Sophomore Coral Caveness cracked a career-high four hits Wednesday as Coupeville stunned league leader Granite Falls. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
The Wolves celebrate one of their two out-of-the-park home-runs.
They came in with a swagger, and they left with a stagger.
Granite Falls still sits atop the North Sound Conference softball standings, but the Tigers got tamed Wednesday afternoon in Cow Town.
Scoring in every inning, then clamping down on defense with the game on the line, Coupeville roared from behind to stun their visitors 20-18 in a wild and woolly affair on the prairie.
The win, emphatically ended by freshman hurler Izzy “Ms. Unflappable” Wells whiffing Granite’s most-dangerous hitter with the nastiest pitch of her career, lifts the Wolves to 6-3 in league play, 9-7 overall.
That moves them back into a 2nd place tie with Cedar Park Christian (6-3, 11-4), though Coupeville owns the tiebreaker with the Eagles, having won two of three against CPC.
Granite (8-2, 11-6) is still in control of the race for the pennant, but Coupeville remains in play to tie or outright win the league title.
The Wolves play a home doubleheader Friday with Sultan (1-7, 1-10), then finish May 7 at South Whidbey (2-8, 5-11).
No matter how the race for the title ends, Wednesday’s clash was a statement game, and the Wolves spoke loudly.
“We finally put a complete game together against them,” said CHS coach Kevin McGranahan. “We made our share of mistakes, but we continued to fight.
“Total team win and they continue to remind me of why I do this,” he added. “I couldn’t be more proud of them and watching them achieve their goals makes every minute I spend out there worth it.”
Nine of the 11 players to see action got a hit Wednesday, as Coupeville smashed a season-high 24 base-knocks, including two out-of-the-park home runs, one from an expected source, one not so much.
Watching senior catcher Sarah Wright launch her fourth tater, a blast which was still going up as it waved bye-bye-bye to the fence, was not a surprise.
Having junior center-fielder Emma Mathusek — a speedy slash hitter who lives to spray hits, then leg out extra bases, go nuclear on the ball — almost made her mom fall out of the stands.
“This is my first home-run ever! Ever, ever, EVVVVVERRRRRRRR!!” Mathusek kept on saying, while circling the bases, while being mobbed by her teammates, even after the game, as she had all of her playing partners sign the ball.
It was a game where the big sluggers came through, where the bottom-of-the-order hitters proved as dangerous as anyone, and where the Wolves, to a player, refused to lose.
In the early going, it looked a bit dire, as Granite, a team which thrives on out-hitting its rivals, jumped to a 5-0 lead in the top of the first and eventually led until the bottom of the fourth.
But McGranahan had a plan, liberally swapping his pitchers as the game wore on.
Scout Smith, who uses precision and guile, got the start, while Wells, fond of flicking fiery mitt-poppers that kiss Wright’s glove with an audible smack, finished.
McGranahan traded the duo out each time Granite ran through its lineup, and the Tigers sputtered for a bit, picking up just five runs total across the second, third, and fourth innings.
Meanwhile, Coupeville was pick-pick-picking at the lead, tossing up three runs in the first, a single score in the second, two in the third, then erupting for nine in the game-changing bottom of the fourth.
The three-spot in the first showcased the many ways the Wolves can hurt rival teams.
Smith beat out an infield single to open things, before scoring all the way from first base on a throwing error.
Two batters later, Wright let everyone move a lot slower, mashing the ball down towards the ferry in Clinton and waltzing around the bags for a two-run homer.
In the second, it was Chelsea Prescott lashing an RBI single, while in the third Smith came back around to smoke a two-run double to left.
But the bottom of the fourth was the beauty, a 14-hitter, nine-hit, nine-run bonanza which featured disputed calls, a deep dive into the rule book and the Granite coach being verbally warned.
Down 10-6 headed into their turn at the plate, the Wolves went crazy.
RBI singles from Mollie Bailey, Veronica Crownover, and Wells cut the lead, and the tying run was waved home after Granite threw the ball into the Coupeville dugout while trying to get it back to the infield on the third of those hits.
The dispute centered around the umps giving the Wolf runner two bases, saying she was already on her way to third, so the extra base on the overthrow should send her home.
