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Posts Tagged ‘hit parade’

Winning is kind of their thing

Posted in Little League, Softball, tagged , , , , on April 27, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Powered by a high-octane offense, the Central Whidbey Little League Juniors softball team is 6-0 on the season. (Susan Farris photo)

In a season of blow-outs, they had to work for this one.

The Central Whidbey Little League Juniors softball team has been destroying foes this season, culminating with a 19-3 romp Thursday over South Skagit.

Saturday afternoon the Wolves had a rematch, but on their home turf, and jumped out to a big lead.

And then, to everyone’s surprise, gave back their entire six-run lead, fell behind by a run, and had to rally for a 15-9 win in a game that went the full seven innings.

Romp or somewhat of a nail-biter, a win is a win, and this one improves Central Whidbey to a crisp 6-0 on the season.

A Wolf team which has outscored foes 112-35 so far came out swinging hot, plating seven runs in the bottom of the first to stake themselves to an early 7-1 lead.

The first seven hitters to stride to the plate reached base safely, with the trio of Jill Prince, Savina Wells, and Sofia Peters coming up big with back-to-back-to-back base hits.

But, as quickly as the offense turned on, it (somewhat surprisingly) turned off, with the Wolves going down 1-2-3 in both the second and third innings.

That slow-down gave Skagit a chance to fight its way back into the game, and the visitors did just that, scraping together a run in the second, then tossing three on the board in each of the next two innings.

The onslaught left Central Whidbey in a rare position, trailing 8-7 headed to the bottom of the fourth.

But there was no panic in the Wolf dugout, just a lot of stone-cold killers flexing their biceps as they hefted their bats and prepared to unleash a second round of “let’s whup on the pitcher.”

Just like in the first inning, it was the same hot-swinging trio who did the most damage, only with a bigger base-knock in the middle.

Prince and Peters both ripped singles, but Wells went two bases better, bashing a two-run triple to safely put Central Whidbey back in front.

The Wolves tacked on a single run in both the fifth and sixth, just to pad the lead out a bit, then coasted home with their record still unblemished.

Peters paced the offensive attack, collecting three singles, with Prince and Wells backing her with two hits apiece.

Melanie Navarro rounded out the hit parade with the team’s eighth base-knock on the afternoon.

The Wolves also walked eight times, with Gwen Gustafson, Vivian Farris, and birthday girl Maddie Georges getting aboard twice each thanks to wayward pitching.

Adrian Burrows and Navarro both walked once, with Cypress Socha, Hayley Fiedler, and Karyme Castro also seeing playing time.

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Bats blazing, Hammerheads on a tear

Posted in Little League, Softball, tagged , , , , , on April 26, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Taylor Brotemarkle (top) and Mia Farris get mentally prepared for Friday night softball. (Susan Farris photo)

It’s like the 1927 Yankees have been reborn, but as hit-happy young women.

Central Whidbey Little League has two softball diamond squads, and both are tearing the hide off the ball this spring.

The Juniors team is 5-0 and averaging 19.4 runs a game.

And then there’s the Majors squad, which won another game Friday night, torching host North Whidbey 21-5 in a game called after three innings.

The Hammerheads are putting 18.5 runs a game up on the scoreboard, having outscored their foes 74-15 en route to a 4-0 start to the season.

Friday night was quick, it was efficient, and it was an offensive bonanza, as Central Whidbey dropped 11 runs in the top of the first and never looked back.

After adding a modest two runs in the second, the Hammerheads tossed another eight runs into the mix in the third, stretching their lead out to 21-1 at one point.

North Whidbey got a little bit back in the final inning, but CWLL pitcher Chloe Marzocca was virtually unhittable.

She got eight of her nine outs via a strikeout, and surrendered just two hits.

Marzocca also had her bat poppin’, pounding a liner into the gap for a game-busting RBI triple.

Everywhere you looked, there was a different Hammerhead hitter swinging a hot stick, with Taylor Brotemarkle leading the way with four hits, four runs, and three RBI’s.

