Monica Vidoni had a sensational over her shoulder catch to highlight Coupeville’s 8-2 win Thursday. P.S. — The weather wasn’t this nice. (John Fisken photo)
It ended the only way it could. With a bang.
Exploding from behind the plate, freshman catcher Lauren Rose whipped a dart down the third base line, the softball exploding into third baseman Hailey Hammer’s glove an instant before the mortified Port Townsend runner could even think about twitching her body back towards the bag.
An emphatic “you’re out!” from the ump, and an afternoon of complete domination, one in which the Coupeville High School sluggers owned their visitors from first pitch to last play, ended with an 8-2 victory.
The win lifted the Wolves to 4-6 overall and an especially spiffy 3-1 in Olympic League play.
And it was domination.
Complete and utter domination on an afternoon that started with vicious wind, moved through a torrential downpour and ended with a hazy sun beaming down on fans who aren’t going to feel dry or warm for at least three days.
But hey, when you win, who cares about the weather?
Especially when the field, prepared with a loving touch by groundskeeper/softball dad Mike Lodell, held up so beautifully even the umps had to shake their heads in wonder.
Plus, as long as it was pouring liquid from the skies, Coupeville was pounding away on offense, scoring six runs in the first to ice the game even before the fans lost all the feeling in their extremities.
The Port Townsend pitcher had control problems in warmups and never was able to fix them once the game actually started, a fact the Wolves took full advantage of.
Tiffany Briscoe kicked things off by reaching on an error, then taking a second base on an overthrow.
The hot-hitting Katrina McGranahan thumped an RBI double that was twice as impressive for slicing right through the heart of the wind storm, before CHS poured it on by jumping on Redhawk miscues.
Hope Lodell eked out a bases-loaded walk to make it 2-0, then two Wolves scored on the same wild pitch and the rout was on.
McGranahan added another RBI single in the second to stretch the lead to 7-0, then the game took an odd turn.
Coupeville actually rapped out more hits in the latter innings, but stopped scoring.
Singles from Robin Cedillo and Rose in the fifth went for naught, and the Wolves juiced the bags in the sixth on hits from McGranahan and McKayla Bailey plus another walk by Lodell, but the rally sputtered out.
Still, they didn’t need it, as sharp pitching from McGranahan, who stayed in control even while flinging a frequently-wet ball, and stellar play from her defense, carried the day.
Rose teamed up with Bailey to gun down a runner on a bang-bang play.
With runners at the corners, Rose fired towards second, but Bailey cut off the ball (as planned), catching the lead runner in no man’s land between third and home.
Her eyes firing off lightning bolts at the Redhawk runner, Bailey baited her into lunging for home, then calmly zinged the ball to Rose, who slapped on the tag with authority.
That play might have been the best of the afternoon, most afternoons.
On this day, however, right fielder Monica Vidoni topped it with a sensational running catch over her shoulder that ended one of the few Port Townsend threats.
The tallest player on her squad, Vidoni needed every last one of her inches to bring the ball down, sending the Wolf parent section into an explosion of cheers.
“I’m so glad she’s six-foot, six-one, six-two, whatever Monica is,” said Coupeville coach Deanna Rafferty. “She reached up there and made a great play.”
As the post-game celebration raged on, with sweet-fielding second baseman Jae LeVine bouncing around in glee and first baseman Kyla Briscoe high-fiving this reporter as she exited, it was a good day to be a Wolf.
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