McKayla Bailey pitched well despite taking a shot off the leg that caused her knee to swell as the game went on. (John Fisken photos)
Emily Coulter had the most entertaining moment of the afternoon, doing an interpretive dance after being beaned.
They didn’t go down easy. That’s for sure.
Things were stacked against the Coupeville High School softballers Thursday from the start.
A lack of playing time, with the schedule shredded by frequent rain-outs. Three freshmen in the starting lineup. A key star (Madeline Strasburg) out with illness while another one (Breeanna Messner) was playing, but got sicker as the game went on.
Tack on a hard shot off the leg of hurler McKayla Bailey, which caused the junior’s knee to balloon up and make it harder for her to plant her weight when she threw.
Plus, we can always fall back on the fact CHS is the smallest 1A school in the state, while visiting Cedarcrest is the largest 2A school in the 1A/2A Cascade Conference.
And yet, with all that going on, the Wolves scrapped and scraped and rode the booming bat of Hailey Hammer and took a 3-1 lead into the top of the seventh.
Unfortunately, that’s when the clock struck midnight for Cinderella, as Cedarcrest rallied to score three runs and claim a 4-3 victory.
At that point, any talk of moral victories goes out the window, and the cold hard fact is Coupeville drops to 1-1 on the season.
A game that started with just one umpire (the second guy showed up in the bottom of the second) and a dazzling burst of sunshine-tinted blue sky — a welcome change for a Wolf squad that has had three road games rained out — ended like a punch to the stomach. That’s the truth.
But, if you go back and look at what came before, the positives far outweigh the negatives.
Coupeville got big time hits from Hammer, who knocked in all three of her team’s runs.
With best friend (and former teammate) Bessie Walstad home from college to root her on, the junior twice drove home runners with hard knocks.
In the bottom of the third, she laced a shot under the third baseman’s glove to score Madeline Roberts, who had beaten out a bunt single, stole second and frazzled the Cedarcrest pitcher by dancing back and forth on every play.
Hammer struck again in the bottom of the fifth, launching a moon shot that came inches from clearing the left field fence for a three-run home run.
Roberts, on via the bunt again, and Messner, who beat out an infield single, both scored on the play.
Defensively, the Wolves were crisp for six innings.
Freshman Tiffany Briscoe, making her debut as a starter in place of Strasburg, twice hauled in long bombs to right.
Emily Coulter (who entertained the crowd with her exuberant dance o’ pain after being hit in the flank by a pitch) made a strong dive to backhand and corral a hard-hit ball up the middle.
Messner gunned down a runner trying to steal second and Roberts was on everything, including hauling in a liner that was several feet above her head.
The wheels only came off in the seventh, with several balls getting past Wolf defenders.
Bailey struck out one and twice got outs on come-backers to the mound, but Cedarcrest used three hits and a fielder’s choice to put together its one-out rally to take the lead and the game.
Coupeville returns to action with three games next week, all on Whidbey Island. The Wolves host Lakewood (Monday, Mar. 31) and Granite Falls (Wednesday, April 2), before traveling to South Whidbey Friday, April 4.
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