Katrina McGranahan, the reigning Olympic League MVP, was a two-way terror Friday as Coupeville smacked Klahowya and clinched its first league title in 16 years. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
“What a day for Wolf fast-pitch!”
Coupeville High School softball coach Kevin McGranahan was beaming from ear to ear Friday afternoon, and why not?
He had just watched his Wolves torch visiting Klahowya 9-4, their fifth-straight win over the Eagles in the last two seasons.
With the win, Coupeville improves to 9-3 overall, 2-0 in Olympic League play and clinches the program’s first conference title since the vaunted 2002 Wolves, who went on to finish third at state.
With Chimacum and Port Townsend shutting down their softball teams for a season due to lack of players, the Olympic League became a two-team rumble this season.
After nabbing wins in the first two games of a three-game season series (the finale is Apr. 30 at Klahowya), Coupeville has clinched a title and the #1 playoff seed from the Olympic League.
The Wolves open the double-elimination portion of the West Central District 3 tourney May 18 against the #2 team from the Nisqually League.
Win two out of three games, and CHS softball is state-bound for the third time in its history and the first time since 2014.
Klahowya will have to survive a loser-out pigtail playoff game May 15 against the Nisqually League’s #3 team to join Coupeville in the double-elimination round.
While the Eagles had sat for nearly a month between games thanks to rain and scheduling issues, the Wolves have been playing at a steady clip, including a big win Thursday afternoon at La Conner.
That quickly showed.
“These ladies went out and took control and would not be denied,” Kevin McGranahan said. “They hit from the first batter on and everyone contributed in one way or another.
“League champs and half a season to prep for the postseason,” he added. “I am so proud for all the girls, but the seniors have fought from being less than mediocre to being dominant and doing it as a team and involving everyone.”
While senior spark-plug Lauren Rose was missing, gone to a college trip in Arizona, her compatriots, center-fielder Hope Lodell and pitcher Katrina McGranahan, came up huge in the spotlight.
The duo combined to rap five hits at the plate, while McGranahan carried a shut-out into the fifth and won her duel with Klahowya’s D1-bound hurler Amber Bumbalough.
Lodell, when she wasn’t slicing hits and running wild on the bags, also anchored a strong Wolf defense, vacuuming up anything that came her way in the outfield.
The tone of the game was set in the first inning, as both teams sent five hitters to the plate, but only one scored.
Klahowya put a pair of runners aboard in the top half, including the first of two intentional walks to Bumbalough, as Wolf coaches never gave the homer-happy Eagle standout a chance to get hot early at the plate.
The Eagles couldn’t do anything with the opportunity, however, as Katrina McGranahan punched out back-to-back hitters, giving her three K’s in the inning, to strand runners at second and third.
The reigning Olympic League MVP (she succeeded two-time winner Bumbalough last season) immediately made her impact felt with the bat, as well.
With Scout Smith perched on third after a mammoth lead-off double to center and a passed ball, Killer Kat whacked an RBI single back up the middle.
While Coupeville couldn’t get any more runs across in the inning, it signaled that the Wolves, who collected 12 hits on the day, were grooving on what Klahowya pitching was offering.
From there the Wolves steadily pulled away, plating two in the second, blowing things open with four in the third, then adding a solitary run in the fourth as they built an 8-0 lead.
The second inning was kicked off by a walk to Veronica Crownover, followed by three solid base-knocks from the next four Wolf hitters.
Lodell sliced a shot to left field, curling it just inside the line, while Emma Mathusek and Smith poked back-to-back RBI singles to put a zing in the step of every Wolf fan.
The third inning was the killer, starting with a stand-up triple to the deepest, darkest regions of right field from clean-up hitter Sarah Wright.
After the Wolf catcher bolted home to score on a passed ball, the Wolves went right back to work with their bats.
Crownover and Lodell singled, Mackenzie Davis hit a hard chopper and used an unexpected burst of speed to force a Klahowya error, then it was “Mathusek Time” again.
The sophomore sensation, coming up mega-big time from the #9 slot, laced a two-run single to right and the Coupeville faithful erupted like Old Faithful going off.
Katrina McGranahan was back at it again in the fourth, walloping a triple of her own, then scooting home on a ground-out off of Wright’s bat.
The Eagles finally broke through in the fifth, plating two runners, but Coupeville’s defense, led by freshman second-baseman Coral Caveness, shut things down quickly.
With Rose out of town, Caveness got her second-straight start and was in full lock-down mode, fielding pop-ups, snagging liners and pulling off the web gem of the day.
That play came in the top of the seventh, after a Crownover RBI single stretched the lead back to 9-2.
KSS used a double and a note-perfect bunt single to put runners at the corners, briefly lighting a flicker of hope in its dugout.
Which Caveness promptly snuffed right out, pulling off one of the sweeter double plays we will see all season.
Snagging a liner on the move, she whirled and cut down the runner who had strayed off of first, driving a nearly-final stake through the heart of the Eagles.
With a seven-run lead and one out away from a league title, Kevin McGranahan went against the odds and gave Bumbalough a shot to swing away in her final at-bat in her final visit to Cow Town.
And while she hammered a two-run, inside-the-park home run to say goodbye, the Wolves ended the game on the next batter, ensuring no one will dwell too long on the tater.
The final ball was a chopper to third, where fab frosh Chelsea Prescott, who likely wasn’t alive in 2002, gathered the ball in and calmly fired it on a line to Crownover, who stamped on first and made a bit of prairie history.
Katrina McGranahan (1B, 1B, 3B) paced the Wolf offense, while Smith (1B, 2B), Crownover (1B, 1B), Lodell (1B, 1B), Mathusek (1b, 1B) and Wright (3B) helped out.
“A huge team win. Everyone has chipped in, up and down the line, in this game and through the season,” Kevin McGranahan said. “This is what we strove for. (Winning a title) feels good; they earned it.
“I couldn’t be more proud of every young lady wearing a Wolf fast-pitch uniform, varsity or JV; it takes everyone to do this.”
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