Coupeville senior Mollie Bailey reached base all four times she hit Saturday, while also teaming with pitcher Izzy Wells on a shutout. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
It ended, appropriately, with a bang.
Or rather, back-to-back bangs, as Izzy Wells and Bella Whalen crushed consecutive triples Saturday to cap a 10-0 win for the Coupeville High School softball squad.
Now 3-0 on the pandemic-shortened season after dismantling visiting Orcas Island, the Wolves hit the road for their next five games.
But while CHS fans likely won’t see their sluggers in person again until March 26 (unless postponed games against La Conner are rescheduled before then) they got the full experience on a sunny weekend afternoon.
Coupeville stung Orcas with big hits — 10 of them to be exact, including a third triple off the bat of Allie Lucero — a big pitching performance from Wells, and a pretty-impressive collection of web gems.
Calmly flicking fastballs into catcher Mollie Bailey’s glove like she was in her backyard playing catch, Wells whiffed eight Orcas hitters while surrendering just a single, solitary bloop hit.
Not that she didn’t get some help, with Jill Prince, Chelsea Prescott, and Audrianna Shaw all proving they know how to wield their leather while operating in the field.
It was a Coupeville sort of day from start to finish, with the Wolves getting out in front quickly.
After Wells tossed a 1-2-3 top of the first, packaging K’s around a comebacker to the mound, the Wolves jumped on the scoreboard in their half of the inning.
Shaw led off with a walk, with Gwen Gustafson poking a single into the gap between second and first to set the table.
An out later, Bailey started off a big day with the bat, finding her pitch and grooving a two-run single into right-center.
Gently rocking back and forth on the bag at first, the heir to an impressive prairie heritage calmly nodded, as if to say, “Oh, you know I shall return.”
She was right, as the senior reached base all four times she strode to the plate Saturday, collecting a pair of base-knocks while also blistering the ball twice on rockets which smacked off of Orcas gloves and were recorded as errors.
Bailey’s second official hit plated the game’s third run, sending Shaw scampering home in the bottom of the third.
A single from Wells and a walk to Whalen loaded the bags and raised hopes of a big inning, but the visitors escaped when their shortstop made a nice play on a hot grounder back up the middle, robbing Wolf second baseman Heidi Meyers.
Back in the pitcher’s circle, Wells retired the first 14 batters she faced, allowing only a shallow single in the fifth and a walk in the sixth.
Behind her, fellow Wolves came hard on every defensive chance they had.
Prince, hurtling across the diamond from third like she was shot out of a cannon, pulled in a dangerous popup which threatened to drop between Wells and the infield.
Not to be outdone, Prescott snagged a hot shot inches from the ground in the hole at short, while Shaw made a sensational diving catch while on her horse right after moving from left field to center.
“Audri did a great job out there,” said CHS coach Kevin McGranahan. “She is stepping up and taking control of our outfield, directing the younger girls, always talking.”
Shaw also had an impact with her bat, bashing a single to center to key a three-run rally in the fourth.
An RBI single from Prescott made it 4-0, before Bailey nuked a ball off the pitcher’s mitt and into center, plating two more Wolf runners.
Coupeville had a chance to add to its lead in the fifth, after Allie Lucero hammered the snot out of the ball, arriving at third with a one-out, standup triple which produced a yelp of approval from dad Aaron.
Unfortunately, Orcas clamped down, recording back-to-back outs, including a superb snag by first-baseman Portia White on a drifting foul ball over by the dugout.
If the Wolves were concerned, they didn’t show it, waiting another inning, then ending things early by sending four of six hitters all the way around the base-paths.
Gustafson whacked a one-out single off the shortstop’s glove, Prescott and Bailey mashed pool shots which found leather, then freedom, and finally the Wolves got epic.
Wells parked a towering two-run triple to deep center, barely missing a game-ending homerun, before Whalen went and got medieval on a pitch.
The Wolf first-baseman, staying true to the line of power hitters who have held the position at CHS, from Hailey Hammer to Veronica Crownover, tattooed a liner down the left field line, then went screaming into third as Wells tapped home with the final run.
The back-to-back jacks capped a day on which seven Wolves recorded at least one hit, led by Wells, Gustafson, and Bailey, who recorded two apiece.
Shaw, Whalen, Allie Lucero, and Prescott each chipped in with a base-knock of their own, while Meyers, Prince, Kylie Van Velkinburgh, Maya Lucero, Lacy McCraw-Shirron, and Karyme Castro all saw field time.
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