It’s our league and don’t forget it!

By DAVID SVIEN

Special to the News-Times

We’re back in charge.

Last season a pair of one-run losses to Friday Harbor denied the Coupeville High School varsity softball team a Northwest 2B/1B League title.

If the first meeting between the schools this spring is any indication, the Wolves are solidly back as the #1 team in the conference.

Paced by an electrifying debut pitching performance from 8th grader Adeline Maynes, and sizzling bats from everyone in the lineup, CHS demolished Friday Harbor 13-0 Tuesday afternoon.

With the action going down under, dare I say it, mid-summer Whidbey weather, the win lifts Coupeville to a pristine 2-0 on the season, 1-0 in conference action.

Now, the young Wolves, who had three 8th graders and two freshmen in the starting lineup for their home opener, are off on a road trip.

Treks to Blaine, Orcas Island, and Concrete will test Coupeville, with their return to the prairie set for Mar. 30, when they host a doubleheader with Onalaska.

But while there’s still a ton of games left to play, along with many twists and turns likely to come, right now, in this moment, this looks like a really good softball squad.

Maynes, following on the heels of fab frosh Haylee Armstrong, who slung fastballs in a season-opening rout of South Whidbey, looked like a veteran from the first pitch to the last.

Recalling former wise-beyond-their-years hurlers like Katrina McGranahan and Izzy Wells, “Adeline the Annihilator” was calm, composed, and artful with her pitches.

She struck out seven across her five innings of work — the game was mercy-ruled with CHS up by 10+ runs — while surrendering just a single hit.

Maynes also showed composure under duress, ending the second inning with a snappy defensive play.

A Friday Harbor slugger lashed a liner off of the Wolf pitcher’s body, but instead of falling to the ground and wailing, she alertly whirled, tracked down the ball, and pegged it to Armstrong at first.

It was the kind of play which would garner applause for a senior, which Coupeville has none of on this roster, but especially noteworthy for a young woman who isn’t actually even in high school yet.

Maynes got some help from her older teammates, with shortstop Taylor Brotemarkle and third baseman Madison McMillan makin’ with the highlight reel-worthy plays.

Brotemarkle snagged a one-hopper and launched a deadeye throw which broke the sound barrier, while McMillan, crashing hard on a bunt, ripped the ball off the dirt and launched a laser in one fluid move.

Both throws landed with happy little sighs in Armstrong’s waiting glove, as the incoming runners silently screamed in agony as their dreams died two steps short of paydirt.

But while defense and pitching wins titles, chicks dig the long ball — especially if they’re the ones cranking the home runs.

Enter Teagan Calkins and Mia Farris, and exit the ball, though Coupeville’s low-rent fence denied the latter from “officially” recording a roundtripper.

There was no doubt with the former, as the Wolf catcher launched a three-run moon ball to left field, then outsprinted any potential throw as she careened around the basepaths.

For Farris, what should have been her own three-run tater became an RBI ground rule double when the ball, which had cleared the center fielder’s head by a sizable margin, squirted under the fence.

CHS softball sluggers have been (very patiently) waiting for a more-permanent enclosure to arrive.

With it in place, the mammoth blast would have hit the more-solid wall and skidded away while Farris twirled from bag to bag.

Instead, the ball skittered under the bottom of the current flimsy fence, giving Friday Harbor a temporary reprieve.

Not that it mattered, as “Mia the Magnificent” torched the Wolverines, collecting three of Coupeville’s 12 hits on the day and earning big praise from CHS coach Kevin McGranahan, who collected his 99th win at the school.

Farris and her comrades scored early and often, pushing three runs across in the first inning, then tacking on five more in both the second and third.

Armstrong eked out a walk to start things, followed by run-scoring hits from Farris, McMillan, and Calkins.

The only thing (briefly) saving Friday Harbor was a superb defensive play in which an infielder snagged a ball over her shoulder while flying backwards, denying Sydney Van Dyke a hit.

Coupeville kept the pressure on in the second inning, as Capri Anter crunched a double, then just kept running, forcing an error and a wild throw back in as she slid under the tag at third.

Nailing Friday Harbor with the ol’ cousin one-two punch, Armstrong laced an RBI single to left to plate her relative, and the rout was on.

Another base-knock from Farris and Calkins monster mash made it 8-0, before Coupeville got crafty in the third inning.

Right after Farris delivered her could-have-been, should-have-been home run, Brotemarkle chopped a little squibber into the infield dirt and all havoc broke loose.

Anter, coming down from third, got trapped in a pickle, but bobbed and weaved her way to success, causing the Friday Harbor catcher to panic and airmail a throw past third base.

Farris then promptly danced home on a wild pitch, before McMillan and Van Dyke closed out things with RBI singles.

That run-scoring hit gives Van Dyke five RBI across her first two high school varsity games.

The base-knocks came from everywhere Tuesday, with Calkins and Farris each ripping three and Anter recording two.

Armstrong, Van Dyke, Brotemarkle, and McMillan also recorded hits, while Joltin’ Jada Heaton and 8th grader Ava Lucero rounded out the red-hot Wolf roster.