Monica Vidoni made the throw that saved the day Saturday. (John Fisken photo)
Tri-District bound! (Donna Bailey photos)
And the party never ends.
Let them play schools their own size and they’re dangerous.
Bouncing back after a season of being pounded on by big-school 2A squads, the Coupeville High School softball squad won two games at the 1A District 1 tourney this weekend and advanced on to tri-districts May 24.
A 3-2 nail biter win over Nooksack Valley Saturday clinched the berth, and the Wolves, who play for the smallest 1A school in the state, moved two wins away from the state tournament.
Coupeville is 6-17 on the season, but 5-3 against fellow 1A schools. It will face the #3 team from District 3 in a loser-out game at Janicki Fields in Sedro-Woolley to open tri-districts.
Win, and they have two games to win one and join the CHS baseball squad in advancing to state.
CHS, which lost 15-7 to Lynden Christian, drilled Meridian 6-2, eked out a win over Nooksack, then got roughed up 20-4 by Blaine (the Borderites outscored opponents 50-11 in their four games), placed fourth at districts.
Mount Baker, Lynden Christian, Blaine and Nooksack took first, second, third and fifth to join Coupeville in advancing, while South Whidbey went two and out.
The game of the tournament came against Nooksack, and Coupeville came up big in the spotlight.
“It had everything, great pitching, great defense and some clutch hitting,” said Coupeville coach David King. “(Wolf pitcher) McKayla (Bailey) did her part with keeping Nooksack off balance. When they did threaten the defense stepped up, not once, not twice but three times.”
In the first, with runners at second and third, Bailey laid down some high, hard cheese, ending the inning on a called strike three. Then she snuffed a bases-loaded jam in the second, starting a double play on a ball hit back to the mound.
Inning-ending double plays were the norm for the Wolves.
With the bags juiced in the fourth, CHS first baseman Hailey Hammer snared a line drive and beat the runner back to the bag for an unassisted double play to end the threat.
After a Hammer RBI single pushed the lead to 2-1, Coupeville went back to fundamental play to get what would turn out to be the winning run.
Bailey walked and then the weekend’s two hottest hitters, junior Madeline Strasburg and sophomore Emily Coulter, came through at crunch time.
Strasburg laid down a picture-perfect bunt to advance Bailey to second, before Coulter mashed a shot to left for an epic two-out, RBI double.
“Emily stepped up like she did this weekend and owned the batters box!,” King said. “All year we struggled with leaving runners stranded and not getting that two-out hit, but this weekend was a different story by the team.”
Coupeville wasn’t out of the woods, yet, however, and needed a dramatic play to slam the door.
First the Wolves got bit, then they bit back.
A sac fly cut the lead to 3-2, and when the throw home got past Wolf catcher Breeanna Messner, a runner at first took off for second.
To get the throw off, Messner had to push the runner who had scored out of her way (as is her right) and the ump called interference and ruled the runner going to second was out.
After a protest by Nooksack, however, the call was overturned. At which point King issued a counter-protest.
“I vehemently disagreed with the reversal of the call. It was the correct call to begin with,” he said. “But if one believes in karma, then the next play shows there could be karma in this world.”
The next batter lofted a fly ball to medium right, which Monica Vidoni hauled in for out number two. The runner tagged up from second, and BOOM, Vidoni dropped the hammer.
The junior fired an absolute bullet to Wolf third baseman Emily Licence, beating the runner by two steps. Licence snagged the throw, slapped the tag and it was on to tri-districts.
“A perfect throw was the only way to get the runner and Monica made that throw!,” King said.
“This game was outstanding. Coming out like we did after the two games the night before, getting to the gym at 8:45 this morning and getting loose by playing hoops before we left for Sedro,” he added. “All weekend we got contributions from every player. (Co-coach) Amy (King) and I couldn’t be any prouder of this team.”
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