Chloe Wheeler smashed her first varsity softball hit Wednesday and it was a big one, a thunderous two-run double to the wall in left field. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Every team needs a Chloe Wheeler.
The Coupeville High School junior softball slugger isn’t a full-time starter (yet) or an All-Conference player (yet), but she is the sort of player every coach, and fan, appreciates.
A hard worker, always upbeat, always supporting her teammates, a quiet but friendly, intelligent young woman with aspirations of helping others one day as a substance abuse counselor.
Playing on a team with a deep, experienced roster, Wheeler has had to wait for her opportunities, but Wednesday afternoon, given one, she soared.
Getting the first varsity hit of her career, she didn’t dribble a hit back up the middle, or chop a roller that evaded a glove.
Instead, swinging from the heels, Wheeler belted a two-run double to the deepest, darkest part of left field, a blow which sent the ball skidding off the wall while her teammates pounded the dugout fence.
Part of a furious final-inning rally which fell just short in a 12-8 loss to host Granite Falls, her big bash speaks well for her future, and her team’s.
While the defeat drops Coupeville a game back of Granite in the chase for a North Sound Conference title, there are still six league rumbles left on the schedule.
And with the final rally sparked by consecutive hits from their 5-6-7-8-9 hitters, the Wolves may have found a way to balance a hot-hitting top of the order with what has been a somewhat lukewarm-hitting bottom of the lineup.
For now, Granite sits at 5-1 in league play, 8-5 overall, with Coupeville (4-2, 6-6), Cedar Park Christian (3-2, 8-3), Sultan (1-4, 1-7), and South Whidbey (1-5, 4-8) in pursuit.
After a non-conference game Saturday against Meridian, CHS wades into the second half of league play, a time when they will play cellar dwellers Sultan and South Whidbey twice apiece.
Coupeville also has a road game against CPC, which it has taken two games from, and a home clash with Granite, the only conference squad it hasn’t fully solved yet.
Wednesday’s game was much closer than the first meeting between the two teams, when a rash of errors on fly balls doomed the Wolves in a somewhat-lopsided 23-11 loss.
This time out, Coupeville fell behind early, trailing 8-1 after two innings, then largely controlled the game in the latter stages.
Freshman hurler Izzy Wells, who started in left field, but then moved into the pitcher’s circle early in the second inning, whiffed eight Tigers, while the Wolves collected 14 hits.
“Well, our bats were half awake through six and in the 7th came alive,” said CHS coach Kevin McGranahan. “Much better than last time, so we are making progress.
“Few bounces here and there and we were right there.”
Coupeville jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but were denied more when Granite pulled off a slick double play, the first of two times the Tigers closed an inning with a twin killing.
Wolf lead-off hitter Scout Smith, making her first plate appearance since conking a walk-off grand slam against Cedar Park Monday, lashed a double to deep center to get things crackin’.
After advancing to third on a ground-out, she alertly bolted home when the Granite catcher airmailed a pick-off throw into left field.
Then things went sour for an inning-and-a-half, and that proved largely to be the game.
The Tigers plated three in their half of the first and another five in the second, while Coupeville lost second baseman Coral Caveness when she was drilled in the elbow with a pitch.
Any time you wear a pitch it hurts, but this wayward heave connected with bone with a sickening thwack which carried across multiple fields, forcing the CHS sophomore to spend the rest of the game icing an arm which progressively swelled.
Trailing 8-1 and down a player headed into the third, things looked bleak for the Wolves, but they went to work, chipping away at Granite.
A spark of offense in the third, set up by singles from Emma Mathusek and Chelsea Prescott, and delivered by a thunderous two-run single off of Veronica Crownover’s smokin’ bat, cut the lead to 8-3.
Unfortunately for the Wolf faithful, Granite went back into lock-down mode for a bit after that, before adding three runs in the fourth for a mini-rally which was greatly helped by a field ump absolutely whiffing on a call.
Somehow ignoring Prescott slapping a tag on a runner going by, even though he was peering right over the Wolf shortstop’s shoulder at the time, the blind man walking gave the home team extra life, and, to their credit, they took advantage.
Each time Granite started to creep away, Coupeville would slice away at the lead, but was never able to find the magic key to unlocking a truly big inning.
An RBI single from Mollie Bailey and a deep sac fly from Crownover in the fifth made it 11-5, before Granite tacked on a final run in the bottom of the inning.
With Wells flinging liquid heat, Prescott and Smith made strong defensive plays behind their young ace, and the two teams marched to the final inning.
Where the Wolves, a team which has launched multiple comeback wins this season, almost (but not quite) found another miracle.
The run started after Granite shortstop Samantha Vanderwel, who had a sensational defensive day, robbed Wolf cleanup hitter Sarah Wright on a hard smash into the hole.
Deciding to hit away from the Tiger superstar, who has a vacuum for a glove, and a cannon in place of a throwing arm, Coupeville found immediate success.
Five straight hits, to be exact, with Bailey, Crownover, Nicole Laxton, Wells, and Wheeler all finding pay-dirt in the outfield, and three runners careening across home plate.
Laxton picked up the first RBI, mashing a laser shot to right, before Wheeler got dynamic.
When Smith followed the hitting outburst by walking to juice the bags with just one out, anything seemed possible.
The Wolves had the tying run at the plate, the Granite hurler was on the ropes, and one more good pop would have fractured the local fans, who were collectively breathing into one giant brown paper sack in an attempt to not hyperventilate and pass out.
But there would be no miracle finish for the visitors, as Mathusek and Prescott both launched high, arcing, deep blasts with big-time extra-base potential, only to see sure-handed Granite outfielders chase down the moon shots.
Ten of Coupeville’s 12 players collected a hit Wednesday, with Crownover, Smith, Prescott, and Bailey each notching two base-knocks.
Mackenzie Davis, Laxton, Wheeler, Mathusek, Wright, and Wells rounded out the hit parade.
While it was a loss, it was a “good” loss, and now the countdown towards May 1, when the Tigers come to Whidbey, begins.
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