Melanie Navarro’s bat was so hot Saturday, it may still be on fire. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Lakewood slapped. Coupeville punched.
The visiting Cougars struck first in Saturday’s JV softball game, but the host Wolves had all the answers.
Trailing 6-0 an inning-and-a-half into play, Coupeville responded with an explosion of runs, sprinting away with an 18-7 win in a game mercy-ruled after five innings.
Katrina McGranahan’s squad improves to a spiffy 5-1 on the season, with a home game against Burlington-Edison coming up Monday, Apr. 25.
Coming on the heels of a varsity clash in which 36 runs were scored, the JV teams did their best to match the total.
Lakewood scratched out a run in the first, then banked in five more in the top of the second — with all of those runs coming after the Cougars had two outs with nobody on base.
If they were worried, the Wolves never showed it, however.
Instead, Coupeville first baseman Melanie Navarro picked up a bat, bent it nearly in half, then crushed — with a capital C — the ball to the deepest, darkest part of left field.
By the time the ball was done skipping around way out there, Navarro was perched on third with the first of four extra-base hits she would throw down in the game.
That lit a fire under the Wolves, with Katie Marti zipping an RBI single to center and Allie Lucero lofting a sac fly to start the tsunami of runs.
Coupeville sent five runners zipping across home plate in the third, again with Navarro making sweet music with her bat.
She crunched a two-run double to center, before beating a throw home, knocking the ball loose in the melee, two batters later.
Teagan Calkins, destroyer of pitchers.
Up 7-6, the Wolves gave Lakewood one final chance to be competitive, before busting the game wide open with six runs in the fourth and a final five in the fifth.
In between Navarro and Lucero ringing up substantial RBI totals — both sluggers finished with five apiece — 10 of 12 Wolves reached base, with Chloe Marzocca topping the list by getting aboard three times.
Plus, there was plenty of intrigue and cheer-worthy plays to go around.
Camryn Clark made a fairly sensational snag on a towering fly ball to right, earning huge applause from her teammates, while Lucero proved her middle name is danger.
Making sure to keep the Lakewood hitters sufficiently jittery, the lefty slinger twice wound up and accidentally plunked Cougar hitters in the batting helmet with wayward pitches.
After that, the visitors embraced leaning away from the plate, allowing Allie, with a slight smile on her face, to whiff eight Cougars as twin sister Maya nodded in approval from her perch in the stands.
Mess with the Lucero sisters at your own peril, world.
Saturday stats:
Teagan Calkins — 1 double, 2 walks
Camryn Clark — 1 single, 1 walk
Alondra Cruz — 1 walk
Jada Heaton — 1 double, 2 walks
Violette Huegerich – 1 walk
Allie Lucero — 2 doubles, 1 walk
Katie Marti — 2 singles, 1 double
Chloe Marzocca — 2 singles, 1 walk
Melanie Navarro — 2 doubles, 2 triples
Maya Nottingham — 1 single, 1 walk
Allie Lucero whiffed eight hitters and drove in five runs in Saturday’s JV win.
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Coupeville Sports 