Coupeville Sports

Everyone plays.

Everyone contributes.

Everyone celebrates.

As the Coupeville High School softball players belted out their theme song one final time this season, serenading their home fans moments before everyone stormed the line for cupcakes, glimmers of sun poked through the cloudy prairie sky.

On a Saturday afternoon in which CHS coach Kevin McGranahan managed to get 23 girls varsity playing time, the Wolves accomplished much.

They bounced visiting Darrington 8-6 and 16-4 to claim a sweet doubleheader sweep on Senior Night.

They rolled to a 9-0 record in this pandemic-shortened season, with road trips to Friday Harbor and La Conner left on the schedule.

They gave their veterans a superb send-off, while also offering their young players — many of whom lost a season to COVID last spring — a chance to learn under fire.

And, they emphatically clinched the Northwest 2B/1B League title, meaning that McGranahan, wife Justine, and Ron Wright have led the Wolf diamond program to conference crowns in three different locations.

The NWL title joins ones the trio won in the 1A Olympic League and 1A North Sound Conference.

While the pandemic will prevent Coupeville, or any teams, from pursuing a playoff run, Wolf fans can bask in the glow of a softball program which is winning the right way now, and is set up for a bright future for years to come.

How Saturday played out:

 

Game 1:

Kevin McGranahan is a gamblin’ man.

With Coupeville up 6-0 after one inning, then 8-1 at the end of two, he liberally substituted, including pulling his battery — fireball-flinging pitcher Izzy Wells and rock-solid catcher Mollie Bailey — at least for awhile.

But then Darrington got really, really stingy on defense, and mounted a comeback on offense, while McGranahan gave his future stars a chance to face mounting pressure.

To a point.

Wells and Bailey returned in the final moments, slamming the door shut on a game which provided valuable lessons to Coupeville’s young guns.

Things started off fully in favor of the Wolves, with seniors Chelsea Prescott, Ivy Leedy, Lacy McCraw-Shirron, Heidi Meyers, Coral Caveness, and Bailey all in the starting lineup.

After Wells set Darrington’s first three hitters down on strikeouts, Coupeville went to work, sending 12 batters to the plate in the bottom of the first.

McCraw-Shirron got things going, zipping down to first after a third strike got away from the Logger catcher, and soon came around to score.

From there, the Wolves used five walks, a Darrington error, and timely hits from Wells and Bella Whalen to blow things open.

Whalen’s base-knock was a bomb — a high, arcing two-run double which, for a hot second or two, looked like it might clear the fence for a round-tripper.

CHS tacked on two more runs in the second, courtesy an RBI double to straight-away center from Bailey, and an RBI single ripped back up the middle by Meyers.

But then the Wolf offense vanished for a bit, at least when it came to scoring.

Coupeville put runners on base in three of the next four innings, only to see Darrington escape each time.

Maya Nottingham had an eventful trip (mostly) around the bases, getting plunked on the foot by a pitch to earn a walk, then blasted by a foul ball off of Prescott’s hyper-charged bat while crouched at third.

She came out of the game after that, with pinch-runner Audrianna Shaw eventually stranded after the Loggers turned a slick double play moments later.

The Wolves had two on in the fourth, after base-knocks from Bailey and Whalen, but like Wells after she walked in the sixth, home base stayed cold and distant to them.

Which was OK, as Wells continued to blaze through Darrington’s lineup.

When Allie Lucero made her high school pitching debut in the top of the fifth, the sophomore pulled off a scoreless inning, getting three different batters to pop up to Prescott at short.

The sixth inning was the stumbling block, however, as some defensive confusion and a lil’ artful bunting from Darrington allowed the Loggers to mount a five-run rally, cutting the lead back to just two runs.

Re-enter Wells to the pitching circle, and exit her foes, as she slammed the door shut, recording the final five outs, including three strikeouts to give her 12 K’s in the game.

 

Game 2:

Time for a new debut.

Maya Lucero, twin sister of Allie, got the pitching start, allowing Wells some time to rest in the shade.

The fourth Wolf pitcher to see game action this season — Gwen Gustafson has also tossed four innings — Maya opened with two perfect innings, struck out three with a little heat of her own, and went the distance in a game halted after five innings.

