Freshman Morgan Stevens reached base four times Thursday afternoon, as Coupeville High School JV softball rallied for a wild 19-18 win over Oak Harbor. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
The Wolves celebrate their big win. (Photo courtesy Greg Thomas)
Chloe Wheeler is having herself a moment.
Less than 24 hours after crunching her first-ever varsity hit, a magnificent two-run double to deep left field at Granite Falls, the softball slugger launched an even-bigger hit on her home field.
This time it was an RBI single smashed back up the middle, a walk-off bomb in the bottom of the fifth inning Thursday that lifted Coupeville’s JV squad to a wild win.
Down 11-2, the 1A Wolves came all the way back to upend their big-school neighbors, 3A Oak Harbor.
The 19-18 win, settled moments before the rain and darkness arrived on the prairie, gave Coupeville a season split in JV games with their North End foes.
Tack on a Wolf varsity win at Oak Harbor earlier this season, and CHS won two of three against the Wildcats this spring.
With the win, the Wolf JV evens its record at 3-3, heading into a Saturday doubleheader at Port Angeles.
Thursday’s game was a prime testament to a team not giving in, ever, as Coupeville only led once, when Wheeler’s hot shot bit a chunk out of the outfield grass, sending Ivy Leedy streaking home with the game’s final run.
Oak Harbor opened on fire, tossing five runs on the board in the top of the first, and another six in the second.
In between, Coupeville scraped together a pair of runs in the bottom of the first, with freshman Audrianna Shaw beginning a torrid day at the plate with a two-run triple to the wall in left field.
That plated Wheeler, who beat the throw to first on a dropped third strike, and Abby Meyers, who swatted a single to center.
Unfortunately for the Wolves, the rally ended as quickly as it began, with Shaw stranded at third and unable to come home.
Heading into the bottom of the second, CHS found itself mired in an 11-2 hole and looking for a spark.
And the Wolves found it.
Kylie Van Velkinburgh dropped a seeing-eye single into short right-center, Mckenna Somes beat out the first of her THREE bunt singles, and Morgan Stevens walked to juice the bags with no one out.
After poking at the Wildcats, picking up a run on a Wheeler RBI single and another on a bases-loaded walk to Heidi Meyers, the Wolves fully flexed their muscles.
The show of force came courtesy back-to-back huge base-knocks, with Izzy Wells parking a two-run double to center, followed by Shaw almost killing the OHHS pitcher.
Ripping a liner right back up the middle, she banked the ball off the girl’s face-mask with a vicious clang, sending two more runners scampering home and sending a tremor rolling across the prairie.
Back within 11-8, the stage was set not for a blowout, but for a war, and the two teams obliged.
Back and forth it went.
Oak Harbor stretched the lead out to 13-8, Coupeville cut it to 13-12 (with Wheeler crunching an RBI triple), the Wildcats stamped on the gas again to make it 18-12, then the Wolves slashed it back down to 18-17 by the end of the fourth inning.
In between, there were big hits — Van Velkinburgh whipping a two-run single to dead center that left her bat like it had bought a ticket on a jet liner.
There were big hustle plays — Leedy crashing hard down the third-base line, before ducking under the tag to score on a bunt single by Somes.
And there were big defensive moments — Wolf shortstop Abby Meyers gunning down a runner heading into third, and Leedy snagging a foul ball while threatening to crash into the first-base dugout.
Which all led us to the only way a game like this could end, or should end, with a nail-biter finish which blossomed into a home-town celebration.
Oak Harbor opened the top of the fifth inning, which was to be the final frame with the approach of darkness, by eking out a walk.
It would be the last happy moment for the Wildcats, unless they got to hit McDonald’s on the way home.
Van Velkinburgh, working strongly in the pitcher’s circle, induced an infield pop-up, at which point things got odd.
Coming from short and second, sisters Abby and Heidi Meyers almost ran into each other, the ball dropped in, the sisters started to argue, and the runner coming from first froze two steps into her journey, perhaps not wanting to get into the middle of a family spat.
Though maybe it was just a ruse, meant to throw off the runner, as Abby bellowed “Heidi, ball!!!!!” and her older sibling immediately snatched it up and calmly flipped it to her lil’ sis for the force-out.
At which point the Meyers sisters looked at each other, grinned, and slapped mitts, while the forlorn ‘Cat runner slowly, very slowly, walked off the field.
That left a runner at first (the batter who hit the pop-up), but it was nothing, as Coupeville promptly closed the inning with a double-play.
Van Velkinburgh got another pop up, this time right to third-base, where Shaw snatched it out of the air for out #2, before spinning and firing to Leedy at first to double up the straying runner for out #3.
Having held Oak Harbor scoreless for the only time in the game, Coupeville sprinted back to its dugout still down by a run, but with 99.89% of the fans convinced this was about to be a winner, winner, chicken dinner.
It wasn’t a question of if it would happen, but how, and the Wolves made quick work of the scenario.
Singles from Shaw and Van Velkinburgh, wrapped around a walk to Leedy, jammed the bases full with no outs, then the Wolves pulled off a rare play to knot the score.
Somes struck out, but when the ball skittered away from the catcher, she tore down to first base.
Since the base was occupied, she really had nowhere to go, but Oak Harbor seemed to forget that, and when they threw to first to try and get her, Shaw bolted for home, sliding in with the tying run.
Flustered and frustrated, the Wildcats were on the edge, just waiting to be pushed off.
Stevens gave them a little poke, dropping an infield single on a ball which spun about 485 times before coming to a stop right in front of the pitcher, which set up Wheeler for hero time.
Much like her varsity at-bat the night before, #2 was locked and loaded, her bat slicing downward and shooting the ball out where no one was going to catch it.
The wild finale capped a game in which CHS collected an astonishing 19 hits, at least according to my (generous) scoring.
Shaw and Van Velkinburgh each delivered four base-knocks, while Wheeler and Somes had three apiece.
Stevens reached base four times, collecting two singles and two walks, with Wells, Leedy, and Abby Meyers rounding out the hit parade.