Granite’s coach, who looked like he wanted to pull off a Lou Piniella-style tirade, argued unsuccessfully to overturn the call until told to step off by a no-nonsense ump with a photographic memory of the rule book.
If the Tiger headman had a sour look on his face at the moment, it quickly got worse for him, as Coupeville pasted his pitcher for five more runs before she could escape the inning.
Coral Caveness ripped an RBI single to give CHS its first lead, Mathusek sliced a long two-run single (a hint of what was to come), before Bailey and Crownover tattooed run-plating base-knocks of their own.
But Granite worked its way into first-place thanks to owning a certain set of skills – top to bottom, their lineup is chock full of aggressive hitters.
Bouncing back with a vengeance, the Tigers plated seven runs of their own in the top of the fifth, capped by a three-run home run to left.
Back in front 17-15, the visitors seemed to have the momentum again.
To which Wells laughed, and laughed, and laughed some more. All while hiding her mouth behind her mitt, so as not to crack her Terminator facade.
The fab frosh closed the fifth with back-to-back strikeouts, and, whether they knew it or not, the Tigers were done for good.
Wells gave up a bunt single in the sixth, but closed a scoreless frame with a great snag on a come-backer, before getting two of her final three outs via strike-outs in the seventh – while facing the top of the order.
That was all Coupeville needed.
Caveness drilled a single under the shortstop’s glove in the bottom of the fifth, before Mathusek got savage.
Her game-tying, two-out, two-run home-run went dead to center, shocking the young woman who hit it, and delighting her boisterous fan section.
The fourth Wolf to clear the fence this season, Mathusek joins Crownover, Wright, and Smith in the long ball lounge.
Though, arguably, that club should have five occupants, as Nicole Laxton went yard in an earlier game, only to have a blind ump with a bad sight-line call it a ground-rule double.
Still going to argue that one for a long time…
With the game on the line in the bottom of the sixth, Coupeville got big blows from its old-timers and young whippersnappers alike.
Wright and Bailey poked singles to get things rolling, before Crownover and Wells pasted doubles, the first base-knock cracking the tie, the latter tacking on two insurance runs.
And yet, throats were dry in the Wolf fan section as the top of the seventh rolled around.
Granite, down just three, and with its most-lethal hitters striding to the plate, still presented major issues.
To which Wells laughed, and laughed some more. While keeping it all inside, her face impassive under her mask.
The lead-off batter, a very-artful slap hitter, plunked a double to left, then scooted to third on a passed ball, but Coupeville’s freshman pitcher reared back and gunned down the next Tiger swinging.
Facing a full count on the #3 hitter, with big-time masher Samantha Vanderwel on deck, Wells coaxed a deep fly to Mathusek in center.
While the sac fly plated a run, it accomplished two major feats — clearing the bases and pushing the Wolves an out away from the win, while not giving Granite’s cleanup hitter a chance to tie things up.
Vanderwel was still swinging from the bottom of her shoes, though, and her final face-off with Wells resembled two gunfighters circling each other at high noon.
Even if it was pushing 6:30 PM and the game was headed for a three-hour running time.
For one brief, fateful moment, all the birds stopped singing, the sun halted its descent to watch things play out, and the fans forgot to breathe.
Wells arm shot down, the ball exploded forward, Vanderwel’s bat whistled through the evening air, and one loud, joyous pop sounded as a final strike nestled deep in Wright’s mitt.
And then pandemonium broke loose.
Mitts went into the air.
Wolves screamed.
Wells might even have smiled, but only when everyone wasn’t looking, cause that’s how Terminators operate.
The furious comeback, the frantic finish, the emotional end, all capped a remarkably-balanced performance.
Caveness (a “Swiss Army knife” who played three positions), Smith, and Wright collected four hits apiece, while Crownover had three, and Mathusek, Prescott, Wells, and Bailey each ripped a pair.
Rounding out the hit parade was Mackenzie Davis and her single to center in the third inning was a thing of beauty, jumping off her bat, biting a chunk out of the field as it hit, and launching a key rally.
Laxton and Audrianna Shaw also saw playing time, while Chloe Wheeler was a vibrant part of the world’s loudest dugout, as Coupeville once again got contributions from everyone on the roster.
McGranahan has 12 Wolves in uniform, a unit that is rockin’ and rollin’ and not afraid of anyone, any time, any place.
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