early lack of offense.

More likely it was the Vashon pitcher, who had three speeds — slow, slower and slowest — and used them to effectively blunt the Wolf bats.

While Coupeville scraped out two runs in the third on a bases-loaded walk to Lauren Rose and an RBI ground-out from Katrina McGranahan, it wasn’t connecting on many solid hits.

Sarah Wright beat out an infield chopper in the third, but that was it until the floodgates opened in the fifth.

With the rain which had been threatening all game finally beginning to consistently fall, the Vashon hurler looked cold and miserable, at one point having her teammates blow on her throwing fingers.

Seizing the moment, the Wolves pounced.

Rose reached on an error and McGranahan stroked a single into the gap between third and short to set the table, before Wright began the onslaught with a thunderous two-run double to deep center-field.

That knotted the score up at 4-4, but the hit parade soon blew that up sky high.

Hope Lodell lashed a two-run single off a fielder’s glove, joltin’ Jae LeVine crunched a two-run single to center, a passed ball plated yet another run, and boom, it was Wright’s second turn at the plate in the inning.

Wiggling her eyebrows slightly in anticipation, she dropped the hammer, sending the ball careening wildly into the right field corner, where it hit pay-dirt and skipped free.

By the time the ball came flying back in, Wright was on third, her extended family (which was huddled along the first row of rain-slickened seats) had gone appropriately bonkers and two more runs were plated.

If Vashon thought the agony was done, the Pirates were mistaken, though.

The next two hitters, Mikayla Elfrank and Veronica Crownover, whacked back-to-back RBI extra-base hits to cap an inning in which all nine Wolves reached base at least once.

While she didn’t get a hit in the inning, the most grateful Wolf might have been left fielder Tiffany Briscoe, who walked her first time up in the fifth.

Why grateful, you ask?

Because this free pass, her third straight walk on the afternoon, was the first time she didn’t get plunked with a pitch. With two bruises already forming, missing out on the trifecta was cause for internal celebration.

When the Wolves weren’t raining down runs, they played solid defense behind McGranahan, who whiffed five Pirates from the pitcher’s circle.

Wright, Coupeville’s catcher, gunned down a runner at third and nailed another at home after thinking quickly.

With the ball wet from the rain, a pitch skidded past her glove, and the Vashon runner at third bolted for home.

Spinning quickly, Wright played the rebound off the backstop to perfection, then whirled and caught the airborne, and startled, runner with the tag right as she started to drop into a slide.

LeVine added a nifty double play, ending the sixth by snaring a grounder in between second and first, tagging the runner going by, then pivoting and dropping a perfect throw into Crownover’s glove at first.

Toss in stellar work by the outfield, as Briscoe, Lodell, Robin Cedillo and Tamika Nastali ran down nearly everything which came their way, and Coupeville was clicking on all aspects of the game.

The game also marked the varsity debut of freshman Scout Smith, who started at third and lashed a wicked liner in her first at-bat, only to have a Vashon fielder steal a double away with a lunging catch.

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Wolf grads rule college diamonds!!

Posted in Baseball, Softball, Wolves in college, tagged , , , , , , on March 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Ben Etzell gets nasty. (Libby Auger photo)

The Coupeville connection is alive and well.

Former Wolves can be found playing on college softball and baseball diamonds in several states this spring.

Ben Etzell and Monica Vidoni are pulling on their uniforms in Minnesota, while Aaron Trumbull and Hailey Hammer are still swinging away here in Washington state.

An alphabetically-assembled update through Wednesday:

Ben Etzell — Now a junior at Saint John’s University, the former Cascade Conference baseball MVP has made a team-high six appearances on the pitching mound.

He has a 1.86 era across 9.2 innings, with 13 strikeouts and a save for a Johnnies squad which sits at 9-5.

Hailey Hammer — The sophomore slugger mashed a grand slam for Everett Community College, and overall is hitting .308 with seven RBI in 10 games.

The Trojans are 4-9 and she has eight hits, seven walks and six runs.

Aaron Trumbull — Playing as a freshman for Olympic Community College, he’s appeared in three games for a 2-6 team. Overall, he’s hitting .250 with a run and a walk to his credit.

Monica Vidoni — A sophomore at Rainy River Community College, she’s hitting .267 through 10 games for a 6-5 Voyageurs squad.

She has four hits (including a double), three runs, two RBI, two walks and a stolen base.

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Young sluggers, learn some skills!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on March 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Melia Welling and her Wolf softball teammates will run a free skills clinic for children in K-8 Saturday, April 1. (John Fisken photo)

Want to some day chase down fly balls like Hope Lodell or slug home runs like Katrina McGranahan?

Now’s your chance.

The Coupeville High School softball squad is offering a free skills clinic Saturday, April 1 for kids in grades K-8.

The event will kickoff with registration at 9:15 AM at Rhododendron Park on Patmore Road, and the clinic runs from 10-12.

If there’s rain, things will move inside the high school gym.

Wolf players and coaches will work with young players on throwing, hitting, defense, pitching and catching, with everything tailored to the child’s age and skill level.

Children should come ready with a bat, glove, footwear (inside and outside), softball clothing, jacket and water.

