Haylee Armstrong and friends are 17-1 heading into the playoffs. (Bailey Thule photo)
Hit the ball hard and run like the wind.
It’s a good strategy, as proven time and again this season by the high-flying Coupeville High School softball squad.
And the Wolves were right back at it Tuesday, combining power and wheels to race past visiting Granite Falls 5-2 for a sweet Senior Night win.
The non-conference victory, coming against a school from a bigger classification and a former league rival, lifts Coupeville to 17-1 on the season.
Up next?
A trip to the Skagit Valley Playfields in Mount Vernon May 15 for the District 1 2B tournament.
Orcas Island and Friday Harbor clash at noon that day, with the winner returning to the diamond to face the top-seeded Wolves at 3:00 PM in a winner-to-state, loser-out game.
Keep thumping, and keep sprinting, and Coupeville softball will earn its fourth trip to the big dance, and first since 2019.
Back then, the Wolves were a 1A program and their biggest archrival was Granite Falls, who they beat twice late in the season to stun the diamond community.
Jump forward six years, and the Wolves and Tigers are no longer united by a classification, or a league, but they still can throw down a super-competitive game.
CHS coach Aaron Lucero held the Senior Night festivities — honoring lifelong teammates Taylor Brotemarkle, Chloe Marzocca, Mia Farris, Jada Heaton, and Madison McMillan — until after the game.
Smart move, as copious happy tears were shed (and that was just the dads!), flooding the diamond.
Instead, the Wolves hit the field locked ‘n loaded, nine terminators in search of targets to erase.
And while Granite Falls scraped out a run in the top of the first, Coupeville quickly gained the upper hand.
After being held scoreless in their half of the first, the Wolves pushed two runners across in the second and another in the third to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Sage vet Heaton and young gun Haylee Armstrong led off the second with back-to-back singles, with Heaton scoring the tying run on a well-executed double steal.
“If you hit a triple, I’ll hit one too, OK?” (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
That came right before Brotemarkle cracked an RBI triple to left, the first of four extra-base hits for the Wolves.
Flying around the bags with glee, the senior shortstop bounded high into the air as she skidded into third, punching the prairie air and letting out a roar which was matched by her teammates on the bench.
Triples were contagious, with McMillan walloping one in the third, before coming home to tap the plate off a sac fly from Capri Anter to make it 3-1.
Heaton, having herself a well-rounded game — she also got nailed by a wayward pitch for the 3,856th time this season — made a spectacular diving, rolling catch to rob Granite of a hit in the fifth, while Wolf hurler Adeline Maynes was throwin’ smoke.
The fab frosh finished with 13 strikeouts across seven innings of work, while also fielding her position with skill, gunning down a would-be bunter with a flick of her wrist.
Coupeville tacked on two runs in the bottom of the fifth to give Maynes some breathing room, and again it was the attack of the three-baggers which lit the fire.
Farris launched a moon shot over the center fielder’s head, glided into third, then turned for home and scored when Granite had trouble with the throw back in.
Two pitches later, it was Wolf catcher Teagan Calkins crunching a laser to left for her own triple, with McMillan plating her on a sac fly that caused two defenders to crash head-first into each other.
Teagan Calkins hurts the softball. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
If Granite was harboring any hopes of a comeback, they were quickly stifled by Maynes, who picked up five more K’s across the final two innings.
It was a familiar story told with new characters, as back in 2019, Wolf hurler Izzy Wells, then a fab frosh herself, sliced ‘n diced the Tiger hitters as she led CHS to state.
Her successor came up just as big in crunch time, with Maynes dealing liquid heat, while Calkins gave her young padawan a boost by picking a runner off of third.
Tuesday stats:
Capri Anter — One walk
Haylee Armstrong — One single
Taylor Brotemarkle — One triple
Teagan Calkins — One triple, one walk
Mia Farris — One triple
Jada Heaton — One single, one walk
Chloe Marzocca — One walk
Madison McMillan — One triple, one walk
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