Madison McMillan (three hits, two runs, two RBI), Mia Farris (two hits, three runs, two RBI), Teagan Calkins (two hits, three runs), and Allison Nastali (two hits, two RBI) also filled up the stat sheet.

“Allison laid down a great bunt,” Central coach Fred Farris said. “And Brionna (Blouin) had a great game behind the plate.”

Mayleen Weatherford (a hit, two runs), Jada Heaton (a hit, two runs), Katie Marti (two runs) and Aleksia Jump rounded out the roster that is coming for all the wins.

All of them, I said.

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Get the butter, cause they’re on a roll

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , , on April 17, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Cody Roberts tossed 2+ innings of scoreless ball Wednesday in Sultan as Coupeville rolled to a third-straight win. (Photo by Karen Carlson)

What a difference a week makes.

Through the first 12 games of the season, the Coupeville High School baseball squad eked out just 13 runs, making life rough on its pitching staff.

And then the bats came alive. And how.

After drilling host Sultan 14-7 Wednesday, while pounding out 12 hits, the Wolves have rung up 31 runs on the scoreboard across their last three games.

Not surprisingly, that’s resulted in three straight wins.

It started with a major upset of high-flying South Whidbey, and now, after back-to-back wins over cellar dweller Sultan, Coupeville has risen to 3-8 in North Sound Conference play, 3-12 overall.

The Wolves, who wrap their series with the Turks Friday at home, have come off life support and now control the race for the fourth, and final, playoff berth from the NSC.

Wednesday, Coupeville jumped on Sultan early, running out to a 6-0 lead.

While the Turks eventually clawed back to within two runs twice, at 7-5 and 9-7, the Wolf hitters responded with a late surge, freshman reliever Cody Roberts tossed 2.1 innings of shutout ball, and the bus ride home was a happy one.

The Wolves opened the game by putting their first five hitters aboard, with four coming around to score.

Singles from Matt Hilborn, Hawthorne Wolfe and Gavin Knoblich, paired with a walk to Jake Pease and an error on a ball smashed to center by Dane Lucero proved to be a potent mix.

Lucero came back around in the second inning to pop a big double, pushing CHS out to its 6-0 lead, then, after a scoreless third, Coupeville tacked on a run in the fourth when Wolfe singled and scampered around the bases.

While the Wolves scored in six of seven innings, Sultan lumped its runs together, getting two in the third, three in the fourth, and a final two in the fifth.

But every time the pesky Turks surged, Coupeville beat them back.

With the lead trimmed to 7-5, the Wolves used singles from Knoblich, starting pitcher Daniel Olson, and Sage Sharp to increase the margin back to four runs.

Sultan scraped together two runs in the bottom of the fifth, once again cutting their deficit back to two runs, this time at 9-7, but Roberts, Coupeville’s third pitcher on the day, slammed the door shut.

Coming on in relief of Jonny Carlson, the Wolf frosh got his team out of a jam by inducing a ground-out to Hilborn at short.

Once in control of his own destiny, Roberts played dangerously, loading the bases in both the sixth and seventh innings, but never broke, twice escaping with big pitches.

He whiffed a Turk with the bags juiced to end the sixth, then punched out Sultan one final time in the seventh.

The Wolf hitters gave him a progressively bigger lead to work with, dropping in a single run in the top of the sixth, then using three singles and three walks to plate four more runs in their final at-bats.

Knoblich paced the torrid offense with three singles, while Pease walked three times.

Hilborn, Wolfe, and Olson had two base-knocks apiece, and Lucero, Sharp, and Ulrik Wells rounded out the attack with singles.

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Bats come alive for suddenly-surging diamond men

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on April 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Gavin Knoblich comes flying in to score Monday during a 13-2 Coupeville win. (Karen Carlson photo)

The playoff chase comes through Coupeville.

Putting together their best offensive game of the season Monday, the Wolf baseball squad pasted visiting Sultan 13-2, and now we’re talking about winning streaks and postseason possibilities.

Having won back-to-back games, Coupeville rises to 2-8 in North Sound Conference play, 2-12 overall.

