Chelsea Prescott waits for a throw at second. (John Fisken photos)
When she wasn’t working behind the plate, Mollie Bailey was thumping the ball Thursday, collecting seven RBI in a 23-12 win.
Mollie Bailey must really like pizza.
With the promise of free slices if they could upend Anacortes for the first time in four tries this season, Bailey and her Central Whidbey Little League Juniors softball teammates came out swinging hot Thursday night.
By the time the CMS 7th grader was done, she had racked up seven RBI, all on legitimate laser shots, and the Venom had run away with a 23-12 victory.
Now 6-3 overall, Central Whidbey, which has outscored its foes 138-67 this season, had come close all three times against league leader Anacortes, but hadn’t been able to get over the top.
That changed Thursday, as the Venom roared out to a huge lead, gave it almost all back, then went run-crazy a second time.
Down 3-0 heading into the bottom of the first, Central Whidbey launched a hit parade.
By the time they were done, the Venom had used eight hits, including a pair of base knocks each from Bailey and Chelsea Prescott and an explosive triple off the bat of Hannah Davidson, to throw down 13 runs in their first at-bats.
Maya Toomey-Stout, Emma Mathusek and Scout Smith also collected hits as Central went eight batters deep in the order before recording its first out.
Not content to just hold on to its 13-3 lead and coast to a win, the Venom decided to mix things up by letting Anacortes crawl back into the game.
Three runs surrendered in the second and another six in the third sliced the lead all the way down to 13-12.
Then, as quickly as the offense had turned off during a scoreless second, it turned back on for the Venom.
In fits and spurts.
Prescott thumped a lead-off double in the third, Davidson got drilled in the thigh, then both came around to score to stretch the lead back to three runs.
After that, it was all Venom, as Prescott, who had come on in relief, set Anacortes down in order in both the fourth and fifth.
In the fourth, she got a helping hand from Smith, who gunned down a runner who came too far around the bag on a single, then, in the fifth, it was Prescott’s turn for the web gem of the night.
With two outs, the batter ripped the cover off the ball, sending a line shot right back through the pitcher’s circle.
Coming off of the bat, it had the look and sound of extra bases, except it died a swift death, ripped out of the air by Prescott, who speared the liner, a look of surprise on her face that yes, she was just that good.
“I thought it was going to take my glove off!,” she exclaimed as her teammates mobbed her en route to the bench, a huge smile now having replaced the shocked look.
With their pitching and defense clicking, the Venom pushed across three more in the fourth, then ended the game with five more in the fifth, invoking the ten-run mercy rule.
The final assault on Anacortes’ pitcher started with Melia Welling drawing a walk and Cynthia Rachal reaching on an error.
Toomey-Stout spun a single into the air that hit a wind pocket (on a windless night) and dove to the ground, mocking the shortstop’s attempt to corral it.
After that came a two-run single from Smith, a walk to Prescott, a single from Davidson and then the perfect finale.
Striding to the plate, eyes impassive behind tinted sunglasses, long hair braids slapping her back, Bailey dug in and waited for her pitch.
With runners at the corners and two out, she needed to bring home just Prescott from third to end the game, but went one better.
Absolutely crushing the ball, in the same style older sister McKayla used to do for CHS on this same field, the heir to the Bailey softball throne launched a rocket to left center.
In a different game, or at a different time, it might have been a home run, staying low as it flew through the air and then kicking wickedly as it landed in the deepest, darkest part of the outfield.
But here, with both Prescott and Davidson dancing across the plate to end the game, Bailey calmly loped into second and then stood atop the bag, the queen of the night as her team went bonkers around her.
Bring on the pizza.
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