Taylor Brotemarkle (left) and Mia Farris dig the longball. (Kim Brotemarkle photo)
Three digits for the ol’ ball coach.
A pandemic slowed his roll just a bit, but Coupeville High School varsity softball coach Kevin McGranahan hung around long enough to collect win #100 while reppin’ the red and black.
The milestone victory came Tuesday on Orcas Island, as the hit-happy Wolves mashed an overwhelmed Vikings squad 21-0 in a game called after three innings due to the mercy rule.
Along with bumping McGranahan to 100-44 at the helm of the CHS diamond program, the win lifts Coupeville to 2-0 in Northwest 2B/1B League play this season, 3-0 overall.
Up next is a road trip to Concrete Friday, then a home doubleheader against Onalaska Saturday, when the Wolves will hold their annual “Strike Out Cancer” gift basket fundraiser.
Tuesday’s titanic rout featured back-to-back fence-clearing home runs from Wolf mad mashers Mia Farris and Taylor Brotemarkle and could have been much more lopsided if McGranahan hadn’t taken the pedal off the medal at times.
“More runs! More wins!! It pleases me!!!” (Ryan Blouin photo)
Coupeville’s diamond queens came off the bus swinging hot, dropping 11 runs on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning.
Well, OK, it wasn’t right off the bus, as the Wolves left Cow Town at a hair past 9 AM and arrived on Orcas a solid four hours before the first pitch.
Ferry life, bouncing island to island…
But anyways, once the Orcas players finished with their own classroom work and ambled out to the diamond, Coupeville was lying in wait, bats at the ready.
The first seven Wolves to step to the plate reached base successfully, then after Chelsi Stevens knocked in a run with a well-placed groundout, the next four also got on board.
Madison McMillan, who paced CHS with four hits, all of the extra-base variety, cracked the first of her team’s three home runs, and the rout was on.
Now, the Wolves actually didn’t score in the second inning, getting just a walk from Mary Western, before going off on another tear in the top of the third to effectively end things.
McMillan, bringing both the thunder and the lightning on a balmy day made for “suns out, guns out,” crunched a two-run triple, while recent birthday girl Jada Heaton stroked a two-run single.
But the big blows came from Farris and Brotemarkle, who launched lasers which ended up somewhere offshore by the time they came back down to Earth.
“Mia the Magnificent” let loose with a mammoth grand slam, then, before the Orcas pitcher could catch her breath, “Taylor the Terrific” smoked a shot which flew into the heavens, high-fived the sun, then kept on going.
The back-to-back moonballs kept the Wolves busy, as they stormed off the bench to congratulate their bicep-flexin’ bomber girls.
Junior sluggers (l to r) Madison McMillan, Farris, Jada Heaton, Brotemarkle, and Bailey Thule rule the prairie. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
From there, Coupeville did its best not to embarrass Orcas, ending things by taking an out by having a runner leave the bag early.
The Wolves made such quick work of the Vikings, they hung around and played two more practice innings while waiting for the CHS baseball team to finish up its own game.
That allowed all 14 eligible players to get at least two at-bats on the day, crucial field time for a young squad which has several 8th graders and absolutely no seniors on the roster.
McMillan led the hit parade, peppering the Orcas pitchers for a double, a pair of triples, and a homer.
Hot on her heels were Brotemarkle (1B, 1B, HR), Farris (1B, HR), Haylee Armstrong (1B, 2B), Teagan Calkins (1B), and Heaton (1B).
Armstrong and Western each walked twice, while Capri Anter, Ava Lucero, Bailey Thule, Calkins, and Farris also got aboard by keeping a hawk-like eye on balls and strikes.
Orcas, by contrast, scratched out just three hits and no walks while striking out six times while trying to catch up to fast balls flung their way by Wolf hurlers Adeline Maynes and Anter.
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They’ve reached a new level.
Coupeville Sports 