Finishing Plays Elude Cards At Little Rock Tourney

FARMINGTON — Farmington pushed Jonesboro, the top ranked team in Class 5A, to the limit before settling for a 6-6 tie during a spring break baseball tournament on Thursday, March 24.

“We should have won that game. We had a really good chance to win it,” said Farmington coach Jay Harper of an 8 inning game at Little Rock that concluded after reaching a two hour time limit.

The contest seesawed back and forth. Farmington (6-3-1) held a 5-3 lead in the sixth inning before Jonesboro rallied with three runs to grab a 6-5 lead in the seventh.

Farmington forged a tie in the bottom of the seventh. Lawson DeVault ran to first on a dropped strike three that turned into a wild pitch. Once aboard, he scooted around the bases, going to second on a ground ball by Caden Elsik and scoring the tying run on Trey Hill’s two-out single. Hill recorded 2 of the Cardinals’ 7 hits.

After retiring Jonesboro in order in the top of the eighth Farmington couldn’t capitalize on a golden opportunity to win the game. The Cardinals placed runners at every base with one out, then hit a line drive to Jonesboro’s shortstop.

“He made a great play and then we bounced out. We couldn’t score and the time limit was up,” Harper said.

Jonesboro dodged a bullet after issuing two walks and beaning a batter to load the bases with two outs, but a groundout ended the at-bat as the time limit expired.

“That’s a good baseball team and we did a really good job,” Harper said.

Conway 2, Farmington 0

Farmington ( 6- 4- 1 ) managed just one hit against a trio of Conway pitchers and suffered a 2-0 loss to the Wampus Cats during a Friday, March 25, game at Little Rock.

“They had a couple of pitchers and we just couldn’t hit. We struck out 17 times. I think that’s the only team I’ve ever had that’s struck out that many times, but they had it going and we couldn’t get it going,” Harper said.

The Cardinals never got another hit beyond DeVault’s leadoff single in the bottom of the first inning and the strikeouts piled up.

“Striking out 17 times and getting beat two to nothing, sometimes I can handle that. We played good enough defense, but didn’t hit it,” Harper said.

Conway’s runs came in the fourth against Sills, who took the loss while allowing just four hits in five innings of work. Malachi Strange came on in relief, allowing just one hit over the final two innings.

Crossett 10, Farmington 7

Crossett scored seven runs in the last three innings to come from behind and defeat Farmington (6-5-1) during a Saturday, March 26, game in the Little Rock tournament.

“Crossett’s a good baseball team. They beat Magnolia, which beat us in the semifinals of the State 4A baseball tournament last year, and so we knew they were going to be tough,” Harper said.

Farmington appeared poised to win with a 6-3 lead after scoring four runs in the fourth. DeVault was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Case Enderland followed by belting a two RBI double and Hill doubled to drive in a run.

“We should have won that game. We had the lead and we have to concentrate on finishing. We haven’t done a really good job of finishing and our guys have to do a good job at that,” Harper said.

Crossett fought back and tied the game by pushing three runs across in the fifth, then recaptured the lead with a pair of runs in the sixth and added two more in the seventh.

DeVault drew a walk and eventually scored on a wild pitch to account for the Cardinals’ seventh run in the sixth inning.

“It was a good trip down to Little Rock to see some different competition and some tougher competition but it didn’t go as well as we thought it was going to go,” Harper said.