She also got to watch as her fellow sophomore, Jill Prince, pulled off one of the best defensive plays seen on the Coupeville diamond this spring.

Bouncing on her toes at third, the granddaughter of Murph Cross reacted like a pro when a Darrington hitter lashed a wicked liner in her direction.

Throwing out her mitt, Prince caught 97% of the ball, only to have the speed and fury of the ball carry it up and off her glove.

But, as the ball shot away, headed towards the Wolf dugout, and hearts sank across the prairie, the rising star immediately flung her non-glove hand out, somehow snatching the angry ball right back out of the air before it could reach the exit.

The pretty, pretty play brought a roar of approval from Prince’s coaches, then from a pack of Wolves who stormed their young teammate, heaping praise on her.

At the plate, Coupeville could do no wrong, punching in nine runs in the bottom of the first, before adding four more in the second to put the game on ice early.

Bailey, Caveness (during one of the few at-bats on which she wasn’t plunked by a wayward pitch), and Shaw all had big hits, while the Wolves took advantage of Darrington’s pitching staff losing contact with the strike zone.

On a day in which 18 of Coupeville’s 23 active players reached base, two in particular stood out.

Bailey, who is part of a farming family which stretches back through eons of prairie history, was in her final moments on her hometown field.

From the little girl with long braids who used to hang out in the stands while older sister McKayla thumped big hits, to the brilliant young woman (still with long braids) now terrorizing opposing pitchers, Mollie has always been Mollie.

There’s little doubt she’s a Bailey, with a lot of Engle tossed in for good measure, but she has always marched to her own drum beat.

Literally, as she’s a drummer.

Saturday, she went out the way I hoped she would — Mollie being Mollie.

That meant whacking four doubles across two games, while still finding time to lean over the fence and tell her rooting section, “Dude, I have had to like pee for the whole game.”

Meanwhile, River Ozturk is a newcomer to Cow Town, USA, a foreign exchange student from Turkey who had never played softball before pulling on a Coupeville uniform.

Saturday, though, she also got her moment, coming to the plate twice, and reaching base both times.

The first trip, she got a traditional American welcome, as a wayward pitch smacked into her body, earning her a walk.

Next time up, shocking her coaches to the core, she swung like the second coming of Prescott — a lifelong diamond masher — ripping a two-run single to right field as Ron Wright punched the air in approval.

It was that kind of day, with a little something for everyone.

Bailey led the hit parade with her four two-baggers, while Whalen and Prescott added two hits apiece.

Toss in singles from Wells, Shaw, Caveness (who also had five walks), Ozturk, and Meyers, and the base-knock machine was chuggin’ along.

Also reaching base via walks were Sofia Peters, Ivy Leedy, Nottingham, Karyme Castro, Prince, Kylie Van Velkinburgh, Maya Lucero, Mckenna Somes, and Melanie Navarro.

Allison Nastali, Jackie Contreras, Lily Leedy, and Italian foreign exchange student Elisa Caroppo also saw playing time in the home finale.

And a final note of tribute to Prescott, who, along with Bailey, has the most seniority of Coupeville’s seniors.

A splendid three-sport athlete who spent her little league days on the baseball diamond before transitioning to softball in high school, Chelly is as talented as any athlete to pass through CHS in recent years.

But I hope she is also remembered for the joy she takes in playing, which was never more evident than when she bounced from her home at shortstop to play catcher for a few innings.

Prescott asked her coach for the chance to try something new, and practically danced back on the field when McGranahan told her she could stay behind the plate.

Talking to herself after each pitch, sometimes laughing at her limited knowledge of the position (yet picking up a lot of the nuances super-fast), she would fire the ball back into Maya Lucero’s mitt, a huge smile visible under the mask.

Prescott’s bat, her wheels, her glove, and her fire, have assured she will be remembered as one of the best to wear the CHS softball uniform.

But Saturday, in her final moments in front of the fans who watched her develop into a star, she reverted back to just being a kid having fun.

What a nice way to exit, for her, and her sisters from other misters.

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