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Posts Tagged ‘Madison McMillan’

Softball scenes from a (mostly) sun-free spring

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on May 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Allie Powers provided plenty of vocal support for her teammates this season. (Jackie Saia photos)

It wasn’t the best spring, weather-wise, that we’ve seen on the prairie.

But through the wind, and rain, and more wind and rain, the Coupeville High School softball squad put together a very successful spring.

Along for the ride was Wolf Mom (and CHS Yearbook editor) Jackie Saia, who delivers the pics seen above and below.

They’re winners, no matter the weather.

Jada Heaton

Taylor Brotemarkle

Mia Farris high-fives the world.

Ava Lucero

Madison McMillan

Sydney Van Dyke

Melanie Wolfe (left) and Shania Kenney

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Young guns scrap to the final batter

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on May 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Part of a Wolf softball squad which went 14-5 and can return everyone next spring. (Michelle Armstrong photo)

Coupeville won the battle, but Toledo won the war.

A very-young Wolf softball squad played the first inning to precision Saturday night at Fort Borst Park in Centralia.

Unfortunately, the winner-to-state, loser-out playoff game went a full seven frames, and the Riverhawks rebounded from a 3-0 deficit to eventually claim an 11-4 victory.

With the win, Toledo, which is 19-6 after going 3-2 in the District 1/4 tourney, is off to the big dance.

Meanwhile, Coupeville, which was required to pop in at the very tail end of another district’s tourney, instead of being fully rewarded for being the #1 team from their own area, finishes 14-5.

The Wolves, who regularly started three 8th graders and two freshmen this season, and have no seniors, can return everyone on their roster.

And, even in defeat, they fought until the final batter, showcasing the hustle and grit which defines Kevin McGranahan’s diamond program.

Saturday’s game pitted a Toledo team which was playing its third game of the day against a Coupeville squad which hadn’t played in a week.

For an inning, at least, the fresher team looked sharper.

Wolf hurler Adeline Maynes, one of those 8th graders, mowed through the Riverhawks in the top of the first, picking up two strikeouts and a groundout to fellow middle school classmate Sydney Van Dyke.

Hefting their bats for the first time since they carved up South Whidbey in the regular season finale May 10, the Wolves immediately stung Toledo.

Taylor Brotemarkle gets medieval on the softball. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Haylee Armstrong took the first pitch she saw and ripped it into left field for a single, before Mia Farris clobbered a double in the same direction.

With two runners on and nobody out, Taylor Brotemarkle lofted a precision sac fly to plate the game’s first run, before Madison McMillan went nuclear.

Punching a hole in the dark, foreboding clouds which hung over the field, the junior third baseman cleared the fences with a two-run tater, and Coupeville was up 3-0 just four batters in.

And then the batting display turned off. Big time.

After McMillan’s epic blast, the Wolves went two complete rotations through the lineup — a full 18 batters — before getting another hit.

Van Dyke, Danica Strong, and Brotemarkle eked out walks during that dry spell, but with no base knocks, there were no more runs for a very long time.

It wasn’t until two batters into the bottom of the sixth that Coupeville finally broke the hitless skid, with sophomore catcher Teagan Calkins mashing a fences-clearing home run of her own.

Teagan Calkins goes yard. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Capri Anter accounted for the Wolves final hit, cracking a long single into an opening in the outfield defense in the seventh inning.

But that was it for CHS, as it started with three hits in the first four batters but finished with just five base knocks and three walks total.

That 3-0 lead held up for a bit, with Toledo scratching out a run in the second, then sliding ahead 4-3 thanks to several well-placed hits in the top of the third.

The deficit was still just a run well into the fifth, but that was when the Riverhawks found their groove, peppering the ball around the field and plating six runs to turn a nailbiter into a bit of a runaway.

One final tally in the sixth made it 11 unanswered runs for Toledo, before Calkins walloped her final moon ball of the season to get one back for Coupeville.

“The Red Dragon” then ended her second high school diamond campaign by gunning down a runner trying, and failing, to steal second base, as the Wolves refused to go meekly into the stormy night.

While the loss brings a close to the season, Coupeville’s young guns can exit heads held high.

They went undefeated in Northwest 2B/1B League play, reclaimed their conference crown from Friday Harbor, and held their own against a tough non-league schedule.

Wins against Onalaska, Nooksack Valley, and Sultan were big, and a two-game sweep of next-door neighbor South Whidbey especially sweet.

And, as mentioned, EVERYONE on the roster can come back.

