The 19-11 win by the Coupeville High School softball team at Port Townsend Friday, March 27, was significant on several levels.
It was the Wolves’ first win of the season, and Deanna Rafferty’s first win as a varsity softball coach.
It was also a conference win, and a win in the Wolves’ first-ever Olympic League game.
And, it was a breakout game for the Coupeville offense, piling up 19 runs after tallying only one in the first two games.
It was also an emotional roller coaster.
Coupeville scooted to a 6-0 lead in the first three innings and then saw that advantage swing to a 9-7 deficit going into the final two innings.
Six runs by Coupeville in each of the sixth and seventh innings buried Port Townsend and helped erase the pain of letting a six-run lead slip away.
Coupeville opened the scoring in the first inning when Lauren Rose singled and scored on McKenzie Bailey’s ground-rule double, which most likely would have been an inside-the-park home run had it not gone through a hole in the fence, Rafferty said.
A single by Monica Vidoni and a run-scoring double by Rose highlighted a four-run second inning, and the Wolves added another run on a couple of walks and errors in the third.
Rose singled and eventually scored in the fourth.
Pitcher Katrina McGranahan held Port Townsend scoreless until the third, then the Redhawks got back into the game with five runs off a combination of hits, walks and errors.
Port Townsend used three hits and an error to score three runs in the fourth inning and take an 8-7 lead.
The Redhawks plated another run in the fifth before Bailey took over on the mound and stopped the rally.
The Wolves batted around in the sixth and seventh innings to pull away.
In the sixth, a double by Hope Lodell and singles by McGranahan, Bailey, Heather Nastali, Jae LeVine and Robin Cedillo produced six runs.
Three hits (singles by Rose, Bailey and Nastali) spurred the six-run seventh.
Bailey finished 4-for-5 with three RBI; Rose was 3-for-6 with four RBI; and Lodell drove in three runs.
Defensively, McGranahan made an “award-winning diving catch,” Rafferty said, and Nastali “held her own” after taking over at third base for an injured Hailey Hammer.
“We had an overall great offensive game but made a couple poor fielding choices and that was where we lost runs,” Rafferty said. “We are incredibly happy with our first win and for it to also be a league game.”
Coupeville (1-2) returns to nonleague play when it goes to Bellevue Christian (2-0) at 4 p.m. Monday, March 30.