Lauren Rose reached base three times Friday as Coupeville hammered South Whidbey 10-0. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
They love to hit the flame-throwers.
The Coupeville High School softball squad is a flawless 4-0 this season against pitchers who have D-1 scholarships signed, sealed and delivered.
Friday offered the Wolves a chance to hit against one of those top hurlers, South Whidbey ace Mackenzee Collins, and, after a few slow innings, they capitalized.
Putting together a 14-batter fourth-inning, CHS smacked eight hits in the frame, plated nine and were well on their way to a 10-0 romp.
The non-conference home win lifts the Wolves to 10-4 on the season and gives them a season sweep of Collins and South Whidbey.
The Falcons went to state in 2017, while Coupeville fell a single strike short while competing in a different district.
Jump forward to 2018 and the Wolves have dominated, outscoring their Island neighbors 22-0 in two games.
In fact, during Kevin McGranahan’s three-year run as Coupeville coach, his squad is a perfect 4-0 against South Whidbey.
With the two schools reuniting as league rivals next year, when the North Sound Conference debuts, that’s something to file away under “things that make you say alright, alright, alright.”
This time around, it was a scoreless pitcher’s duel between Collins and Wolf chucker Katrina McGranahan until the bottom of the fourth inning.
Coupeville had runners on in each of the first three innings — a single from Killer Kat in the first, a lead-off double by Sarah Wright in the second and a Lauren Rose walk in the third — but couldn’t drop the knockout punch.
That changed, and in a hurry, in the fourth.
Katrina McGranahan and Wright started things off with back-to-back base-knocks, before fab frosh Chelsea Prescott dropped a picture-perfect bunt and beat the throw.
“She had a great bunt and run, good to see, exactly the way we practiced it,” Kevin McGranahan said.
After Veronica Crownover reached on an error, the wheels really fell off for South Whidbey.
Coupeville still had five more base-hits to deliver in the inning, ranging from a single for Mackenzie Davis to a gargantuan triple from Wright.
With so many batters coming to the plate in the inning, Katrina McGranahan and Crownover both came back around and delivered base-knocks in their second trip.
Having gone from a nail-biter to a blow-out in a matter of minutes, the Wolves kept the pressure on, almost ending the game early in the fifth.
CHS had the bases loaded thanks to a Rose single and a pair of walks, but South Whidbey escaped unscathed.
For just a moment, however, as the Wolves found the 10th run necessary to end the game early in the sixth.
Mollie Bailey singled, moved around on a passed ball and two walks, then scampered home when fellow freshman Coral Caveness spanked a walk-off RBI single.
For the game, Coupeville spread its offense out, with nine hitters (including two off the bench) combining to rack up 12 base-knocks.
Wright paced the offense with a single, double and triple, getting 75% of the way to hitting for the cycle.
Katrina McGranahan, who scattered four hits and whiffed four in the complete-game shutout, added a pair of singles.
Meanwhile, Rose, Scout Smith, Prescott, Crownover, Davis, Caveness and Bailey all put good metal on the ball.
“She (Collins) is a good pitcher,” Kevin McGranahan said. “But once we got dialed in, we hit well through the line, top to the bottom of the order.”
