By DAVID SVIEN
Special to the News-Times
Eastern Washington, the Wolves are headed your way, red-hot bats in hand.
Dodging raindrops Thursday at the Skagit Playfields in Mount Vernon, the Coupeville High School softball squad decisively claimed the District 1 title, while punching its ticket to the 2B state tourney.
The Wolves, who are 18-1 after crunching Friday Harbor 15-5 in the championship game, have won 17 straight after a one-run loss to 3A Oak Harbor way back in March.
Slotted #4 in the final Washington Interscholastic Activities Association RPI rankings, Aaron Lucero’s squad will find out its state path Sunday.
That’s when a seeding committee releases the 16-team bracket for the royal rumble, which is slated to play out May 23-24 at the Gateway Sports Complex in Yakima.
This is the fourth trip to state for CHS softball, and its first in the 2B classification.
The Wolves advanced in 2002 (winning four of five games to earn a 3rd place trophy), 2014, and 2019, all as a 1A school.
Now, Lucero, in his first season at the helm of the Wolf program, joins former Coupeville diamond gurus Randy Dickson, David King and Kevin McGranahan in leading a softball team to state.
His band of sluggers has carved a brutal path through foes this season, outscoring their rivals 276-37. No, that’s not a misprint, and yes, it could have been even more lopsided if Lucero hadn’t pumped the brakes at time.
Narrow victories over Lakewood, Forks and Granite Falls have proven Coupeville’s iron will under pressure, while the Wolves have also captured 14 of those 18 wins by enforcing the mercy rule, which shuts down games after five innings if one team leads by 10 or more runs.
Friday Harbor, which eliminated Orcas Island 9-1 in a loser-out playoff opener Thursday, hung tough in the championship game, but the Wolves ultimately had too many weapons.
The Wolverines scratched out a run in the top of the first, but the lead would be short-lived. Coupeville started to attack almost immediately, using relentless speed and guile on the basepaths to once again keep a foe tense and ready to break at all times.
Mia Farris cracked a one-out single, followed by Teagan Calkins eking out a walk, before the dance began.
A stolen base led to a wild pitch, then, after Madison McMillan tied the game on an RBI groundout, the Wolves took the lead for good on a frantic play.
With Calkins bouncing on third, a pitch got away from the Friday Harbor catcher, and “The Red Dragon” shot for the plate.
Unexpectedly, the ball shot back a little quicker to the backstop’s glove than probably expected, but Calkins went under the tag like a professional limbo dancer, her arm caressing the plate as the catcher juggled and dropped the ball.
The safe call went up, Calkins did the slow strut to the bench, and the momentum had changed.
While Friday Harbor escaped the inning trailing just 2-1, the Wolves were already starting to feel it.
Freshman pitcher Adeline Maynes held the Wolverines at bay in the top of the second, before her sluggers went off for five more runs in the bottom half of the frame.
It started with Jada Heaton, noted softball magnet, sacrificing her body one more time by getting plunked for the 11,478th time this season.
From there, Ava Lucero, Farris, Calkins, and McMillan cranked RBI base hits to push the lead to 7-1, with Calkins almost ripping off the pitcher’s arm with a gnarly shot right back up the middle.
Friday Harbor, fighting to keep its season alive, did cut the lead back to 7-3 and held Coupeville scoreless in the third inning, but it wasn’t enough.
Wolf shortstop Taylor Brotemarkle pulled off a highlight reel-worthy defensive play, veering to her left to snag a hard-hit chopper before firing a cannon shot to Lucero at first for the out.
And then the Wolf offense fired right back to life.
Calkins smacked an RBI single to light the fuse in the bottom of the fourth, while Haylee Armstrong capped a five-run frame with a run-scoring base knock of her own.
In between, Madison McMillan broke the universe. The senior third baseman, master of the mammoth moonshot, unleashed a three-run home run to straightaway center field, the ball puncturing a hole in the grey clouds which hung over the field.
Rumors that the softball sailed so high up in the air it knocked a spy satellite out of orbit are just that … rumors. NASA will not confirm or deny.
Back on Earth, Friday Harbor, being pesky and persistent to the end, snipped the margin back to 12-5 and pulled off a pretty impressive double play in the fifth to (momentarily) hold off its fast-approaching doom.
Enter Calkins, who plated Brotemarkle with yet another RBI single, before dancing around the basepaths herself, disrupting the defense with a bold dash for home.
With the game at 14-5 and the possibility of enforcing the mercy rule, Wolf frosh Sydney Van Dyke, already a grizzled vet in her second season as a starter, ambled to the plate.
Slicing a single into the mist in left, the ball hitting the grass and skidding away, it sent McMillan streaking home and the Wolves off to the promised land.
“Every player contributed today!” Aaron Lucero said. “Really proud of their composure and intensity. On to state!”