The “core four” — current juniors Farris, Brotemarkle, Jada Heaton, and McMillan — will be seniors next spring, while their younger teammates achieved success early and can continue to grow.

The pitching staff of Maynes, Armstrong, and Anter have four, three, and three seasons remaining respectively, a particular bright spot for one of Coupeville’s most-successful programs year-in, year-out.

Haylee Armstrong fires BB’s. (Claire Kalwies-Anderson photo)

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Bash sisters pillage Pioneers

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on May 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Adeline Maynes works her magic in the pitcher’s circle. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

“That was the most complete game we played this year.”

Having watched his very-young Coupeville High School softball squad dismantle visiting Nooksack Valley 11-2 Friday, Wolf diamond guru Kevin McGranahan was in a great mood.

The non-conference victory, coming against a school which won a 1A state softball title in 2022, is a huge feather in the cap for the 2B Wolves.

Now 13-4 on the season, Coupeville, which starts three 8th graders and two freshmen, has one more regular-season game left on the schedule.

That’s a home tilt next Friday, May 10 with South Whidbey, a team it beat 20-9 on the road way back in the season opener in mid-March.

After that, the Wolves wait until May 18, when they travel to Centralia to play a District 4 team to be named later in a winner-to-state, loser-out playoff rumble.

With no seniors, but a lineup which can deliver from the top of the order to the bottom, McGranahan likes what he’s seeing.

“It’s a good time to be hitting our stride,” he said, “Hopefully we can maintain it for two weeks.”

Facing off with Nooksack, the Wolves came out wearing black uniforms, and gunning to take down the Pioneers, who hail from one of the toughest sports leagues in the state.

“Don’t use up all your pitches. I need you for seven innings today,” McGranahan had told 8th grade pitcher Adeline Maynes as she warmed up with catcher Teagan Calkins.

The young ace was listening, as she came out on fire, picking up two of her seven strikeouts in the first frame.

Maynes not only pitched with passion, but she also slung smartly, letting her defense back her up.

Taylor Brotemarkle and Sydney Van Dyke, holding down the middle of the infield, snared hot liners, while third baseman Madison McMillan, crashing hard, speared a bunt out of the air to deny a Nooksack hitter.

Sydney Van Dyke encourages her pitcher. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

The Wolf outfield, comprised of Jada Heaton, Mia Farris, and Capri Anter, gobbled up everything that came its way on an overcast, but warm and tranquil (at least for this sun-free spring) afternoon.

And then there was Calkins, in full “Red Dragon” mode, springing up like a jack in the box to snare a popped-up bunt for one out, before pivoting and firing a strike to sure-handed Haylee Armstrong at first to double off a straying runner.

Maynes only spot of trouble came in the third, when Nooksack briefly cut the lead from 6-0 to 6-2, but then the calm ‘n collected middle schooler bore down and escaped thanks to back-to-back strikeouts.

At the plate, the Wolves were swinging hot, cracking 14 hits, with eight different players collecting at least one base knock.

Armstrong and Brotemarkle bashed singles in the first, before McMillan and Heaton delivered the game-busters.

McMillan kept Grandpa Gordon busy on the scorebook, launching a two-run double to left field which left her bat like a laser.

Meanwhile her fellow junior perfectly placed a two-run single about five feet over the shortstop’s outstretched glove, as Heaton used her bat to paint a best-seller.

Up 4-0 after one inning of play, Coupeville tacked on two more in the second, scoring both after it already had two outs.

With Anter aboard after one of her three hits, CHS went boom-bam-boom with the middle of the order.

Brotemarkle, mashing the ball and taking names, zipped a ball off a glove, before McMillan scorched a hot grounder which burned a hole down the first-base line.

That brought Calkins into the spotlight, and she delivered for the 10,047th time, lacing a two-run single into deep left field to the delight of her fervent fan club.

Nooksack did get two runs back, then held Coupeville scoreless in the third and fourth, but the dam broke in the fifth.

Calkins and Van Dyke outhustled Nooksack to get aboard on grounders that could have been, and probably should have been, outs.

Given new life, Coupeville made sure the sting was epic.

Danica Strong plans out her day. “First, destroy Nooksack…” (Mia Farris photo)

Danica Strong, pinch-hitting for Ava Lucero, smoked a two-run double to left to make it 8-2, before Armstrong bashed her own two-run double — this one to right-center — to all but seal the deal at 10-2.

The Wolves, and their super sub, weren’t done, however.

