Wolf pitcher Capri Anter teamed up with cousin Haylee Armstrong to shut down Orcas Tuesday afternoon. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
These Wolves carry big bats, and they’re not afraid to use them.
Thumping 14 hits Tuesday, spraying base knocks to every part of the field, the Coupeville High School varsity softball squad rallied to crunch visiting Orcas Island 16-5.
Playing for the fourth time in five days, CHS fell prey to a bit of fatigue early, then demonstrated why it’s the class of the Northwest 2B/1B League.
With the win, which was mercy-ruled after five innings, the Wolves get to 7-0 in league play, 10-4 overall.
Next up are home games Thursday against Concrete and Saturday against Darrington as Kevin McGranahan’s squad chases another conference crown.
In the moment, however, Coupeville can bask in the afterglow of reaching double-digit wins for the seventh consecutive season.
That continued run of excellence was built on the kind of grit the current Wolves showcased Tuesday.
A very-young team with no seniors but a lot of 8th graders and freshmen never flinched after falling behind 3-0 in the top of the first.
Wolf hurler Haylee Armstrong re-found her groove, ending things emphatically by tossing her third strikeout of the opening frame, and then the bats went to work.
Mia Farris stroked a one-out single to kick things off, followed by Taylor Brotemarkle massacring the ball, launching an RBI triple over the centerfielder’s head, and the prairie was hoppin’.
Coupeville pushed two more runs across in the first, with Madison McMillan spanking an RBI single, before scampering home to score when her steal of third base spooked the Orcas catcher into airmailing the ball into left field.
The Wolves might have gotten more, but the Viking shortstop flat-out robbed Ava Lucero, going airborne to spear her liner a foot off the ground.
That got a nice round of applause but would be one of the few times Orcas would have a positive moment the rest of the day.
While the bats were hot, so were the defensive plays.
Wolf catcher Teagan Calkins nailed a would-be base thief to end the top of the second, Farris made a superb diving catch in center to deny a hitter, and CHS pulled off a wham-bam double play to end the game.
Chelsi Stevens socked a pair of hits, while playing strong defense at first. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
On the final play, first-baseman Chelsi Stevens threw out a runner coming home, immediately followed by Calkins spinning away and laying a laser into McMillan’s glove at third.
Do you remember the first time you saw John Travolta, rockin’ the pink socks, dance the hand jive in Grease, forever changing the laws of physics?
Sometimes watching Calkins, AKA “The Red Dragon,” play catcher, you get a similar feeling.
It’s like freakin’ poetry in motion, only with a lot more in-game hollering and occasional side eye thrown at dad Shawn if he’s a step slow in delivering her beverage.
If her defense was the star of the show, Calkin’s bat was a close second, and she joined Brotemarkle and Sydney Van Dyke in lashing run-scoring hits as CHS turned a 3-3 game into a 7-3 lead.
From there, the Wolves iced the game with a vintage 13-batter, nine-run fourth inning.
A string of walks to the big boppers loaded the bases, with Bailey Thule, Stevens, and Shania Kenney coming off the bench to score their teammates.
Stevens obliterated the ball on a booming double to left — her second hit of the game — while Kenney, a first-year player making huge strides, lashed a single back up the middle to the great joy of her teammates.
Shania Kenney, stone-cold diamond assassin. (Jackie Saia photo)
Farris got nailed on the ankle by a wayward pitch, after earlier taking a throw off the top of her helmet.
As she rambled down to first base, someone from the bench hollered “Stop hitting her! She’s delicate!!”
There was nothing delicate after that, as Brotemarkle, her bat smoking from the torrid hitting show she was putting on, thumped another RBI single, before McMillan and Calkins pasted back-to-back two-baggers to complete the rout.
Tuesday stats:
Capri Anter — One walk
Taylor Brotemarkle — Two singles, one triple, one walk
Teagan Calkins — One single, two doubles, one walk
Mia Farris — One single, two walks
Shania Kenney — One single
Madison McMillan — Two singles, one double, one walk
Chelsi Stevens — One single, one double
Sydney Van Dyke — One single, one walk
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