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Archive for the ‘Softball’ Category

Rollin’ right along!!

Posted in Little League, Softball, tagged , , , , on May 24, 2016| 1 Comment »

Emma Mathusek knocked in three runs Tuesday in a 13-10 win. (John Fisken photo)

   Emma Mathusek knocked in three runs (and played stellar defense) Tuesday in a 14-10 win. (John Fisken photo)

Official or not, a win is a win.

South Whidbey has had trouble all season fielding a full lineup for little league Juniors softball play, and Tuesday was no different.

After skipping last week’s game against Central Whidbey, the Southenders at least took the field this time, even though they were a player down.

By the time the game was called early, stopped in the fifth due to the dark, Coupeville’s sluggers had snatched another W, edging their hosts 14-10 in an oddly-called, oddly-played game.

Unofficially, the Venom improved to 8-3 on the season (maybe 9-3 if the no-show is considered a forfeit) and move on to face North Whidbey at the CHS softball field Thursday (6 PM).

After that, Central Whidbey will close the regular season with two games against their top rival, Anacortes.

Facing off with a depleted South Whidbey squad, the Venom came out a bit slowly before recovering.

Down 4-0, Central Whidbey rallied in the top of the second, sparked by superb base-running from Hannah Davidson.

Venom third baseman Emma Mathusek swung a big bat, collecting three RBI, while Willow Vick alertly beat out a throw to first to keep a rally going.

Davidson and Chelsea Prescott pulled off snappy plays on defense, with Prescott making a diving catch in the pitcher’s circle to deny South Whidbey a hit.

The perfect symbol for a game that was a little bit off all night came when Cynthia Rachal was at the plate in the top of the fourth with two runners on.

With a 1-2 count, the umpire called a ball, but Rachal, perhaps caught up in the moment, took off for first.

Both Venom runners broke at the same time, and South Whidbey, with little clue what to do, threw the ball around like crazy as Central Whidbey plated both runners on “accidental” steals.

Reinstalled at the plate, now with a 2-2 count, Rachal promptly lashed a single back up the middle to plop the cherry on top of the wacky sundae.

Hey, whatever works.

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Lose? No thank you!!

Posted in Little League, Softball, tagged , , , , on May 24, 2016| Leave a Comment »

We win, son. We win. (Renae Mulholland photo)

We win, son. We win. (Renae Mulholland photo)

They danced with the devil and escaped.

After rolling through most of its schedule ten-running foes left and right, the Central Whidbey Little League Majors softball squad came dangerously close to taking its first loss of the season Tuesday night.

Not so fast.

Rallying for six runs in its final at-bats, the Coupeville Crush sent the game to extra innings, then pulled out a stunning 19-18 come-from-behind victory in Oak Harbor.

Central Whidbey was actually down to its final out, but the Crush sluggers found some magic left in their back pockets to wiggle away and improve to 13-0 on the season.

Kylie Van Velkinburgh ripped a three-run, two-out single back up the middle in the top of the sixth, then came around to score the tying run when she successfully stole home.

Having knotted the game up at 17, the Crush blanked a stunned Oak Harbor squad in the bottom half of the inning, as Central Whidbey hurler Izzy Wells struck out the side.

Starting the seventh with a runner on second (thanks to softball extra-inning rules), Coupeville immediately plated them when Jill Prince smacked an RBI triple over the head of the right fielder.

She then came home herself on an RBI fielder’s choice off the bat of teammate McKenna Somes.

Oak Harbor scraped out a run in the bottom of the seventh, before the Crush slammed the door.

Wells gunned down back-to-back hitters, then Prince smoothly fielded a ground ball and stamped on first to end the season’s most improbable win.

The Crush have three regular season games left, starting with a home game 6 PM Thursday against Anacortes at Rhododendron Park.

After that, they’ll play in the Bill Sparks Tournament starting June 3.

“I’m excited about the tournament as we will see three new teams, one from South Skagit and two from Sedro,” said Crush coach Mimi Johnson.

It’ll also be a family reunion, as Johnson’s niece pitches for one of their tourney rivals.

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“They love playing the game!!”

Posted in Little League, Softball, tagged , , , , on May 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Maddy (Paula Peters photos)

Yellow Jacket catcher Madalynn Georges sets the target. (Paula Peters photos)

Allison nastali

  Allison Nastali makes plans to park the ball somewhere up around Deception Pass.

team

The Yellow Jackets stand united during pre-game festivities.

Emma

Emma Hargrave rocks her Central Whidbey colors at a U-Dub softball game.

Gwen

   Rising stars (l to r) Hope Sinclair, Gwen Gustafson and Vivian Farris celebrate another win.

The future is bright, almost as bright as the uniforms.

Softball is on the rise at every level in Coupeville, from a talented, young high school squad on down through three levels of little leaguers.

The youngest batch of diamond dandies is the Yellow Jackets, Central Whidbey Little League’s Minors squad.

The 11-woman team currently sits at a sparkling 9-1, with four games left on their schedule.

Their only loss was to an Anacortes team, a defeat they avenged with an 11-0 win in their most recent game.

The Yellow Jackets roster is a who’s who of future stars:

Vivian Farris
Madalynn Georges
Gwen Gustafson
Emma Hargrave
Allie Lucero
Madison McMillan
Allison Nastali
Alena Osborne
Sofia Peters
Hope Sinclair
Savina Wells

As they’ve played through the season, team mom Paula Peters has had a chance to see them up close and personal and she offers us this inside peek at the stars of tomorrow:

The really cool thing about this group of girls is that six out of 11 have known each other since kindergarten and all have attended Coupeville Elementary.