Strong came back around in the sixth to pick up her third RBI of the day, plating Calkins, who hit the ground hard and slid in under the tag.

Down to its final outs, Nooksack swung for the cheap seats, but Maynes wasn’t having it.

She induced a liner to Van Dyke, got a fly ball to Heaton, who chased it down on the run, then closed things by firing three strikes past the final Pioneer hitter.

After that, all that was left was for the Wolves to sing their farewell song to bleachers packed with CHS fans, their voices, showcasing a mix of pride and joy, carrying across the prairie.

 

Friday stats:

Capri Anter — One double, two singles
Haylee Armstrong — One double, one single
Taylor Brotemarkle — One single, one walk
Teagan Calkins — Three singles, one walk
Jada Heaton — One single
Madison McMillan — One double, one single
Danica Strong — One double
Sydney Van Dyke — One double

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Our bats are big, our runs are many

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on April 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Jada Heaton (left) and Taylor Brotemarkle combined for five hits Tuesday afternoon as Coupeville obliterated Friday Harbor. (Jennifer Heaton photo)

Redemption is theirs.

A year after losing twice by a single run to Friday Harbor and watching its stranglehold on the Northwest 2B/1B League slip away, the Coupeville High School varsity softball squad is back.

In a big way.

A Wolf team which starts three 8th graders, and two freshmen, drilled its biggest rivals for the second time this season, rolling to a 13-1 road win Tuesday.

Coupeville, which has outscored Friday Harbor 26-1 this season, now sits at 5-0 in league play, 8-2 overall.

And while they haven’t clinched any league titles — two tilts in a six-day span against Darrington in late April still loom large — the Wolves are in control of their own destiny.

Coming off a non-conference loss to Forks, which finished second at the 2B state tourney in 2023, Coupeville showed an ability to quickly move on and focus on the task at hand.

And that task was beating the crud out of the softball, as the Wolves erupted for five hits in the top of the first — including a double and two triples — and never slowed down.

Haylee Armstrong opened things by rocketing a shot over the head of the shortstop for a single, before swiftly coming around to score when Mia Farris crunched a triple seconds later.

Another single past the shortstop — this one from Taylor Brotemarkle — made it 2-0, before Teagan Calkins launched an RBI double, and the suddenly nuclear-hot Jada Heaton lashed an RBI triple to deep right field.

CHS pitcher Adeline Maynes was in no mood to allow Friday Harbor to get back in the game, firing BB’s as she picked up two of her eight strikeouts in the first inning.

Backing their 8th grade ace, the Wolf hitters kept the numbers flipping on the scoreboard, tacking on two more runs in the second, another three in the third, and a final four in the fourth.

After starting her day off with a quiet walk, junior third baseman Madison McMillan started flexing like a WWE wrestler, twice clearing the bases with a three-run base knock.

The Wolf cleanup hitter finished with a season-high six RBI, scaring the locals, who ran for cover and refused to come back out as long as The Mad Masher was in the immediate vicinity of a bat.

Madison McMillan hits the softball so hard she leaves a dent in it. True story. (Jackie Saia photo)

While McMillan was writing tales to be told when Friday Harbor parents need to scare their young children in coming years, everyone in the Coupeville lineup contributed.

Heaton lashed a single, double, and triple, while Armstrong cracked three singles to lead the hit parade.

Brotemarkle, Calkins, and McMillan each had two hits, Farris launched her triple, and Ava Lucero and Capri Anter combined to eke out three walks.

The lone Wolf not to get aboard on this day was Sydney Van Dyke, but she made her presence felt on defense, where she played with precision at second base.

Coupeville will take a brief pause from league games the rest of the week but has a pair of non-conference road rumbles ahead on the schedule.

The Wolves travel to Blaine Friday and Granite Falls Saturday for contests against teams from bigger schools, offering a major challenge.

Wolf sluggers (l to r) Bailey Thule, Haylee Armstrong, and Teagan Calkins bask in the afterglow of another win. (Michelle Armstrong photo)

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Snazzy softball snaps showcase sublime skill

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on April 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Chelsi Stevens, ready to rip the cover off the softball. (Mia Farris photos)

Mia Farris scores with her bat, and with her camera.

The Coupeville High School supernova had the day off recently as Wolf softball crunched visiting La Conner, with several starters giving playing time to their back-ups.

Along with raising the roof in the dugout, Farris also picked up her photographic tool and added to her already-impressive collection of pics for the yearbook, as seen in the snaps above and below.

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