Maddie Big Time welcomes you to the gun show. (John Fisken photos)
Madeline Strasburg (left) and Madeline Roberts share a moment.
The home run ball Strasburg crushed over the center field fence Monday.
The most vocal cheerleader in her dugout, Coupeville High School junior Madeline Strasburg is a whirlwind on the softball field and a showman every step of the way.
Monday she stole the spotlight on Senior Night, crushing a home run over the fence in center, gunning down a runner at third with a laser strike from the outfield and doing everything humanly possible to try and lift the Wolves to a stunner over one of the best teams in the Cascade Conference.
In the end, a highly questionable call by a one-man umpire crew gave visiting Sultan just enough air to stage a comeback, and the Turks held on for a 3-2 win.
Still, on a day that started with rain and ended with mid-summer blue skies and blazing sun, the show was all Maddie Big Time.
She hammered a pitch in the second inning that sent the ball screaming to the deepest, darkest regions of the field.
As the yellow ball arced through the air and vanished over the fence, still on the rise as it cleared the barrier, Strasburg did a happy dance round the base paths, only to be mobbed by her entire team at home.
When Wolf senior Haley Sherman whacked the next pitch for a double, followed by a single off the bat of sophomore Emily Coulter, Coupeville looked like they were about to explode for a big inning.
But as suddenly as they had heated up, the bats went cold for CHS. Both runners were stranded and, other than a Strasburg single, the Wolves offense sputtered for several innings.
During the downtime, Sultan took advantage of the home plate umpire having a senior moment.
In the top of the fifth, the Turks had a runner at first with one out, when a batter topped a dribbler that never made it back out of the box.
Despite every person with two working eyes knowing it stayed foul, including the possibly blushing Turk coach, the ump gave Sultan a hit.
With an extra boost, Sultan took advantage two batters later, when Rachel Kirkpatrick dumped a three-run home run over the left field fence.
Coupeville, which had been blown out in the team’s first two meetings, kept things close this time around.
The Wolves scraped together a run of their own in the fifth, to cut the margin to one.
Mighty mite Jae LeVine took a vicious-sounding pitch off an already-bandaged hand (and hopped around wailing long enough you thought, and secretly hoped, she might charge the mound and instigate a bench-clearing brawl).
Then, after a non-painful walk to Breeanna Messner, Hailey Hammer sliced an RBI single up the middle.
Once again looking like they might break out, the Wolves watched their rally die nearly as quickly, with the next two hitters going down swinging.
Coupeville refused to surrender, however, with third baseman Emily Licence making two defensive gems in the sixth packaged around another appearance by Maddie Big Time.
Charging a shallowly hit single to center, Strasburg caught the ball on the bounce and fired in one smooth motion.
The ball launched from her fingertips and landed with a sharp crack in Licence’s glove, catching a very startled Turk runner trying to gently slide into third.
The Wolves got three runners on base over the final two innings, but couldn’t find a game-tying run on Senior Night, when Sherman, Messner and sweet-fielding shortstop Madeline Roberts were honored.
While the loss dropped Coupeville to 4-12 overall, 3-12 in Cascade Conference play, the Wolves retain a half-game lead over South Whidbey in the race for playoff positioning.
The Falcons were bombed 18-6 by league leader Granite Falls Monday and sit at 3-13 in league play.
CHS has three games to play — all on the road — SWHS two and the Wolves own the tiebreaker, having taken the season series between the Whidbey rivals.
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