Farmington Dusts Off Lady Wolves

LADY CARDS STEAL 10 BASES

FARMINGTON — One team looked like they were trying to give the game away, while the other was taking advantage of every opportunity.

Farmington pulled off 10 stolen bases to beat Lincoln, 15-0, in a mercy-rule shortened softball game to cap off the regular season in conference play on April 15.

On Tax Day, the Lady Cardinals enacted a toll on a fishbowl of Lincoln miscues to end the game in three innings.

“We played a good first inning but we fell apart once we got behind,” said Lincoln coach Karen Cole- man. “I called time out and said, ‘Girls, this is the second inning. We’ve got to stop having errors.”

Lincoln was scoreless on two hits with six runners left on base and committed seven errors. The Lady Wolves wasted a chance to extend the game after loading the bases in the second inning. Jaycie Neeley drew a leadoff walk and Shelby Rowe reached on a fielder’s choice when Farmington couldn’t come up with an out. Hayle Sugg reached first when an attempt by Farmington’s short stop to tag out a runner coming into third was unsuccessful.

Farmington called time and Jordin Smith erased the threat with consecutive strikeouts, shaking off a long foul ball hit by Ashtyn Rothrock that had RBI potential written all over it, and coming back to make Rothrock miss on a 1-2 pitch.

The game ended on a Lincoln error.

Oakley Sisemore got aboard on a bunt single, then advanced when Payton Wiedner’s blast into center field was dropped. The next two Farmington hits went to the same area and both scored runs with Lindsey Blackburn and Brooke Larkin smacking sacrifice flies.

“We took advantage of some good bunting situations and offensively we played extremely well,” said Farmington coach Randy Osnes.

Jordin Smith’s grounder was not contained by the infield and Sara Beth Jones recorded a bunt RBI when third base was left uncovered and Lincoln had no play to get the third out. With Lauren Blackburn batting, a throw to third was dropped allowing Farmington to score the 15th run ending the game.

“They [Farmington] defi- nitely capitalized on all our errors. We kept making them and they kept scoring,” Coleman said.

“We scored one in the first, 10 runs in the second and finished it off in the third,” Osnes said. “We definitely had a few miscues in the first inning but we put that behind us and pitched around it.”

With the win, Farmington finished undefeated in conference play and won the regular season title with a 70 record.

After losing to Vilonia, 3-0; and defeating Bryant, 13-2, on Saturday, the Lady Cardinals take an 18-5 record and the number one seed into the district tournament.

With a first round bye and automatic berth into Regionals, Farmington will play on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Ozark.

Lincoln, meanwhile finishes in the fifth spot and will play Gentry at 4 p.m. on Thursday.