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Archive for the ‘Softball’ Category

Sluggers of today, and tomorrow, unite

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on April 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville High School sophomore Taylor Brotemarkle (left) works with little league slugger Chelsi Stevens. (Katrina McGranahan photos)

One generation teaching the next.

That was what went down Thursday, as the current Coupeville High School softball players took time out from their own season to pass on wisdom to their little league counterparts.

The high school stars developed the plan and ran the two-and-a-half-hour clinic, working with the younger players on defense, hitting, sliding, and team bonding.

“The gym was loud and everyone had a good time and hopefully learned something,” said CHS softball coach Kevin McGranahan.

Madison McMillan passes on hitting wisdom to Adeline Maynes.

“It is always a proud coach moment when your team wants to give back and help the younger girls who one day will be taking their place on the big stage,” McGranahan added.

“We need to keep the close connection to the Central Whidbey Little League, as that is the future for CHS softball. Good job ladies, well done!!”

The present, and future, of Wolf softball.

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Wolves wrangle windy win

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on April 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Madison McMillan has plenty of reason to celebrate. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

May 4 is not just for Star Wars Day anymore.

This year the date will mark a battle of a different sort, as Coupeville and Friday Harbor’s varsity softball squads square off to decide their playoff fates.

With the Wolves surviving a brutal wind (and dirt) storm on the prairie Tuesday, emerging with an 8-1 win over their visiting rivals, the two teams have split the season series so far.

Now 6-1 in Northwest 2B/1B League action, 9-5 overall, Coupeville moves back into first place in the NWL, a game up on Darrington (4-1) and a game-and-a-half ahead of Friday Harbor (3-1).

But, when the playoffs arrive in May, and only one 2B team gets a playoff ticket from District 1, all that really matters is how the Wolves did against Friday Harbor and La Conner — the other 2B schools in the league.

Since the Braves are 0-5 in the NWL and 0-11 overall, they’re not really part of this conversation.

Friday Harbor escaped with a 13-12 win over Coupeville in March as the Wolf defense imploded, before CHS put together a marquee win Tuesday to even things up.

Cue May 4, with the game played on Friday Harbor, as the grand finale.

“Well, the first objective is complete,” said CHS coach Kevin McGranahan.

“Now we need to go out and take care of business the rest of the league season and we can once again hang a plaque on the gym wall.

“The defense is getting better; still making little mistakes, but we aren’t compounding them.”

In fact, on a day when a cold prairie breeze huffed and puffed and tried to blow the little pig’s house down — sending a near-constant wave of infield dirt directly into everyone’s face for 150 minutes — it was the defense, on both sides, which sparkled.

Friday Harbor catcher Bella Ross tracked down two twisting popups in foul territory, including snagging one while sliding towards the Wolf bench.

But Coupeville responded strongly.

CHS catcher Teagan Calkins, only a fab frosh, came up firing against the wind and gunned down a pair of wanderin’ Wolverines.

One was trying to steal second, only to have the ball waiting in shortstop Madison McMillan’s glove upon arrival, while the other wayward runner briefly hesitated on her way to third-base and lived to regret it.

Exiting with a bang, Coupeville pulled off three defensive gems in the top of the seventh, and final inning, mercifully sending the sand-blasted, chattering masses back to the warmth of their wind-sheltered homes.

Wolf pitcher Maya Lucero nimbly plucked a bunt attempt out of the swirling dirt, then made the throw to twin sister Allie at first in the nick of time for out #1.

That was followed by second-baseman Taylor Brotemarkle starting to her right, then reversing to her left to spear a tumbling ball out of midair as it strained to reach the outfield grass.

Finally, it was 8th grader Haylee Armstrong, on a dead sprint towards the line in short right field, reaching up and snaring a shot madly tailing off to the side, pushed by one last burst of gut-wrenching, goosebump-popping wind.

Haylee Armstrong hauls in the game’s final out.

Coupeville gave up its only run in the top of the first, then largely shut down Friday Harbor’s bats after that.

Starting pitcher Allie Lucero had the radar gun jumpin’, striking out nine hitters before giving way to her sister midway through the fifth inning.

Maya Lucero kept the K’s coming, picking up three more before the day was done.

And while the Wolves didn’t throw up any crazy numbers on the scoreboard, they did find enough holes in the wind to push runners across in five of the six innings they hit.

