Coupeville Sports

   Hailey Hammer, seen here on a sunnier day, collected Coupeville’s lone hit Thursday. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

One lone Sultan softball fan made the trip to rain-spattered Whidbey Island Thursday, but he went home happy.

For the much larger cheering section on the Coupeville High School side, the afternoon was far less of a thrill, as the Wolves struck out 12 times, didn’t get a runner on until the fifth and were one-hit en route to a soggy 10-0 loss.

The polar opposite of the first time these squads faced, when Coupeville rapped out hit after hit and won 9-5, their bats were as cold as the afternoon.

Helped along a wee bit by an umpire who was ankling to get out of the drizzle and gave her a lenient strike zone, Turk freshman Shelby Jeffries was overpowering, mixing up speeds and putting the Wolves on their heels. She retired the first 12 hitters and didn’t hit her first road bump until the fifth.

Even then it was a small one.

Hailey Hammer eked out a lead-off walk, then two batters later Madeline Strasburg reached on an error. But their first mini-rally was crushed as quickly as it began, with the next two hitters going down on strikes.

The Wolves didn’t get their first — and only — hit until the bottom of the seventh, when Hammer ripped a one-out single down the third-base line. A solid, legitimate base knock, it gave the shivering fans a brief moment of joy.

Sultan, by contrast, put good “wood” on the ball, twice putting together four-run innings.

Despite playing in a near-constant drizzle that thought about turning into a downpour, but never quite could, both teams surprised by playing excellent defense, with few wet balls slipping out of hands.

For Jeffries, it was her second straight near-miss with a no-hitter. Two days ago she struck out 13 and also gave up a lone seventh-inning hit against Lakewood.

Wolf hurlers Maria Rockwell and McKayla Bailey had their inspired moments, as well, teaming up to whiff 10 Turks.

Now 4-6 overall, 3-6 in Cascade Conference play, the Wolves host Lakewood Tuesday, April 23, then hit the road the next day for attempt #5 at playing at Cedarcrest. If they succeed, they’ll play a doubleheader.

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Hailey Hammer

“Locked and loaded. Strasburg Super-Awesomeness ready to go!!”

A win would have been the cherry on top.

Unfortunately, a four-run rally in the top of the seventh wasn’t quite enough to get them all the way back, and the Coupeville High School softball squad fell 8-6 at Granite Falls Tuesday.

Still, the loss couldn’t overshadow one of the team’s stronger performances of the season, and two phenomenal individual displays, one with the bat and one with the glove.

The leather came courtesy of third-baseman Hailey Hammer, who snared everything that came within a mile of her.

“Hailey made three great plays on shots to her glove side to get the batter,” said Wolf coach David King. “She played the hot corner perfect.

“Not many third-baseman in our league would have been able to make a play on any of those,” he added.

The booming bat came courtesy of fellow sophomore sensation Madeline Strasburg, who crunched four hits, including a mammoth, 220-foot triple that missed being a home run by mere inches. She also drove in four runs, carving a legend in Granite that will linger for years.

Coupeville swung the bat aggressively all afternoon, rapping out 12 hits, with Hammer and McKayla Bailey cracking doubles. Bessie Walstad and Maria Rockwell both collected a pair of singles.

Granite Falls capitalized on an early fielding error by the bus-weary Wolves to build an early lead, then held on desperately at the end as Coupeville strung together a final-inning rally.

Bailey punched a one-out double, then after a single from Rockwell put runners at the corners, Hammer lifted a long sacrifice fly to plate a run.

Down to their final out, the Wolves refused to bow, with Walstad forcing a base on balls. Then Strasburg nearly went yard, with a blast to deep right center that transfixed everyone.

“The ball hit the top of the fence about five inches from the top for a triple,” King said. “Any other field and fence in our league, this would have been a home run.”

Breeanna Messner followed Strasburg’s bomb with a beautifully-placed RBI single, but the rally finally died with the next batter.

“Overall we played really well,” King said. “Pitching was on, defense was good and we had some really good at-bats and hits.”

Now 4-5 overall, 3-5 in Cascade Conference play, the Wolves return home Thursday to face Sultan, a team they have already beaten once this season.

Plagued by rain-outs like no other CHS team (baseball has played 14 games to their nine), the softball sluggers will play catch-up with a pair of just-announced road doubleheaders.

The Wolves will make attempt #5 to play Cedarcrest April 24, then travel to Archbishop Thomas Murphy May 3.

Regardless of who or where they play, the Wolves are rounding into mid-season form, something that pleases King and co-coach Amy King.

“One comment Amy mentioned was, that when we stepped off the bus, we stepped off ready to play. So true,” King said. “Defensively we are really starting to jell and play well.

“We are making almost all of the plays we are supposed to be making and then making some that are difficult,” he added. “I will take that every single day.”

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       This is what it looks like when Bessie Walstad hits, something Cedarcrest apparently has NO desire to see, EVER. (John Fisken photo)

Seriously?!?!?

Will the Coupeville High School softball sluggers EVER get to play Cedarcrest this season? One wonders.

After three rain outs — including one in which the Wolves and their fans went all the way to Duvall before the game was called — Coupeville got turned back at the ferry Monday.

This time, the call was to inform CHS coaches David and Amy King that, if they showed up, there would be no umpires waiting for them because of a scheduling snafu.

The two teams were originally set to play March 21. When that was rained out (after a long drive to nowhere on a school bus), it was rescheduled as a doubleheader for April 10. That was rained out, then the same result the next day.

Try #5 will be this Friday, April 19. Though no one will likely believe it until it actually happens.

Though David King is willing to bend the rules a bit, to get the games in.

If the umps don’t show again, he joked, “Maybe we should just have a friendly game of whiffle ball with them.”

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