Jada Heaton just wins. Especially on her birthday. (Photo courtesy Jennifer Heaton)
Jada Heaton’s teammates lit off some fireworks for her 18th birthday.
Peppering visiting Friday Harbor with three home runs Tuesday, the Coupeville High School softball squad kept its hot start going, rolling to a 10-0 victory.
The win, which came in six innings thanks to the mercy rule, lifts the Wolves to 1-0 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 4-1 overall.
Now the teams will clash again, with Coupeville making the trek to Friday Harbor Thursday afternoon, as the NWL uses a new-look spring schedule which has conference foes facing off in back-to-back games.
Tuesday’s tilt was hard-fought, but largely one-sided.
Wolf fab frosh hurler Adeline Maynes, coming off a no-hitter, almost made it two in a row, giving up just a fourth-inning single as she whiffed seven.
Friday Harbor got one other runner aboard thanks to a Coupeville error, but neither base runner made it close to tapping home plate.
Not so for the bombers in red and white, who racked up 12 hits, with half of them being for extra bases.
Madison McMillan crunched a pair of home runs, including a game-ending solo shot in the sixth, while Teagan Calkins mashed both a tater and a triple.
Toss in a triple for fleet-footed Mia Farris and a resounding double for the woman who can’t be kept off base — Taylor Brotemarkle — and the Wolf lumber was smokin’ in the rare prairie sunshine.
Softballs fear the wrath of Teagan Calkins. (Michelle Armstrong photo)
“Bats came alive today. Lot of hard-hit balls,” said CHS coach Aaron Lucero.
“Some found gaps, some found gloves, and a few found the other side of the fence!”
Both the power, and the consistency, of Coupeville’s hitting attack was something which pleases the dugout sage.
“We’re making solid in-game adjustments at the plate and really doing a nice job keeping opposing defenses off balance,” Lucero said.
Coupeville chipped, chipped, chipped away all afternoon, pushing runners across in five of six innings.
Things got off to a dynamic start when Brotemarkle punched a first-inning single, followed by Calkins launching a longball to stake her squad to a 2-0 lead.
After a scoreless second frame, the Wolves tacked on three more runs in both the third and fourth to stretch the margin out to 8-0.
McMillan went airborne for the first time with a three-run blast in the third, while the fourth featured consecutive RBI hits from Calkins, McMillan, and Farris.
A run in the fifth, with Brotemarkle driving in Chelsi Stevens, pushed the game close to mercy-rule territory, but the Wolves waited for that until the first batter in the bottom of the sixth.
That was McMillan, and the senior slugger put the final bow on things with her second round-tripper.
Now, a day to rest, refine, and reload, then the rematch.
“Friday Harbor always comes to play and today was no different,” Lucero said.
“They tried to bunt, slap, and they did put the ball in play, so hats off to them.
“Michelle (their head coach) has them prepared to fight and I expect Thursday they will ramp it up even more. We look forward to the competition.”
Tuesday stats:
Haylee Armstrong — One walk
Taylor Brotemarkle — Two singles, one double, one walk
Teagan Calkins — One triple, one home run
Mia Farris — One single, one triple
Jada Heaton — One walk
Madison McMillan — One single, two home runs, one walk
Chelsi Stevens — One single
Sydney Van Dyke — One single
Madison McMillan gets medieval. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
