“Who’s the best softball team in the North Sound Conference?”
“We are!!” (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
We’re #1.
Most likely.
Capping a wild regular season, the Coupeville High School softball team thrashed host South Whidbey 18-5 Tuesday, giving them a three-game season sweep of their Island rivals.
With the victory, the Wolves clinch at least a share of the North Sound Conference title, and put themselves in position to be the league’s #1 seed to districts.
The Wolves, who have won eight of their last 10 games, finish 9-3 in league play, and are 12-7 overall heading into the postseason, which starts May 16.
Coupeville won’t know for sure until Thursday if they are the #1 or #2 seed to districts.
That day Granite Falls (8-3, 11-7) travels to Sultan (1-10, 1-13) and Cedar Park Christian (8-3, 13-4) hosts South Whidbey (2-9, 5-12).
Here are the possible outcomes, with Coupeville earning the #1 playoff seed in three of four scenarios:
**Granite and CPC lose = Coupeville is undisputed league champs.
**Granite wins, CPC loses = Coupeville finishes in a tie with Granite.
Tigers get #1 seed based on tiebreaker, thanks to beating Wolves in two of three games.
**Granite loses, CPC wins = Coupeville finishes in a tie with CPC.
Wolves get #1 seed, since they took two of three against Eagles.
**Granite and CPC win = it’s a three-way tie for the title.
Head-to-head tiebreakers don’t work here, as each team won two of three against one foe, while losing two of three against the other opponent.
In this scenario, the most likely of the four, the seeding decision comes down to a blind draw done before the season by league AD’s.
And this is where it gets golden for Coupeville, since Willie Smith beat the odds and pulled the best number, which would make CHS the #1 seed.
However it breaks down Thursday, the Wolves are headed to the playoffs with a full head of steam.
Tuesday, CHS came out locked and loaded offensively and defensively, racking up 13 hits while also pulling off a season-best three double plays in the field.
The game started with one kind of splat — Wolf lead-off hitter Scout Smith being drilled with a wayward pitch — and ended with another, as Coupeville blew up the scoreboard for eight runs in the final inning.
Before the sting of being bonked had time to ease, Smith was on the move around the base-paths.
The Wolf junior scooted to second in a hurry when South Whidbey bobbled an Emma Mathusek grounder, before shooting home on an RBI single smacked sharply to left by Chelsea Prescott.
An out later, it was time for Mollie Bailey to remind folks that while her family has been anchored on the Coupeville prairie for decades, she’s more than willing to tear it up all over the Island.
Turning viciously on the ball, she paddled the offering back up the middle, skipping it between defenders and sending Mathusek and Prescott scrambling for home.
With Smith tossing BB’s from the pitcher’s circle, Coupeville carried the 3-0 lead into the top of the third, then tacked on a few more runs.
The first run came around thanks to an absolute laser off of the bat of Wolf catcher Sarah Wright, who smoked a double to deep left.
The next score might have been even better, because it came after South Whidbey intentionally walked the scariest batter they’ve known this season.
Wolf first-baseman Veronica Crownover smashed fences-clearing home runs in both the previous games this season between the Island rivals, and the Falcons were feeling a bit gun-shy in their third tango.
Twice Tuesday they waved her to first base on intentional passes, then breathed deep sighs of relief as she stopped twisting her bat o’ death, gave the Falcon hurler a long, quietly-menacing stare, then jogged down to first-base.
Your season totals for South Whidbey pitchers: three intentional walks to Crownover, counting one in an earlier game, but none to a single other Wolf.
The Falcons still paid in the third inning, though certainly not with the same sting a grand-slam would have offered.
Mackenzie Davis, following Crownover to the plate, whipped a low, blistering shot off the pitcher’s mitt, plating one Wolf, then Nicole Laxton sent a final run across the plate on a ground-out, garnering the first of her four RBI in the game.
Up 6-0, Coupeville was humming, but hit a brief bit of trouble in the third.
Rallying from two outs and nobody aboard, the Falcons strung together three straight hits and put their own three-spot on the scoreboard.
But, while it was a stumble, it was a brief one.
The Wolves answered right back in the fourth, with Laxton crushing a two-out, two-run single to stretch the margin back to 8-3, before the entire team started throwing down stellar defensive plays.
The first came from Smith, who moved to second base in the fourth, with freshman Izzy Wells stalking to the pitcher’s circle to take the ball.
Smith pulled off a nifty double-play to end the bottom of the inning, snagging a hot chopper, tagging a runner trying to sneak by, then pegging the ball deep into Crownover’s mitt.
The two teams exchanged two-run rallies in the fifth, then both went scoreless in the sixth, keeping the Wolf lead semi-safe at 10-5.
Bailey had the big blow in the fifth, walloping a two-run double, while Prescott and Crownover pulled off their own double plays to end the fifth and sixth, respectively.
Prescott scooped up a grounder, jumped on second for one out, then nailed the runner headed to first, all in one fluid move.
Crownover went her one better, moving only a single step for her twin-killing.
Glove snapping up, she yanked a liner out of the air, then nonchalantly stepped backwards and onto the bag at first, subtly waving bye-bye-bye to a Falcon runner who had taken off at bat contact only to find herself stuck in no man’s land.
While Coupeville led the entire way, the five-run margin still might have made for some tight collars, so the Wolves erased any doubts in the top of the seventh.
The first 10 batters in the inning reached base, and South Whidbey didn’t get an out until the field ump went blind and called Prescott out after she beat out a bunt by a good three steps.
Not that it mattered, as the Wolves had pushed eight runs across in the frame at that point, with the biggest hits being yet another RBI single by the smokin’ hot Laxton and a two-run double from Smith.
“We came out and scored in the first and never looked back,” CHS coach Kevin McGranahan said. “They fought us for a little while, but, in the end, we outhit them and played good defense.”
Coupeville spread its offense around, with Prescott (three singles), Wright (two doubles), Bailey (1B, 2B), Mathusek (two singles), and Laxton (two singles) leading the way.
Smith added a double, while Coral Caveness singled.
