Scout Smith crunched two doubles Monday, but Coupeville lost a tough road game. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Sela Flynn had an amazing Monday afternoon.
Sadly, that’s not good news for Coupeville High School softball fans.
Flynn, who suits up for Cedar Park Christian, went on a rampage like you rarely see, smacking two home runs, and narrowly missing a third, while picking up eight RBI’s.
Fueled by a white-hot slugger, two defensive plays which ripped the heart out of the Wolves, and one of the most inconsistent home plate umps to ever go into a semi-crouch, CPC defended its turf, sending Coupeville home on the wrong end of a 9-5 score.
The loss drops the Wolves to 5-3 in North Sound Conference play, 8-7 overall, and (for the moment) knocks them into 3rd place in the standings.
Coupeville trails Granite Falls (8-1, 11-5) and CPC (6-3, 11-4), while Sultan (1-6, 1-9) and South Whidbey (1-8, 4-11) bring up the rear.
There is a silver lining, however.
The Wolves play their final four regular-season games on Whidbey, with Granite coming to Coupeville Wednesday and Sultan arriving Friday for a doubleheader.
CHS closes with a short trip to Langley May 7 to face South Whidbey.
While Coupeville is a half-game off of Cedar Park, if the teams finish tied, the Wolves would get the higher seed to the district playoffs, as they own the tiebreaker, having beaten the Eagles two out of three this season.
In the early going Monday it looked like it would be three out of three.
Coupeville pushed across three runs in the top of the first, mainly by taking advantage of CPC mistakes.
Scout Smith suffered an extremely-rare strikeout to lead off the game, but alertly bolted to first when the catcher missed the ball and could only watch in horror as it ping-ponged off the backstop and away from her.
A walk to Emma Mathusek, followed by a crisp single to right off of Chelsea Prescott’s bat, juiced the bags with no one out, and it looked like the Wolves were preparing to savage their hosts.
No matter how many times the home plate ump changed his entire strike zone pitch to pitch.
It wasn’t to be, though, as runs came home twice on errors by the CPC defense and once on a walk to Mackenzie Davis, but the Wolves couldn’t find another hit in the inning.
Still, with fab frosh Izzy Wells carrying a no-hitter into the bottom of the third, Coupeville looked solid. Even if its own offense stranded three more runners across the next two innings.
Things took a dire turn though, when the indecisive, inconsistent ump finally got consistent about one thing – not giving Coupeville’s hurler any strike calls unless she all but grooved the ball.
Forced to enter Flynn’s power zone, the Wolves paid dearly, as the Eagle slugger crunched a three-run home run to straight-away center – her team’s first hit and a game-changer at that.
If nothing else, the blow seemed to knock some of the lethargy out of the Wolves, who responded by almost, but not quite, blowing the game back open in the top of the fourth.
Doubles from Smith and Prescott gave CHS the lead back at 4-3, and a walk to Sarah Wright put two aboard as Mollie Bailey strode to the plate.
The sophomore third-baseman, who has spent the season lashing big hits, did it again, smoking a ball into the gap between second and first.
Except…
Ellie Chi, CPC’s sophomore second-baseman, made a play which was nothing less than sensational.
You can hate the result if you’re a Wolf fan, but dang, you have to (reluctantly) applaud.
Launching her body airborne while jerking to the left, glove parallel to the ground, Chi yanked Bailey’s hot shot out of the air, holding on as she crashed back to bounce off the soccer-field turf the Eagles have dropped their makeshift softball diamond upon.
Ball gets through, both runners come home, it’s a three-run lead and a big inning is brewing.
Chi makes the play, though, and it deflates everything.
Well, except for the Eagles, who, having escaped their jam, went out and added three more runs in the bottom of the fourth to snatch the lead.
An RBI single tied things up, before Flynn bounced a two-run double off the wall in left-center.
And yet, the game wasn’t lost at that point.
The two pitchers buzzed through the fifth, then Coupeville made another move to blow things open in the top of the sixth, only to be denied again by the thinnest of margins.
Smith conked another double, this one flying to the wall in the left field corner, then scampered home on an RBI ground-out by Prescott, and it was a one-run game.
Tying run at second, clean-up hitter Wright bending her bat in half at the plate, just one out, and things looked promising.
And, just like with Bailey in the fourth, Wright cracked the heck out of the ball, sending a rocket back up the middle, where it connected with the CPC pitcher’s leg.
Ball hitting flesh made a sound reminiscent of a watermelon being fired out of a cannon before colliding with a brick wall, and yet, to the amazement of all, Eagle hurler Erica Giles stayed on her feet.
Which would be an accomplishment in itself.
That she staggered backward for a second, before ignoring whatever pain was coursing through her body and scrambled to retrieve the ball and nail Wright by a step at first, deserves a tip of the hat.
Hate the result maybe, but credit where credit is due – it was a gutsy play.
Given another reprieve, Cedar Park made it official in the bottom of the sixth.
Coupeville decided to play with fire and pitch to Flynn, and she bombed another three-run tater, dropping this one over the left field fence to cap a remarkable offensive show.
For CHS coach Kevin McGranahan, the game was a missed opportunity, one which could have turned out better if one or two plays went differently.
“We came out a little flat and paid for it later,” he said. “We just couldn’t get our big bats going when we needed them.
“All in all, we beat ourselves, but they played good defense and we didn’t hit like we can.”
Smith (two doubles) and Prescott (1B, 2B) led Coupeville at the plate, while Nicole Laxton and Mathusek added singles.
Laxton had the most entertaining steal of the season after her base-knock, beating the throw to second base by pulling off a fairly-spectacular face-first dive into the bag, just evading the sweeping tag.
Wright and Mathusek walked twice apiece, while Davis eked out a free pass to round out the attack.