That puts them a half-game up on Granite Falls (1-8, 3-11) and Sultan (1-8, 1-13) as the trio chase the fourth, and final, NSC playoff berth.

The Wolves play two more against the Turks this week, Wednesday in Sultan, and Friday at home, then closes the regular season with three against Granite.

While CHS can’t catch Cedar Park Christian (12-0, 15-1) or South Whidbey (10-2, 14-2), and has only an outside chance of pulling even with King’s (5-5, 6-9), the Wolves control their own destiny in the chase for the #4 seed.

Monday, that meant coming out and puttin’ a hurtin’ on Turk pitching.

In a season in which their single-game scoring high was four runs — in Friday’s epic upset of South Whidbey — the Wolves unlocked the full potential of their bats on this day.

The game was actually close through two-and-a-half innings, knotted up at 2-2 after the Turks scraped together a pair of runs in the first and Coupeville responded with one each in the first and second.

After a momentary jam in the first frame, Wolf hurler Dane Lucero was lights-out the rest of the way, giving up just a lone hit across the final four innings while whiffing eight Turks.

Both of Coupeville’s early runs came thanks to two-out, no-one-on-base rallies.

In the first, Jake Pease whacked a single, stole second, then came round to score after consecutive walks to Lucero, Gavin Knoblich, and Daniel Olson.

An inning later, it was Matt Hilborn who punched a two-out single. A stolen base put him into scoring position, and Hawthorne Wolfe obliged with another base-knock.

But, if the game was a tight affair until the bottom of the third, it became a blowout once Coupeville came to bat in that frame.

The Wolves sent 14 batters to the plate, with 11 of them coming around to tap home, and the bonanza was set up by a mix of walks, Sultan errors and good old fashioned CHS base hits.

Pease delivered the biggest blow, crunching a double, while Olson came around to hit twice in the inning and smacked singles both times.

Toss in base-knocks for Lucero, Knoblich, and Cody Roberts, and seven of Coupeville’s nine starters collected a hit in the game.

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Set ’em up and knock ’em down

Posted in Little League, Softball, tagged , , , , , on April 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Maya Lucero, seen during an earlier basketball season, is part of a hard-hitting, undefeated Central Whidbey Little League Juniors softball team. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

They can’t be stopped by conventional means.

Dodging the rain drops Thursday, the Central Whidbey Little League Juniors softball squad obliterated Anacortes #2, throwing down a 17-2 beatin’ at Rhododendron Park.

The win lifts the Wolves to 3-0 on the season, and, along the way, they’ve outscored their foes 58-15.

After dropping 18 runs against South Whidbey and racking up 23 against Anacortes #1, Central Whidbey is a well-oiled offensive juggernaut.

Up next, after six days off, is the team’s first road test, as coach Lark Gustafson and crew play their next three games away from Coupeville.

The Wolves play North Whidbey Apr. 18, Sedro-Woolley Apr. 20, and South Skagit #1 Apr. 25, not returning to Rhodey until Apr. 27.

Until then, they can bask in the glow of Thursday’s win, in which everything was clicking.

Starting pitcher Savina Wells held Anacortes in check, surrendering just one measly hit, while 11 of the 12 Wolves in uniform scored at least once.

Central Whidbey racked up runs in every inning, tossing five on the scoreboard in the first, another seven during a long second inning, then five more in the third to end the game early thanks to the mercy rule.

In each of the three innings, the Wolves used a similar attack plan — get runners aboard thanks to lots and lots of walks, then come up with big hits to send everyone zipping around the bags.

Melanie Navarro and Wells collected key singles in the first, before Wells bashed a double to turbo-charge things in the second inning.

Sofia Peters and Maya Lucero followed with singles in the second, then Navarro launched a double and Gwen Gustafson spanked a single in the third.

To no one’s surprise, Wells and Navarro led the scoring attack, with both tapping home all three times they batted, while Maddie Georges and Jill Prince scored twice apiece.

Gustafson, Allie Lucero, Adrian Burrows, Cypress Socha, Maya Lucero, Vivian Farris, and Peters each scored once, while Karyme Castro also saw playing time for the Wolves.

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