Coupeville knotted things up at 1-1 in the bottom of the first, with Calkins being plunked by a pitch, stealing second, advancing on a wild pitch, then scoring on a long sac fly from Taylor Brotemarkle.

An RBI single off the bat of Gwen Gustafson pushed the Wolves ahead 2-1 in the second, though a double play thwarted any hopes of busting out a big inning.

Not that it mattered all that much, as CHS plated three more runs in the third and two in the fourth to push the lead out to 7-1.

The third inning was the killer for Friday Harbor, as Coupeville’s 7-8-9 hitters racked up consecutive RBI singles to bust things open.

Jada Heaton smashed a hit off a glove, Sofia Peters lined a base knock into a gap, then the red-hot Gustafson launched a ball which caught the wind, curled in, and bit grass just inside the right-field line.

While the third inning hit parade was about precision, the fourth was all about power.

McMillan mashed an RBI double to center, followed by Maya Lucero swatting an RBI triple, with only the wind preventing both balls from clearing the fence.

After that, there was time for one more Maya Lucero RBI single in the sixth, the defensive stand in the seventh, and then the postgame celebration song from the Wolves as the wind howled along with the words.

Off to the side, Coupeville’s coach nodded, a small smile on his (likely frozen) face.

“Not so fast Friday Harbor,” Kevin McGranahan said. “It’s still our crown and we aren’t done with it yet.”

 

Tuesday stats:

Teagan Calkins — One walk
Mia Farris — One single, one walk
Gwen Gustafson — Three singles
Jada Heaton — One single, one walk
Allie Lucero — One double, one walk
Maya Lucero — Two singles, one triple, one walk
Madison McMillan — One double, one walk
Sofia Peters — One single

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Epic trek, sweet split

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on April 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

The Wolves feast. (Kim Brotemarkle photo)

Diamond coach Kevin McGranahan wants to take his Coupeville High School softball team back to the state tourney.

The Wolves were last there in 2019, playing three games in one day against elite competition and holding their own in the spotlight.

Then came the pandemic, wiping out any chance of returning to the big dance in 2020 — no games were even played that spring.

Now, as 2023 unfolds, with this year’s seniors the girls who were denied a season as freshmen, McGranahan and Co. continue to build back towards the big goal.

A two-day, two-game, 320-mile round trip to Onalaska this weekend is proof of that.

Wanting to play the kind of teams the Wolves might meet at state, CHS set up a Saturday doubleheader with the Loggers.

The mission – a team-building trip in which players, coaches, and family members left Whidbey Island Friday, ended on a high note as McGranahan’s squad earned a split at Onalaska.

The Wolves fell 5-1 against a top-caliber pitcher in the opener, then unleashed holy heck with their bats in the nightcap, rolling to a 23-9 victory in a game mercy-ruled after six innings.

The split lifts Coupeville to 8-5 heading into its biggest game of the season, when Friday Harbor travels to Whidbey Tuesday, April 18 for a clash with huge playoff implications.

Win, and CHS will have split its first two games with the Wolverines, after a tough 13-12 road loss at the end of March.

That would set up a winner-take-all clash when the Wolves travel to Friday Harbor May 4, with the victor claiming the lone playoff spot up for grabs among the 2B schools in the Northwest 2B/1B League.

For now, though, the Wolves can bask in the glow of their most-recent trip.

After arriving in Tumwater (where, side note, I attended school from grades 6-12), Coupeville watched the T-Birds play Rochester, then put in some practice time.

“The Tumwater coaches were nice enough to let us use their practice field,” McGranahan said. “A class act.”

Starting the day right. (Katrina McGranahan photo)

The Wolves also found time for a team dinner, a celebration of Wolf Mom Kim Brotemarkle’s “25th birthday” and an early morning visit to Dutch Bros Coffee for “the morning pick-me-up.”

Once on the field, Coupeville faced off with an Onalaska squad which McGranahan hailed as “a great group of girls and coaches, who were very good hosts.”

 

Game #1:

CHS wanted a major challenge, and they found it in Logger sophomore hurler Lisa Liddell.

“Their ace pitcher was exactly what I was looking for,” McGranahan said. “Hard throwing with good command – something we don’t see in our league.

“She held us in check; we had some good hits but couldn’t sustain rallies. But good for our girls to see that type of pitching.”

