Coupeville Sports

Madeline Strasburg, seen here in an earlier game, knocked in three runs Monday. (John Fisken photo)

Even in defeat, they didn’t go down easy.

Hitting the first bump in its season, the Coupeville High School softball team rallied from six down Monday, but couldn’t quite get all the way back against visiting Archbishop Thomas Murphy.

Despite the catch of the year from Sydney Aparicio and a bases-clearing, three-run single from Madeline Strasburg, the Wolves fell 11-5, absorbing their first loss of the season.

Two bad stretches did in Coupeville, now 2-1 overall, 1-1 in Cascade Conference play. The Wolves fell behind 6-0, used one big inning to slice the lead to one, then watched as ATM tacked on more runs in the final innings.

The bottom of the 4th was the one bright spot, as Coupeville sent nine batters to the plate, recorded six of their eight hits and scored all their runs.

After loading the bases on singles from Maria Rockwell, Hailey Hammer and Bessie Walstad, the Wolves broke through when Rockwell scampered home on a passed ball.

Walks to Breeanna Messner and Chevy Reyes forced home another run, then Strasburg belted a two-strike pitch to right center to plate three.

Unfortunately, Coupeville couldn’t duplicate that one big inning.

“We didn’t come out with the fire we needed,” said Wolf coach David King. “ATM came out focused and ready to hit.”

The Wildcats got lucky in the first, when a muffed Coupeville throw kept the inning alive. After that, they hauled out the big lumber, bashing a pair of homers and a triple.

Having fallen behind, the Wolves got a little swing-happy in a bid to come back.

“Their pitcher was good and was throwing hard, but we were making her look really good,” King said.

Walstad paced the attack with three hits, while Hammer drilled a pair. Messner, Strasburg and Rockwell each collected a hit to round out the offense, while Aparicio pulled off the defensive play of the day.

“Defensively we didn’t play too bad,” King said. “We did have a highlight reel catch from Sydney in the top of the 5th.

“The first batter hit a fly ball into short right field, Sydney went all-out at full speed and reached across her body on the right side and made a shoestring catch while tumbling end over end,” he added. “Web gem worthy for ESPN.”

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     Breeanna Messner gets out of town as quickly as possible as her beautiful one-inch bunt starts tunneling to China. (John Fisken photo)

Haley Sherman: “Whatcha doin’, Strasburg?” (Shelli Trumbull photos)

   “Not much. But later, I’m gonna do a cartwheel over first base and it’s gonna be freakin’ awesome!”

“Nice!”

If you let them play, they will win.

Stop the rain and let the Wolves run free, and they will stomp you. The offense will never stop coming. The scoreboard will explode from the runs sliding cross the plate.

That seems to be the truth for the Coupeville High School softball sluggers, who have endured three games being rained out, yet have unleashed an offensive explosion the two times they actually have gotten to play.

Their latest victim was an epically frazzled Port Townsend catcher, who spent most of the afternoon Saturday diving for wild pitches as they shot past her and Wolves skipped across home plate while she had her back turned.

Throwing up nine runs just in the first inning, Coupeville cruised to a 14-5 rout that wasn’t even as close as that might sound.

Long ball. Short ball. Choose your offensive style and the Wolves were cookin’.

Slap-hittin’ lead-off speedster Madeline Roberts whacked an epic shot down the right field line for a two-run triple, then McKayla Bailey went her one base better by launching a towering home run into the deepest, darkest part of center field. A day later, the ball still hasn’t been found.

Not to be outdone, the small-ball devotees were hard at work, as well.

Breeanna Messner laid down what might be the greatest bunt in recorded history, a ball that went approximately one inch beyond the plate and then started digging its way to China.

Hurdling the ball, her shoes dancing in the air, the nimble junior then turned what was meant to be a sacrifice into something better, beating the throw to first.

Not to be outdone, Madeline Strasburg threw her whole body into reaching base safely.

After chopping a ball back to the mound, Strasburg took off like a shot and the already-ruffled Redskin hurler bobbled the ball, then threw it over her first baseman’s head, as the Wolf sophomore went so hard into the bag she cartwheeled, going end over end and landing on her head, then popping up with a grin.

It was a day for smiles — at least for the Wolf faithful — as virtually everything worked. One brief hiccup in the top of the first left Coupeville trailing 3-0, then the bats went nuclear.

Helping matters, the Port Townsend battery had a rough day, with a series of walks, then a never-ending run of wild pitches and passed balls, helping keep the Wolf runners moving base to base.

With a lead in hand, Coupeville hurler Maria Rockwell reared back and started kickin’ some old school heat, causing one Redskin batter to visibly flinch as she meekly struck out and headed back to the safety of the dugout as fast as her feet could carry her.

The Wolf defense did its part, as well, with third-baseman Chevy Reyes making a nice snag on a pop-up by the dugout, Haley Sherman tracking down a long fly in left and Sydney Aparicio deciding to catch a fly to right with one hand, netting the ball down around her knees and making it look easy.

With the game in hand, Wolf coaches David and Amy King were able to get their bench players field time.

Monica Vidoni and Julia Felici fought hard in at-bats while foreign exchange student Elena Jimenez Guerra will be able to return to Spain and tell them of the day she earned her first base on balls in an American softball game.

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