Coupeville Sports

     Wolf coach David King demonstrates the proper throwing technique. A technique not embraced by South Whidbey, it seems… (John Fisken photo)

Getting there wasn’t always pretty, but the final score was beautiful.

Fully taking advantage of an extraordinarily wild South Whidbey defense that committed 15 errors in the game, the Coupeville High School softball squad rallied for six runs in the bottom of the sixth (without hitting the ball out of the infield), claiming a huge 11-8 win Monday.

The victory lifted the Wolves to 4-4 overall, 3-4 in Cascade Conference play, while keeping the Falcons winless.

The second win in as many games against their Island rivals (they also play April 29 in Langley), it guaranteed Coupeville will be the top 1A seed come playoff time.

The Wolves busted open a close game in the sixth, when they put their first six runners on base.

Strong hitting and quick feet from Coupeville put South Whidbey on edge, and throws from its infielders, which had been marginal at best, got frighteningly bad as the inning wore on.

Making matters worse for them, their pitcher suddenly couldn’t locate home with a map, compass and a native guide.

Walks to Madeline Roberts and Maria Rockwell, packaged around a bunt from McKayla Bailey in which the Falcon infielder airmailed the ball up somewhere close to Oak Harbor, loaded the sacks.

After a wild pitch allowed Roberts to scamper home and tie the score at 6, Hailey Hammer and Bessie Walstad earned back-to-back walks to force in another run. Then Sydney Aparicio rapped a hard chopper and the resulting wild throw sent two more Wolves home.

Things weren’t done quite yet, however, as the Falcon catcher threw the ball over her pitcher’s head, letting another run in, then the 15th and final error let the Wolves ring up their final run.

While South Whidbey’s wildness will become the subject of legends passed down, Coupeville also smacked the ball around, netting eight hits, including doubles from Bailey, Haley Sherman and Hailey Hammer.

The Wolves were actually on their way to ringing up big numbers early, but ran themselves out of the first inning. After Bailey doubled home Roberts, Rockwell slapped a single to put runners at first and second.

Hammer then crunched the ball off the bottom of the fence, but Bailey lost the flight of the ball and doubled back only to run into Rockwell, who was steaming around third. Trapped in a rundown, she went down meekly, and Rockwell was then gunned down at the plate on the next play.

Other than that play, Bailey was golden, gunning fast balls from the mound and slapping RBI hits almost every time she touched the ball.

With the Wolf defense the exact opposite of the Falcon defense — Hammer made a beautiful snag on a shot at third and threw out the runner by a step while Chevy Reyes knocked down a line drive on the fly and recovered to flip it to Walstad for the out — Coupeville built an early 5-1 lead.

South Whidbey finally got its bats humming and rallied to take a 6-5 lead, but Rockwell came in from shortstop to short-circuit the Falcons, holding the deficit to one. Her first pitch caused the South Whidbey batter to simultaneously jump back in fear and weakly swing and miss, setting the tone for the final two innings.

Then came the rally, the celebration and another long, tear-stained drive home for the Falcon faithful.

And, when you have that, it really doesn’t matter how you got there, just that you did get there.

Read Full Post »

Madeline Strasburg at momentary rest. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

McKayla Bailey pitched strongly Tuesday. (John Fisken photo)

Lousy umps marred a beautiful afternoon.

Questionable calls by a crew that departed the field at light speed Tuesday prevented the Coupeville High School softball squad from possibly earning a split in a tough doubleheader at Lakewood.

Missing three players due to Spring Break and with two starters battling injuries (on a roster of just 14 girls) the Wolves got roughed up a bit in the opener, falling 14-4. They then bounced right back in the nightcap, only to see the Cougars handed a 6-5 win on a “game-winning” hit that was clearly out of bounds.

The losses dropped Coupeville to 3-4 overall, 2-4 in Cascade Conference play.

While the twinbill, forced on the teams due to earlier season rain-outs, should be remembered for Hailey Hammer crushing a home run, for Breeanna Messner’s patient eye at the plate (five walks) or Madeline Strasburg going hit-crazy (she collected six on the day), it will ultimately be for the ump who was missing their seeing-eye dog.

With game two knotted at five in the bottom of the seventh and a runner at second, a Lakewood batter dumped the ball down the third base line. Hammer’s glove was on the outside of the line and the ball went past her glove, yet was called a fair ball by the home plate ump, ending the game on the spot.

Not that the justified complaining won’t linger.

The game-ending call capped a string of questionable calls that cost the Wolves all game, blunting their best offensive charges. Also costly was a dropped two-out fly ball that left the door open for the next Lakewood hitter to blast a game-tying two-run home run.

Coupeville jumped to an early lead with aggressive base-running — scoring twice on passed balls — and timely hitting, including a towering shot over the outfield fence from Hammer.

On defense, the play of the game came when Wolf first-baseman Maria Rockwell knocked down a line drive, giving Messner time to recover the ball and throw the runner out at the bag.

Strasburg collected three hits in each game to pace Coupeville, while Messner earned five base on balls and laid down two picture-perfect sacrifice bunts in her other at bats. Madeline Roberts, Bessie Walstad and Haley Sherman all swung the bat well, while McKayla Bailey threw impressive heat from the mound.

While they ended up taking two losses, Wolf coaches were pleased with what their team showed on the field.

“Going into the games, we knew Lakewood had a lot of experienced senior players and most of the team plays select ball year-round. If they are on base, they will run, and they’re consistent and strong hitters,” said Wolf coach Amy King. “With those things in mind, we played very strong against them for the most part.

“Overall, we know we can beat them and just need to continue working hard during practices. We did a great job running the bases and on defense were able to get the ball in very quickly,” she added “We were proud of our girls for pushing forward no matter the situation, the call or the score.”

Read Full Post »

       Breeanna Messner goes down her mental checklist. “I’m going to throw you out, then you, then you…”

“I told you not to run, fool!!”

Maria Rockwell: “You even dream about running on me, you’d better wake up and apologize!!”

David King: “Alright, alright, alright.”

Bessie Walstad: “There you go, nice, gentle pop-up.”

Amy King: “Just the way I drew it up.”

The sun came out and the offense bloomed.

With nearly everyone in the lineup raining down hits, the Coupeville High School softball sluggers rained down pain on Sultan Friday afternoon, thumping them 9-5.

But, if you’re keeping up to date with the stories on this here web site, you already know that. Now you’re here to marinate in the photographic skills of John Fisken, who snapped the poster-worthy portraits above.

If you like them and want him to keep coming down to Wolf territory, consider taking a look at (and possibly purchasing) some of his other work from that game over at http://www.cascadeathletics.com/index.php?act=view_gallery&gallery=3955&league=2&page=1&page_name=photo_store&school=24&sport=0&tab=1.

Read Full Post »