Coupeville pitcher Allie Lucero was on target as well, whiffing seven Loggers and never letting her foes put together any big surges.

Onalaska put up a run in the first, two more in the third, and one each in the fourth and fifth, with the Wolves scratching out their tally in the top of the sixth.

Taylor Brotemarkle bashed a leadoff double, then came flying home to score on a groundout RBI off the bat of Madison McMillan, before Liddell shut things back down.

 

Game #2:

Let the bodies hit the floor, and the bats hit the ball.

With a different Onalaska pitcher in the circle, Coupeville unleashed, pounding out 27 hits, including nine which went for extra bases.

The Wolves put nine runs on the scoreboard in the top of the first, effectively ending the game right there, then built a 14-2 lead coming out of the top of the third.

The Loggers managed to prevent the 10-run mercy rule from being enforced after the fifth inning, having trimmed the margin to 15-6, but that just set CHS off again.

With Teagan Calkins and Mia Farris both picking up two base knocks in the sixth frame, the Wolves sent eight more runners zipping across the plate.

Everyone chipped in, but senior Gwen Gustafson was especially efficient in the nightcap, with all four of her hits resulting in RBI’s.

Wolf 8th grader Haylee Armstrong enjoys a breakfast of champions before the doubleheader. (Michelle Armstrong photo)

Whichever team emerges from District 1, whether it’s Coupeville or Friday Harbor, that squad plays a team from District 4 — where Onalaska hails from — in a loser-out, winner-to-state playoff game.

Having made their epic trek this weekend, and played solidly, the Wolves are ready for whatever awaits them, McGranahan said.

“Our girls now know that we can beat teams in District 4,” he said. “We can have some confidence if we have to come down here again.”

 

Saturday stats:

Haylee Armstrong — Two walks
Taylor Brotemarkle — One single, three doubles
Teagan Calkins — Five singles, one double
Mia Farris — One single, three doubles, one triple
Gwen Gustafson — Four singles, one double
Jada Heaton — Three singles, one walk
Allie Lucero — Two triples, one walk
Maya Lucero — Three singles, one double, one walk
Madison McMillan— Three singles
Melanie Navarro — One walk
Sofia Peters — One single

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Big swings, tons o’ runs

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on April 13, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Wolf slugger Madison McMillan abuses the softball. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Kevin McGranahan stayed busy on a milestone day.

Amid a flurry of lineup changes, his Coupeville High School varsity softball team bashed host La Conner 24-7 in a six-inning affair Thursday afternoon.

The victory, McGranahan’s 90th as CHS head coach, lifts the Wolves to 5-1 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 7-4 overall heading into a weekend non-conference doubleheader at Onalaska.

The rumble with the Braves came with its own hurdles, as La Conner is winless and while Coupeville wanted to win, it wanted to do so with class and a sense of fair play.

So that kept McGranahan hopping, as he got action for 16 players, including starting three girls who normally come off the bench.

“I mixed up the lineup and tried to get players at least two innings and a couple at-bats for everyone,” he said.

Mixing and matching players left and right, while trying to give scorekeeper Gordon McMillan carpal tunnel syndrome, the CHS softball guru kept things interesting.

Fifteen different Wolves, including three 8th graders, reached base, as Coupeville piled up 14 hits and 17 walks, though McGranahan’s squad limited their base-stealing and taking extra bases.

South Korean foreign exchange student Layla Heo made her first varsity start.

Coupeville jumped out to an 8-0 lead, gave some runs back in the middle innings thanks to some walks and one well-cracked double, then fired up the bats to put things out of reach.

Freshman catcher Teagan Calkins lit up dad Shawn’s Facebook Live stream right from the start, launching a long triple to deep center field to lead off the game.

She soon scampered home on a wild pitch, heading for the camera with a grin on her face, a star made for prime time, as the Wolves slapped six runs on the board in the top of the first inning.

Madison McMillan cracked an RBI double which went to the heavens, high-fived the sun, then dropped back to the field, while her teammates took advantage of La Conner errors to get the offense rolling.

But the Braves proved resilient, limiting Coupeville to just a single run apiece in both the second and third, before scraping together a rally to get within 8-5.

The Wolves pushed it back to 13-5, scoring twice off of wild pitches, once on a bases-loaded walk to Bailey Thule, and twice on a booming double from Calkins snazzy, still-fairly-new bat.