For more info contact CHS coaches Kevin McGranahan at kmcgranahan@coupeville.k12.wa.us or Justine McGranahan at (360) 720-8436.

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Gun show on the prairie!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on March 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Sarah Wright collected three hits and two RBI while playing inspired ball behind the plate Saturday in a 6-5 Wolf win. (John Fisken photos)

   When she wasn’t pitching, Katrina McGranahan also blasted a home run and knocked in three runs.

Veronica Crownover pulled off a defensive gem at first to aid the cause.

Power against power.

South Whidbey High School hurler Mackenzee Collins is a beast in the circle, and the junior fireballer whiffed 13 Coupeville hitters Saturday afternoon.

But, when the Wolves did get their bats on the ball, they turned her own power against Collins, riding epic blasts from Katrina McGranahan and Sarah Wright to capture a 6-5 win on a frigid opening day.

Overall, Coupeville rapped out eight hits, but none were bigger than a game-tying two-run home run from McGranahan and a go-ahead RBI triple from Wright.

Both blasts ended up in the deepest, darkest part of center field, out where the deer were cavorting pregame, and the only thing which kept both moonshots inside the fence was the stiff wind gusting across the prairie.

The duo combined to record five hits (Wright held a 3-2 edge) and five RBI (McGranahan won 3-2), but they also got some assistance at just the right moments from their teammates.

On a day where, two hours before the first pitch, it would have been safe to bet the game wouldn’t get played, things zipped along surprisingly smoothly.

After much sweat and toil from master groundskeeper Mike Lodell, the field stayed firm and just a trace muddy, the complete opposite of the school’s nearby grass parking lot.

Under the strain of rain and too many tires — the CHS baseball team, which shares the lot, was playing its second game in as many days — it became a roiling pit of mud, sending cars skidding, when they weren’t spinning in place.

But back on the well-preserved softball field, the Wolves were showing resiliency, twice bouncing back from deficits before claiming the lead for good.

Trailing 1-0 heading into the bottom of the first, Coupeville responded immediately, with lead-off hitter Lauren Rose lighting the fuse.

After drawing a walk, Mouse ran wild on the base-paths, eventually ending up on third after a steal and a passed ball. With her attention diverted a bit, Collins got tagged one-two by McGranahan and Wright.

It wouldn’t be the last time.

The Wolves #3 and #4 hitters socked back-to-back RBI singles, before Collins escaped by punching out the inning’s final two batters with wicked pitches.

South Whidbey put together a three-run rally in the top of the second to go back out in front 4-2, but after that McGranahan settled down in the pitcher’s circle and started matching her Falcon rival pitch-for-pitch.

She got some help, with Wolf first baseman Veronica Crownover plucking a low throw out of the dirt and shortstop Mikayla Elfrank denying her former Falcon mates by running down a dangerously drifting pop fly.

Up at the plate for a second time, again with Rose dancing on the base paths (perhaps in a bid to stay warm), McGranahan crushed the snot out of the ball in the bottom of the third.

Putting medal through the metal, she tore around the base-path, almost catching the quicksilver Rose, before emphatically stamping on home with a game-tying two-run home run a second before the throw was airmailed in from center field.

With the game knotted up, both hurlers bore down.

McGranahan got aid from center fielder Hope Lodell, who chased down two dangerous blows, leaning forward to snag one just before it would have hit the ground and skipped away.

Coupeville got a runner on here, a runner on there (a single from Wright, a walk by Robin Cedillo), then broke through again in the bottom of the fifth.

Joltin’ Jae LeVine led off the inning, obtaining a hit by dropping the ball into a two-inch target between the pitcher and first baseman. Flying pell-mell down the line, “Flash” lived up to her nickname, out-leaning the throw.

Falcon fans perked up on the next at-bat, as Collins got a little revenge by striking McGranahan out, but that just opened up the stage for Wright.

The force-of-nature sophomore catcher launched a rocket to straight away center field, plating LeVine with the go-ahead run while Wright flew into third, huge smile on her face.

The smile got even bigger a moment later, when Elfrank punched a ball between two Falcon infielders for an RBI single of her own.

Up 6-4 and looking to break things open, Coupeville was aggressive on the base-paths, forcing South Whidbey to make difficult throws.

Twice the Falcons did just that, though, gunning down Elfrank at third to end the fifth, then nailing Lodell at home to bring a close to the sixth.

South Whidbey shaved the lead back to 6-5 with a run in the sixth, but Lodell snuffed any further damage by running down a long fly.

Then, with the pressure cranked up, and the game-tying run at third with just one out in the seventh, the Wolves closed like champs.

McGranahan speared a liner for the second out, then went home to Wright, who fired the ball on a bead to Rose at third, catching a drifting Falcon to end the game on a decisive note.

As his team celebrated taking down their Island arch-rivals, CHS coach Kevin McGranahan appreciated how his team responded to early adversity.

“The girls hung in there and played well for our first outing,” he said. “This team once again showed their heart and found a way to win it.

“Now if Oak Harbor would play us, we could rule the Island.”

 

To see more photos from this game (purchases fund college scholarships for CHS student/athletes), pop over to:

http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/2017-Coupeville-Softball/20170318-vs-South-Whidbey/

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