Hope Lodell lashed a pair of hits Monday in Chimacum. (John Fisken photo)
There’s two ways to look at Monday.
The first take is the easy one, which is the Coupeville High School softball squad fell 14-4 at Chimacum, allowing the Cowboys to clinch back-to-back league titles.
The loss dropped the Wolves to 3-5 in the 1A Olympic League — guaranteeing they will finish third behind Chimacum (7-0, 11-4) and Klahowya (4-2, 9-6) but ahead of Port Townsend (0-7, 0-12) — and 8-8 overall.
But even at what could seem like a down moment, the positives continue to outweigh the negatives for an extremely young Coupeville squad.
Despite having no seniors and featuring five starters who are freshmen or sophomores, the Wolves have racked up their most wins in a season in some time.
And, even in losses like the one on Monday, they continue to fight until the final out.
“We lost today, but the score is definitely not a good representation of how we played,” said Wolf coach Kevin McGranahan. “We had them on the ropes, as their coaches were talking about changing pitchers, but she always wiggled out of it.”
Coupeville got on the board first and trailed just 6-4 heading into the bottom of the fifth, but that was when the floor fell out from beneath it.
“We were playing them tight and then a few little errors happened and caused a big inning,” McGranahan said.
The Wolves mounted a decent offensive attack, with Hope Lodell, Katrina McGranahan and Sarah Wright each bashing out a pair of hits, while Veronica Crownover added a single and Lauren Rose walked four times.
Coupeville had the bags juiced in both the first and second, but came away with just a single run each time.
“We just couldn’t get the hit or tough out we needed to put the game away,” Kevin McGranahan said.
Even in a loss, though, the diamond guru hasn’t lost faith in his team, which continues to show growth each time out.
“Just keep believing in these girls,” he said. “They are playing their hearts out and will only get better.”
The Wolves have three regular season games left, a home league game Wednesday (3:30) against Klahowya, then road games at Bellevue Christian and La Conner before heading off to the playoffs.
Since the team has no seniors to honor on what would normally be Senior Night, the players are planning to have a fan appreciation day Wednesday.
“They want it to be a thank you to the fans and community for the support throughout the season,” Kevin McGranahan said. “This is a testament to the character this group of young ladies (this TEAM) has.
“I really don’t know what they have planned, but, whatever it is, it is from their heart.”
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