Nicole Laxton, here making a play in a home game, had a spectacular diving catch Saturday as Coupeville whacked Friday Harbor 13-4. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
The Wolves had six days to think, to plan, to prep, to refine their swings.
Pity Friday Harbor.
Aggressively bouncing back from their weakest offensive afternoon of the season, the Coupeville High School softball squad smashed 17 hits Saturday, decimating their hosts to a happy tune of 13-4.
The resounding non-conference victory, which came a week after a doubleheader sweep at the hands of Forks, lifts the Wolves to 7-3.
CHS has one more tune-up, a road trip to La Conner, next Thursday, Apr. 19, before playing its biggest game in 16 years.
The Wolves host Klahowya Apr. 20, and a win would clinch Coupeville softball’s first league crown since 2002.
Accomplish that and CHS will carry the #1 seed out of the Olympic League to districts in May.
As league champs, they would open the playoffs in the double-elimination round, needing two wins in three games to punch a ticket to the state tourney.
All of that is still fairly far down the road, however, and, on this day, all the Wolves were concentrating on was whacking the snot out of the ball.
Mission, accomplished.
“So, the weather let us play today and we came out swinging,” said Coupeville coach Kevin McGranahan. “All in all, it was a good solid game and both teams played good defense, but we played error-free and they didn’t, and we hit better than them all day.
“Good day trip to the islands and a great lunch after the game, followed by ice cream of course. On to La Conner!”
Coupeville had at least one base-knock in six of seven innings, with seven doubles and a triple along the way.
And yet the game was semi-close for two innings.
The Wolves scratched out a run in the first, with Scout Smith reaching base, swiping second, taking third on a passed ball, then flashing home on a sac fly from Katrina McGranahan.
But the rally stopped there, as they stranded Sarah Wright after she doubled, and CHS couldn’t get Veronica Crownover off of first after she led off the second with a single.
Things took a dramatic turn in the third, however, as Coupeville started to mash the ball big-time, with the first seven hitters reaching base.
11 batters, four hits and six runs later, Friday Harbor escaped with their lives intact (barely), but the Wolves were up 7-0 and everyone’s fates were sealed.
The Wolves juiced the bags with Rose reaching on an error, Smith singling and McGranahan wearing a pitch.
From there it was a revolving door of RBI’s.
Wright lashed a single, Chelsea Prescott walked to force in a run, Crownover launched a two-run double, then Hope Lodell got artistic and dropped the ultra-rare RBI bunt.
Rose came back around to close the scoring with an RBI on a ground-out, and, by that time, Friday Harbor’s collective hopes and dreams were fully shattered.
The host Wolverines managed to finally get on the board in the bottom of the third, scratching out two runs, but Coupeville had an immediate response.
RBI doubles by the scorching-hot Wright and Crownover in the top of the fourth stretched the lead back out to 9-2, then CHS turned on the web gem show.
Nicole Laxton, who came on to give Mackenzie Davis some rest, immediately made an impact.
The junior whacked a shot to right in her first at-bat, then she turned the volume to 12 on a spectacular running, diving snare on a well-hit ball while playing left field.
Snagging the rapidly-descending orb, Laxton speared it with her glove, then held on through the crash back to Mother Earth, earning rapturous applause from her teammates, coaches and hardy road fans.
On another play, fab frosh Mollie Bailey, also a mid-game replacement, made a superb throw from right to Smith, who gunned it on to Wright.
The Wolf catcher caught the ball, dropped and defended the plate like a lioness guarding her cubs.
That prevented Friday Harbor from plating any runners, and gave Wolf hurler Katrina McGranahan the chance to escape one of her few jams.
The Bailey-to-Smith-to-Wright connection paid off again later in the game, this time with the throw nailing an incoming runner at the plate.
After shocking the world by not scoring in the fifth or sixth, despite several more hits, Coupeville found its run-scoring mojo again in the top of the seventh.
Rose and Smith kick-started things again, with the former poking a ball off a glove, while the latter froze all nine defenders with a note-perfect bunt that dropped and promptly dug a hole to China.
That set up the big boppers, and they were swinging for the fences.
McGranahan lashed a two-run triple before Wright and Crownover (who else?) mashed RBI doubles, with all three Wolf sluggers narrowly missing home runs on their epic blows.
Coupeville got hits from seven of the 11 girls who played, led by Wright, who was a perfect 5-5 with three doubles and two singles.
Crownover had four hits (including three doubles), while Smith (1B, 1B), Lodell (1B, 1B), McGranahan (1B, 3B), Prescott (2B) and Rose (1B) rounded out the extraordinarily-deep hitting attack.