La Conner hung tough, cutting things to 13-7 by the end of the fourth, before McGranahan went back to his starters to emphatically close things out.

CHS pitcher Maya Lucero, who tossed two scoreless innings to open the game, came back around to fling two more lights-out frames, while twin sister Allie pasted a three-run double.

Mia Farris, Sofia Peters, and Gwen Gustafson all had big run-scoring hits in the latter stages of the game, with a nine-run sixth inning finally tipping things into mercy-rule land.

With the win, McGranahan gets to 90-42 as Wolf softball coach.

He’s in his seventh season at the head of the diamond program, though it would be his 8th campaign if the pandemic hadn’t completely erased the 2020 schedule.

 

Thursday stats:

Capri Anter — Two walks
Haylee Armstrong — One walk
Taylor Brotemarkle — Two walks
Teagan Calkins — One double, one triple, one walk
Mia Farris — Two singles, one double, one walk
Gwen Gustafson — Two singles
Jada Heaton — One double
Allie Lucero — One single, one double
Maya Lucero — One single, two walks
Chloe Marzocca — One single
Madison McMillan — One double, two walks
Melanie Navarro — Three walks
Sofia Peters — One double, one walk
Bailey Thule — One walk
Melanie Wolfe — One walk

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Undefeated? We can fix that!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on April 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Taylor Brotemarkle (left) and Chloe Marzocca both scored as Coupeville thumped previously undefeated Darrington. (Jackie Saia photo)

“We started pretty fast and kept our foot on the gas.”

Kevin McGranahan had his Coupeville High School varsity softball team primed for Tuesday’s showdown with undefeated Darrington, and it showed.

Pounding out 13 hits, with nine of those base knocks being for extra bases, the Wolves made quick work of the visiting Loggers, rolling to a 15-3 victory.

The win lifts CHS to 4-1 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 6-4 overall, while Darrington falls to 3-1 in conference action.

The home game, played on a day when the sun peeked out over the prairie, the rain stayed away, and the wind made but the smallest of rustles, kicks off a busy week for Coupeville.

The Wolves travel to La Conner Thursday to face a winless Braves squad, then head off to Onalaska Saturday for a doubleheader against a tough non-league foe.

Based on win/loss records, Tuesday’s tilt with Darrington might have been expected to be a tightly-contested affair.

It was not.

Wolf hurler Allie Lucero struck out the side in the top of the first, kicking off a day in which the senior would record nine K’s, and then the offense went to work.

Coupeville crunched four doubles in the bottom of the first en route to grabbing a 3-0 lead, with Mia Farris, Taylor Brotemarkle, Allie Lucero, and Maya Lucero all finding their groove.

The hits kept coming in the second frame, as 8th grader Haylee Armstrong led off with a triple, launching a gorgeous line drive to deep centerfield that brought to mind memories of former Wolf hitting star Chelsea Prescott.

The middle school masher, who worked her way into the starting lineup with her defense, is proving her bat is ready for prime time as well, something her coach noted.

“We had big hits all over today, but none bigger than the one from the smallest girl out there today,” McGranahan said with a big smile.

Two batters later Armstrong tapped home after freshman catcher Teagan Calkins bopped a double down the third-base line, and the rout was on.

Darrington briefly cut its deficit to 4-1 in the third, scoring on a botched play in which a Logger got caught in a two-out rundown, only to escape when the Wolves threw the ball away not once, but twice.

While that play might have given McGranahan and his assistant coaches a touch of angina, it was soon washed away by the glory of the Wolf bats.

Coupeville plated eight runners in its half of the third inning, before tacking on three more in the fourth to firmly put the game into mercy rule land.

Jada Heaton and Farris walloped doubles in the third, while Darrington fell apart in a wild mix of errors, walks, wild pitches, and mental meltdowns.

The defining play might have been Calkins, alertly scampering to first on a dropped third strike.

A smart move from a young gun who already plays like a grizzled veteran, it kept the Wolf rally at full tilt and never gave the Loggers a chance to recover from their mistakes.

 

Tuesday stats:

Haylee Armstrong — One single, one triple
Taylor Brotemarkle — One double, two walks
Teagan Calkins — Two doubles
Mia Farris — Two singles, one double
Gwen Gustafson — One single
Jada Heaton — One double
Allie Lucero — One double, one walk
Maya Lucero — One double, one walk
Madison McMillan — Two walks
Sofia Peters — One double

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