Veronica Crownover was 3-for-3 with a double and two singles while facing the pitcher who is the reigning 1A Olympic League MVP. (John Fisken photo)
Wolf fans Luke Carlson (left) and Jordan Ford get comfortable while watching Wednesday’s game. (Photo by Anonymous)
Veronica Crownover has no fear.
The Coupeville High School freshman softball slugger stared down the reigning 1A Olympic League MVP, Klahowya hurler Amber Bumbalough, and crushed three hits off of her in three plate appearances.
While Crownover’s sparkling Wednesday afternoon wasn’t enough to topple the Eagles by herself, it was one of several bright spots in the season’s final home game for the young Wolves.
Up 6-3 entering the fifth, Coupeville was stung by one never-ending 11-run inning in which Klahowya bashed the heck out of the ball, and eventually fell 16-6.
The loss dropped the Wolves to 3-6 in league play, 8-9 overall.
CHS has two non-conference games left on the schedule (May 10 at Bellevue Christian and May 16 at La Conner), then opens the district playoffs May 20.
Playing on Fan Appreciation Day, which included cake and a team-wide thank you from the players to their loyal supporters, things got off to an odd start.
Thanks to an ever-shuffling schedule, no umps showed up, delaying the start of the game a half-hour-plus.
Then, once the blue crew was in place, they conspired to make an odd call to stifle an early Wolf rally.
Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the second, Coupeville had Sarah Wright at first with one out, when Jae LeVine went down on strikes.
The Klahowya catcher missed the ball, however, giving LeVine time to zip to first.
In the ensuing melee, after several throws, Wright came around to score, while LeVine was tagged out inches short of second-base.
Except, after a long discussion by the umps, the run was waved off, as Wright was called out for interference, even though no one, including the umps, seemed to know exactly why.
While the controversy would have cracked some teams, the Wolves seemed to shrug it off, immediately coming up with their best defensive play of the game.
Lauren Rose, making a rare appearance at short with Wright having slid to third when Katrina McGranahan took over on the mound, came flying from the side on a looping liner.
Nimbly sidestepping a collision with LeVine at second, Rose spun, went airborne and snagged the ball over her shoulder all in one balletic move.
Buoyed by Mouse’s miracle, Coupeville cut the lead to 3-2 with two runs in the third, then surged ahead in the fourth.
Kailey Kellner walked and Crownover lashed a single to center to set the table, with the Wolves plating them both on a RBI ground-out from Tiffany Briscoe and an RBI single from Rose.
While Coupeville left a runner at third to end the third, they picked right back up offensively in the fourth.
Klahowya’s third baseman botched a pop-up off the bat of Wright, but Bumbalough immediately came back with two straight strikeouts, seemingly slamming the door shut.
It wasn’t to be, though, as the Eagles left fielder bobbled a long fly by Kellner to keep the inning alive.
Given a gift run, a tie ball game and new life, Coupeville took advantage, with Crownover ripping an absolute laser shot of an RBI double, followed by a single from Briscoe.
Rose then parked one right between two outfielders.
While the right-fielder got her glove on it at the last second, all she could do was knock the blast down, while two more Wolves came scampering home.
At that point, up 6-3, with a runner at second and the smirk having vanished from Bumbalough’s face, Coupeville’s crowd was loud and its team was giddy.
And then it all went wrong.
Bumbalough escaped the fourth with an inning-ending strikeout, on a call that took about a month to come out of the ump’s mouth as she seemingly mentally reviewed the entire rule-book before saying “strike three.”
Then the Eagle bats erupted.
To its credit, Klahowya stepped up and claimed the win with one hard-hit ball after another. Coupeville didn’t give it to them with walks and errors.
The big blow was a three-run home run to straight away center, while the most painful was a two-run single back into the box that nailed McGranahan in the ankle and ricocheted into right.
Coupeville finally got out of the inning thanks to two big plays from sophomore catcher Mikayla Elfrank.
On the first, she came up firing, whipped a throw that McGranahan cut off at short, then took the return throw and held on while the Klahowya runner coming from third lowered her shoulder and hit her full-tilt.
A batter later, Elfrank was back at it, throwing off her mask and whirling around to snag a foul pop fly to finally end the bleeding.
Up 14-6, when a half hour before she had trailed 6-3, Bumbalough bore down and retired six of the final seven Wolf hitters to put the game on ice.
The only one to slip through? Crownover, who whacked her third straight base knock, this one a two-out single to right.
Coupeville collected seven hits, its best showing in three games this season against the Klahowya ace, with Rose (2), Wright and Briscoe joining Crownover on the hit parade.
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