Jae LeVine denies South Whidbey. (John Fisken photos)
Tiffany Briscoe motors in with the game-winning run.
The spring belongs to the Wolves.
Snatching a come-from-behind 9-5 victory over host South Whidbey Friday, the Coupeville High School softball team officially guaranteed the Wolves will beat the Falcons in the duel for Island supremacy this season.
With multiple wins in softball and baseball, CHS is a shiny 6-2 against SWHS over five sports this spring, with one more battle apiece remaining in softball, girls’ tennis and boys’ soccer.
The diamond win, which came even without starting left fielder Haley Sherman, who was on a family vacation, snapped a three-game losing skid for the Wolves and firmly cemented them as the top 1A team in the 1A/2A Cascade Conference.
Coupeville is 2-3 while South Whidbey is 2-6 (1-6 in league play). With wins in both battles between the arch-rivals, the Wolves have clinched a tiebreaker, if needed.
Better still, CHS played a complete game, something coach David King had been preaching.
“We played a clean game defensively with no errors,” he said. “We made all of the routine plays and just played solid all game. This has been a point of emphasis this week, make the routine plays.
“Offensively, everyone in the line-up contributed,” King added. “We showed patience and we walked six times to go with our 10 hits.”
The biggest hit came off of the bat of Madeline Roberts, as the senior shortstop smacked a two-run double to break a 5-5 tie in the top of the seventh.
Her blast scored Tiffany Briscoe, who had eked out a one-out walk, and Monica Vidoni, who reached on a fielder’s choice.
The Wolves then padded their lead, with Breeanna Messner lofting a sacrifice fly to right, followed by a game-capping RBI single from pitcher McKayla Bailey.
Bailey never gave the Falcons a chance to rally in their half of the seventh, punching out South Whidbey one-two-three.
She forced back-to-back come-backers to the mound, then induced the final batter to ground out to Emily Licence at third.
After a brief rough spot early, Bailey was money, gunning down 12 of the final 13 hitters, giving up just a solitary walk from the fourth through the seventh.
Coupeville had jumped out quickly, grabbing a 4-0 lead in the top of the first.
Roberts led off with a walk, then skittered to second on a steal and came home on a Messner RBI single. Madeline Strasburg chopped her own RBI single up the middle, then came around to score on an illegal pitch.
Capping a nine-batter assault, Vidoni lashed an RBI single to right for her first hit of the season.
After falling behind 5-4, Coupeville rallied to tie the game in the fourth, using a Roberts single, a Bailey double and an RBI single from Hailey Hammer.
Four different Wolf hitters (Roberts, Messner, Strasburg, Bailey) rapped out two hits apiece, while five players (Roberts, Messner, Hammer, Strasburg, Vidoni) recorded RBIs, as Coupeville swung the bat well from one through nine.
Even the batters who didn’t get hits made an impact, with Jae LeVine keeping a rally alive by sacrificing her body and getting on board via being plunked by a pitch, and Briscoe scoring the game-winning run.
Coupeville Sports 