Coupeville Sports

Madeline Roberts made the defensive play of the day Thursday, gunning down a runner at home. (John Fisken photo)

Discipline. Discipline. Discipline.

That’s what Coupeville High School softball coach David King wants to see from his players at the plate, and it’s what will make all the difference as they head into the district tournament.

The Wolves will enter the double-elimination tournament in Sedro-Woolley Friday as the #1 seed out of the Cascade Conference. Not bad for a team that’s lost 10 of its last 11 games, including dropping its regular season finale 4-1 at Sultan Thursday.

The lone win in that stretch gives hope, however, as Coupeville crushed Archbishop Thomas Murphy pitching for 17 runs on 20 hits. They may be 5-14, but they have the ability to erupt.

If they show discipline.

“We aren’t as a team squaring up the ball when the count is in our favor,” King said. “We are swinging on 0-0, 1-0 or 2-0 counts at bad balls. We need to be more disciplined at bat.

“Our season is still alive,” he added. “These players are good hitters and before our games tomorrow we will make some minor adjustments and look to come out strong.”

Facing Sultan, a team they had split their first two games with, the Wolves rapped out five hits, but didn’t walk and went down on strikes seven times.

Pitchers McKayla Bailey and Maria Rockwell combined to keep things close, striking out seven Turks, but were undone by a throwing error that allowed two runs to score.

Bessie Walstad cracked a pair of singles for Coupeville, while Sydney Aparicio, Bailey and Rockwell each chipped in with a hit.

Rockwell scored her team’s lone run in the second inning, when Sultan fielders combined to make two errors on the same play, allowing her to come all the way around from first.

The best moment of the game came from Madeline Roberts, when she saved the day on a busted play.

On a Turk steal at third, Coupeville had the runner nailed, but missed the catch. As the ball bounced into left, the runner shot for home, only to be gunned down when Roberts, charging hard, recovered the errant ball and whipped it on a line to Wolf catcher Breeanna Messner.

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Maria Rockwell and Co. hope for a long playoff run. (John Fisken photo)

Third time better be the charm.

When the Coupeville High School softball squad kicks off the double-elimination 1A District 1 playoffs Friday in Sedro Woolley, it will become the third consecutive Wolf team to face Lynden Christian in its postseason opener.

Here’s hoping things go a little better in try #3.

The CHS boys’ soccer squad was eliminated 1-0 on the road by the Lyncs, while the baseball squad lost a 2-1 pitcher’s duel at home in their district opener.

While no softball teams will get a home game — the tournament is held at a neutral site, Janicki Fields — Coupeville will go into the opener as the higher seed and play as the home team. The #1 seed out of the Cascade Conference, the Wolves are seeded second overall, behind just Blaine.

Coupeville (5-13 with a game at Sultan today) will play two games Friday. Win or lose the 4 PM Lynden Christian (6-14) game, they move on to face either the winner or loser of Meridian (5-14) and Nooksack Valley (12-8).

Win both and they return to Sedro Woolley Saturday to play in the championship game and would be guaranteed a trip to tri-districts May 16-18.

Split the pair and they’re back on Saturday to play a loser-out game. Win that, and they qualify for tri-districts and play in the 3rd/4th place game that afternoon.

Lose both on Friday and the season is done.

But that’s not going to happen.

Follow the bracket at http://www.wiaadistrict1.com/tournament.php?act=view&league=1&page=1&school=0&sport=15&tournament_id=905.

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Madeline Roberts digs the long ball.

Maria Rockwell chucks the high, hard cheese.

Hailey Hammer prepares to drop the boom on a hapless runner.

Chevy Reyes is like a vacuum.

Josh Wilsey, super fan.

The sun was blazing and the stands were packed.

With weather finally reminiscent of spring, the Coupeville High School softball team played its final home game Tuesday.

As a veteran of numerous games plagued by cold rain and often ungodly prairie wind this year, I can only think of one thing — the season should be STARTING now, not going into its final stretch.

