The stay was short but the journey was good.
The Central Whidbey Junior (13/14) softball team lost twice and was eliminated from the state tournament Tuesday, June 27, in Monroe.
The team is based out of Central Whidbey but is an all-Whidbey club, including three players from Oak Harbor and one from Clinton.
The end of the season was also the end of coach Mimi Johnson’s stellar Central Whidbey career. She and her family are moving out of state this week.
Camas 7, Central Whidbey 1
Camas took advantage of several Central Whidbey miscues to take the tournament opener, scoring only one earned run.
Melody Wilkie pitched a six-hitter with eight strike outs for Central Whidbey, giving up no hits after the third inning.
Coupeville opened the game with a run in the top of the first inning on singles by Coral Caveness and Wilkie, and was a hit away from doing more early damage.
Wilkie was eventually stranded at third base, and Central Whidbey, who received a double by Jill Prince, left the bases full in the second.
From that point, Central Whidbey managed only three base runners: Maddie Tucker singled in the third and sixth innings and Wilkie in the fifth.
Camas scored twice in each of the first three innings and once in the sixth.
Granite Falls 8, Central Whidbey 3
Three hits, a walk and an error allowed Granite Falls to jump to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, then it tacked on two more runs in the third inning to go up 5-0.
Central Whidbey chipped away at the lead, scoring single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings but couldn’t climb all the way back.
Granite Falls played add-on late, getting a run in the sixth and two in the seventh.
Central Whidbey produced its first run in the fourth when Caveness reached on an error and Mollie Bailey singled.
In the fifth, Central Whidbey scored on singles by Kylie Vanvelkinburg, Anabel Thayer and Caveness.
Wilkie tripled in the sixth and scored on a single by MacKenzie Hodges.
Other members of the state team are Stella Johnson, Marenna Rebischke-Smith and Audrianna Shaw.
