Bundled up against the weather, Hope Lodell was warmed by a huge win Wednesday afternoon. (John Fisken photos)
Mikayla Elfrank comes up gunning at short.
Jae LeVine (right), who had three hits, including a game-winning RBI double, celebrates with teammates Veronica Crownover (left) and Melia Welling.
There are victories which define a team, define a season, define a program.
If everything goes according to plan, at some point in the future, the Coupeville High School softball squad will look back at the windy, rainy afternoon of Mar. 29, 2017 and say, “That there, that was the turning point.”
The Wolves won, and a win is always nice.
But it was how they won, and who they beat, that matters most.
For on this wild ‘n wet Wednesday, Coupeville stared down Klahowya, and its leader, two-time Olympic League MVP Amber Bumbalough, and seized its moment, toppling the Eagles 7-6.
The win lifts CHS to 1-0 in Olympic League play, 3-0 overall, pulling them a half game behind two-time defending league champ Chimacum (2-0, 3-1).
Klahowya, to the shock of all, tumbles into the cellar (for the moment) at 0-2, 1-3, a half game behind Port Townsend (0-1, 0-2), a team which is on a 39-game losing streak.
Coupeville won Wednesday by swinging hot bats from the top of the order to the bottom, as eight different players had at least one base-knock.
Included in the 12 hit attack were two doubles (including a game-winning one off the bat of Jae LeVine), two triples and an out-of-the-park home run from senior Tiffany Briscoe that seemed to surprise Briscoe more than anyone else.
Last year, in Kevin McGranahan’s first year as CHS coach, the Wolves were swept by Klahowya, outscored 32-8 across three games.
Wednesday, his team swung hot, played stellar defense, didn’t blink when a five-run lead was erased, rallied late, then closed like stone-cold killers, stranding the tying run at second in the seventh.
The grin on McGranahan’s face may fade sometime before Coupeville’s next game — a road trip to Port Townsend Friday — but it’s doubtful.
“Huge. Huge!! Such a great team win for all of these girls,” he said, and then he smiled, and smiled some more.
The Wolves have fared better against flame throwers than soft tossers, and Bumbalough (“the best we’ll face this year”) can toss wicked heat.
But the cold, wet, windy conditions seemed to bother her at times, and the CHS hitters took advantage.
With their own hurler, Katrina McGranahan, slicing through the Eagle hitters in the early going, the Wolves built a 5-0 lead by putting up runs in each of the first three innings.
In the first, LeVine kick-started things with the first of her three hits, a solidly-whacked single to center.
Wolf catcher Sarah Wright plated her with a two-out RBI single (also to center), then came around to score after a single from Mikayla Elfrank and a hard-hit chopper by Veronica Crownover where the throw to first was dropped.
Coupeville’s defense looked like it would be the biggest story in the second inning, as McGranahan and Elfrank teamed up to pull off an unexpected web gem.
An Eagle slugger ripped a shot back through the pitcher’s circle, but it deflected perfectly off of McGranahan’s glove and right onto the fingertips of the hard-charging Elfrank.
Snagged the madly-bouncing ball, she spun and dropped a rocket of a throw into Crownover’s glove at first for the out.
But, remember, I said “it looked like,” because, with one vicious swing to open the bottom of the second, Briscoe put the spotlight firmly back on the offense.
The senior left fielder, who has been known of late for being an expert in getting hit by the ball (she has a huge welt on her left thigh after being plunked twice Saturday), is primarily a contact hitter.
For one glorious swing, though, it was as if former Wolf slugger Hailey Hammer had been reborn in Briscoe’s body.
Turning on Bumbalough’s heave with unexpected vengeance, Tiffany sent the ball screaming over the fence in left center on a line, almost causing her mom, Amy, to fall off the bleachers.
One of two CHS Class of 2017 athletes to have played a sport all 12 seasons of their high school days (along with Lauren Grove), Briscoe has been a hard-working class act since day one.
Seeing her get mobbed by her teammates at home, with joy and yes, a little shock on her face, was a special moment for all.
But the Wolves weren’t going to stop there, as LeVine cracked a triple in the third, followed by RBIs from Wright and Crownover to run the lead to 5-0.
Klahowya doesn’t fold easily, however.
A veteran team with a star who will be playing college ball one day, the Eagles scraped together three runs in the fourth and another three in the fifth to reclaim the lead.
Coupeville had a marvelous chance in its half of the fourth, getting a lead-off double from speedster Hope Lodell.
It wasn’t to be, though, as Bumbalough bore down and retired the next three hitters herself, making two nimble plays in the field wrapped around a strikeout.
There was no break in Coupeville’s stride, however, as the Wolves scraped out a run in the bottom of the fifth — McGranahan singled and came around to score on a passed ball two batters later — and knotted things back up at 6-6.
In a bid to keep the fans from realizing how chilly it was, the two teams played a high-wire act in the late going.
Elfrank tripled after McGranahan scored, but was thrown out at home trying to score after the initial throw overshot third base.
While the Wolves would have loved the go-ahead run, they endured, as McGranahan gunned down three straight hitters in the sixth to keep everyone on edge.
Facing a two-out, no-one-on-base dilemma in the bottom of the sixth, Coupeville could have been content to move into the seventh in a tied game.
Instead, Lauren Rose popped a seeing-eye single down the right field line, getting the ball to drop in right between two fielders.
Then, as Mouse danced back and forth on the first-base bag, the mightiest mite, the woman so awesome she needs four nicknames, Jae “Flash” LeVine, strode to the plate, twirling her bat over her head.
Hey, that’s how I remember it…
The prairie hushed. Not a cow could be heard mooing.
Only the wailing of former Wolf softball legend Breeanna Messner, home from sunny Cali and forced to remember how cold her home town can be.
And then Joltin’ Jae went and became (even more of) a legend, ripping the hide off the ball, as she sent Bumbalough’s pitch crashing into right-center, plating Rose with the go-ahead (and winning) run.
Peeking out from between her frost-bitten fingers, Messner beamed as LeVine, her prodigy, stood astride second, queen of all she surveyed.
Of course, nothing comes easy, and Klahowya had one last chance to crush a town’s hopes.
Bumbalough (who else?) beat out a one-out infield single in the top of the seventh and moved to second on a steal where she had already popped up before the throw arrived.
Danger loomed, and not just in the really dark clouds out in right field, but Katrina McGranahan was having none of this tomfoolery.
Twice she stared down Eagle hitters, and twice she whiffed them with breaking balls so nasty they might as well have been poison-covered.
At which point the Wolves let loose with a well-deserved celebration, capping it with a full team sing-along.
This day, this moment, they were on top of the world. And justifiably so.
To see more photos from this game, pop over to:
http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/2017-Coupeville-Softball/20170329-vs-Klahowya/
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