Two dads are coach’s, Mike Peters (he also runs concession) and Lark Gustafson and Ryan Georges is an assistant coach.

Three invested dads and their daughters.

The parents of these girls are really an awesome group. They help carpool, run concession and support each other.

I am Sofia’s mom and have been given the “team mom” spot and I am simply honored. To say I am lucky is not quite enough.

I have watched six of these girls grow from little girls to young ladies.

I have given band-aids, hair ribbons and hugs and I can tell you that every game, every win leaves a huge lump in my throat.

The last game this season we will take a group photo and the day these girls graduate from high school they will get that picture in a frame.

How does a group of 9, 10 and 11 year old girls become 9-1?

They love playing the game first, they help each other out and it is not uncommon to see the girls walk up to the pitcher and give her support; they do the “shake it off” and go back to playing.

I know that I am going on and on but as you can tell these girls mean quite a bit.

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“This has been a great season!!”

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on May 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Freshman Sarah Wright crunched two hits and was a rock on defense Friday in a district playoff loss. (John Fisken photos)

Freshman Sarah Wright crunched two hits and was a rock on defense Friday in a district playoff loss. (John Fisken photos)

Everyone in this photo could return next year, as the Wolves have no seniors.

Everyone in this photo could return next year, as the Wolves have no seniors.

The third time was not a charm.

Unable to hold on to an early lead, the Coupeville High School softball squad left a ton of runners on base Friday night and watched its playoff dreams fade away with them, falling 8-3 to Bellevue Christian.

The loss, coming in Spanaway, dropped the Wolves final record to 9-11.

The Vikings, who won two of three against Coupeville this season, went on to clobber Olympic League champ Chimacum 18-6 in the nightcap Friday and will play for a district crown Saturday.

Their opponent will be Seattle Christian, which drilled Klahowya 10-4.

Coupeville’s league rivals face off early Saturday in a loser-out game, with the winner advancing to state.

Whether it’s the Cowboys or Eagles surviving, they will play a seeding game in the afternoon against the loser of the championship game, with three teams advancing from District 3 to the big dance.

After recovering from a four-hour bus trip through non-stop traffic (at 100.7 miles, Coupeville had the farthest trip to districts of any of the six teams involved, by far), the Wolves came out on fire.

After a Kailey Kellner first-inning single failed to find any back-up, CHS exploded for all three of its runs in the top of the second.

Mikayla Elfrank smacked a double to light the spark, then Tiffany Briscoe plunked a single, one of her two hits on the afternoon.

Taking advantage of the situation, the Wolves plated three runs on back-to-back singles, with Lauren Rose blasting a two-run triple, followed by an RBI double off of Kellner’s bat.

But, as quickly as they snatched a 3-2 lead, the Wolves gave it back, surrendering three runs to the bottom of the order in the back half of the inning.

The game then turned into a pitcher’s duel for several innings, stuck on 5-3 until Bellevue chipped away for a single run in the fifth and two more in the sixth.

Coupeville had its chances, but stranded two runners in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth.

Overall, the Wolves left nine runners aboard, stranding potential runs in every inning except the third.

The most painful might have been the sixth, when Briscoe led off with a single, followed by Rose eking out a walk.

With two on, no one out, and the deficit just three runs, the rally caps were just starting to come out when the Vikings shut down the next three Wolf sluggers in order.

Even in a loss, Coupeville put up strong stats on both sides of the ball.

Sophomore hurler Katrina McGranahan whiffed six, while the Wolves rang up nine hits, spread out among six hitters.

Sarah Wright, Kellner and Briscoe had two base knocks apiece, with Wright bashing a double, while Rose, McGranahan and Elfrank each chipped in with a hit.

First-year CHS head coach Kevin McGranahan fielded a squad with no seniors (and just a handful of juniors) this season, and sees a bright future ahead for the Wolves.

“The girls played a great game and kept their heads in it throughout,” he said. “Wish we could have won and moved on but even though it has come to an end this has been a great first season for me and I could not be more proud of these young ladies and all they have accomplished together.

“Next year we will return every one of them and even get stronger with new freshmen additions.”

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Venom’s sting remains deadly!!

Posted in Little League, Softball, tagged , , , , on May 17, 2016| 1 Comment »

Scout Smith (John Fisken photo)

   Scout Smith, seen here in an earlier game, had it all going Tuesday — pitching, hitting and defense. (John Fisken photos)

Mollie Bailey

Mollie Bailey can get that helmet off in 0.2 seconds when necessary.

The beat-downs continue.

Pounding away at the plate Tuesday, while still finding time to throw down some dazzling glove work in the field, the Central Whidbey Little League Juniors softball squad rolled to another victory.

Thrashing host North Whidbey 14-3, the Venom improved to a tidy 7-3 on the season.

Breaking the ten-run barrier for the eighth time in 10 games, Central Whidbey has now outscored its foes 152-70.

The entire lineup picked apart North Whidbey, with Cynthia Rachal racking up three hits and Mollie Bailey getting plunked three times by wild pitchers.

Scout Smith, Chelsea Prescott and Hannah Davidson all thumped doubles, with Prescott also garnering “an excellent slap hit.”

When she wasn’t getting peppered, Bailey backed up her pitcher (Smith) quite ably, throwing off her helmet to chase down a foul ball behind her.

“The ump even asked her how she got her helmet off so quick,” said Venom coach Charlotte Young.

Bailey’s quick thinking wasn’t the only stellar defensive play, as Smith also teamed up with second baseman Maya Toomey-Stout to pick off a runner.

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