But anyway, let us not spend all day bemoaning our lack of an indoor baseball/softball facility in Coupeville. Though that would be sweet…

OK, enough of the fantasy. The shots above are delivered to you by ace photo whiz John Fisken.

For far more of his pics, head over to http://www.cascadeathletics.com/index.php?act=view_gallery&gallery=4129&league=2&page=1&page_name=photo_store&school=24&sport=0&tab=2.

If you use the coupon code EB41294962 to buy photos before Wednesday, May 22, you’ll get a 15% discount off your purchase.

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Bessie Walstad (left) and Maria Rockwell. (John Fisken photos)

Rockwell and dad Sheldon.

Walstad and parents Shawn and Renee.

They are opposite, and yet the same.

Maria Rockwell was the bright, blazing star who touched down briefly onto Coupeville High School’s softball field, while Bessie Walstad was, well, the rock. Both had a huge impact on the program.

Rockwell was a freshman phenom for the Wolves four years ago, played a year in Florida, returned to the Island and and sat out a year to focus on school work, and then returned as a seasoned vet. She’s won five games on the mound for the Wolves this season, and is one of the more feared CHS sluggers.

Walstad is that rarity, a four-year varsity vet who has been at the forefront of her team the entire way. Not that you would know it by her words, as the catcher always seemed not to care a bit for power trips.

You can be a star without screaming and hollering, and Walstad was that player. In all three of her sports (volleyball and basketball also drew her time), she led by example and teammates responded, showing her a reverence reserved for the greats.

Tuesday, the duo played their final home game in a Coupeville uniform. There is still a road game at Sultan Thursday and then (hopefully) a long playoff run.

Whether they play college ball after this, at whatever level, is immaterial today. I hope they both get the chance, but that opportunity would not define them.

They are both smart, confident young women who have graced our town and our ball fields with their presence. They walked off the diamond as seniors like they walked on as freshmen, heads held high.

They were Wolves and they were class acts.

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Breeanna Messner conked a double and made a sensational diving catch of a liner, robbing Granite Falls of a hit Tuesday. (John Fisken photo)

They sort of backed into it, but they’ll take it.

Hours after absorbing an 8-0 loss to visiting Granite Falls on Senior Night Tuesday, the Coupeville High School softball squad got the news it wanted to hear.

Island rival South Whidbey had also fallen, losing 8-7 to Archbishop Thomas Murphy, handing the Wolves the #1 seed out of the Cascade Conference for the 1A District 1 playoffs.

With one regular season game left — a road trip to Sultan Thursday — Coupeville holds a one-game lead over the Falcons and owns the tiebreaker, having defeated South Whidbey two out of the three times they played.

Therefore, the Wolves will open the double-elimination district tourney Friday in Sedro Woolley against the #5 team from the Northwest Conference.

That will give them a couple of days to get the spark back in their bats, because that all but vanished Tuesday.

A game after crunching 20 hits and scoring 17 runs against ATM, Coupeville managed to scrape together just two hits — a bloop single from Hailey Hammer and a gorgeous double from Breeanna Messner.

Tiger hurler Lauren Harding had her fastball working, striking out six Wolves as she cruised to the victory. The Wolves went three-up, three-down in five of seven innings.

The lone mini-rallies came in the first, when Madeline Roberts walked and Hammer singled, and the third, when Messner smashed a lead-off shot under the glove of the diving center-fielder. Both times, however, Harding bore down and snuffed out any chances Coupeville had of scoring.

Granite Falls, while never putting together a big inning, got most of its runs via big hits, as they cracked four triples.

The Wolves kept things close until late in the game, thanks to several outstanding defensive plays.

Haley Sherman snagged a ball headed for the wall while on a dead run in left, Maria Rockwell made a pair of great plays at short, one on a liner and another where she backhanded a hard chopper and Messner dove to her right at first to spear a liner in mid-flight.

The loss was the final home game for seniors Rockwell and Bessie Walstad (a four year varsity vet), and the duo ended the game as the battery, with Rockwell throwing heat to Walstad’s catching mitt.

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