CHS softball coaches Katrina and Kevin McGranahan contemplate the state of things. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
The season isn’t done, but any playoff hopes are gone.
The Coupeville High School varsity softball squad made some outstanding defensive plays Thursday but stranded 13 runners and fell 3-2 in eight innings to host Friday Harbor.
The Wolf sluggers, who went undefeated in their first two years back in the Northwest 2B/1B League, finish 10-2 in conference action this time around, and are 13-6 overall with a May 12 non-league tilt at South Whidbey left on the schedule.
Friday Harbor, which is 11-1 in league, 14-4 overall, won two of three against the Wolves and earns a league title and District 1’s lone playoff berth for 2B schools.
The difference between Coupeville and their closest rival was razor-thin this season, with both losses being one-run affairs on the road.
Friday Harbor won 13-12 back in March, in a game where CHS was up 6-0 early.
Then the Wolves bounced back, thrashing the Wolverines 8-1 in mid-April in a game played on Whidbey Island.
That set up Thursday’s league finale, which carried simple, but massive stakes.
And both teams met the moment, for the most part, alternating big-time plays as the pressure grew.
Coupeville struck first, pushing a run across in both the first and second innings, while Friday Harbor responded with two tallies in the bottom of the third to knot things back up.
Mia Farris, who walked, then went to second on a Taylor Brotemarkle single, nimbly dashed home on a wild pitch to stake CHS to a 1-0 lead.
Haylee Armstrong is locked and loaded.
The second run of the afternoon came courtesy of a couple of big hits from the bottom of the order, with 8th grader Haylee Armstrong lashing a leadoff triple to right-center in the top of the second.
Sailing into third without any hesitation, the middle school masher then came home two batters later when sophomore Jada Heaton hammered an RBI single into the gap.
Unfortunately for the Wolves, that would be the final run they scored, despite putting runners aboard in every inning.
CHS had Friday Harbor hurler Natalie Morton on the ropes, racking up six hits and 10 walks, but couldn’t land the knockout punch.
The Wolves stranded two runners in each of the first four innings, and left the bases loaded in the top of the seventh.
“We just couldn’t seem to string hits together tonight,” said Coupeville coach Kevin McGranahan.
Part of the problem was Friday Harbor playing spotless defense, seemingly gobbling up every liner or pop fly, and making every throw.
Coupeville countered with its own defensive gems, however, as the teams played four straight scoreless innings to send the game into extra frames.
Freshman catcher Teagan Calkins, playing through an injury suffered in her team’s last game, came up huge, gunning down a would-be base stealer at third base.
Her bullet, which slapped into Gwen Gustafson’s glove a millisecond before the incoming runner, was followed by Brotemarkle diving to rob Friday Harbor on a soft liner headed for paydirt.
Best buds Farris and Heaton also came up with huge catches in the outfield late in the game, running down balls which had extra-bases written all over them.
Mia Farris is a defensive dynamo, and a fashion icon.
“Jada had the game of her life,” McGranahan said. “Going back and snagging a long fly, and then catching a short fly to right and diving forward to catch one, and two hits with an RBI.”
Not to be outdone, Brotemarkle also snagged a hot shot on the ground while on the move, then spun and flipped the ball to Maya Lucero to beat an incoming runner.
But as strongly as both teams played on defense, even with the wind whistling past the phone livestreaming the game, a few balls were bound to find a place to drop back to Earth just out of reach.
Leading off the bottom of the eighth, Friday Harbor’s Audrey Allen bashed a ball which sliced between two defenders flying hard from opposite sides, then skipped away towards the fence.
It turned into a triple, and two walks — one intentional to avoid the Wolverines cleanup hitter — loaded the bases with no room for error.
CHS pitcher Allie Lucero whiffed a hitter to get her squad a third of the way to keeping the game alive, but a hard-hit grounder from the next batter was the difference maker.
The Wolves had a play at the plate, but the throw came in low and the runner came in hot, ending the game on a positive note for Friday Harbor.
Thursday stats:
Haylee Armstrong — One triple
Taylor Brotemarkle — Two singles, one walk
Mia Farris — Two walks
Gwen Gustafson — One walk
Jada Heaton — Two singles
Allie Lucero — Three walks
Maya Lucero — One single
Madison McMillan — Two walks
Sofia Peters — One walk
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