PRAIRIE GROVE DEFEATS FARMINGTON 6-3 IN FINALS

FARMINGTON — The Farmington Cardinals got the better of the Prairie Grove Tigers (22-4) in the regular season which help propel them to the 4A-1 conference title.

Prairie Grove defeated the Cardinals in the district tourney and followed that up with a 6-3 win over Farmington in the 4A North regional tournament championship game played last Tuesday at Farmington.

With quality pitching at premium due to both teams playing three games in two days, it was the Prairie Grove staff who had a little more gas in the tank when the dust cleared.

“We already pitched our number one and two and didn’t have our number three pitcher here tonight, so we were a little short-handed, but our kids did a great job of coming out there and battling,” said Cardinals’ coach Jay Harper.

The Tigers got a solid start from pitcher J.D. Speed (2-0), who finished with a final line of five innings pitched, giving up three runs on five hits, with four strike outs and four base-on-balls.

“J.D. was outstanding today,” said Tigers’ coach Mitch Cameron. “I said to him just give me five good innings and that’s what he did. It was a heckuva job”.

Ty Tice, who earned a win earlier in the day by pitching three innings against Lincoln in the semifinals, came on in the final two innings of the championship contest to record the save.

Despite allowing three consecutive base- on- balls in the sixth inning, Tice was able to work through his stiff shoulder to record strikeouts on five of the last six outs. On the final out of the game Tice blew a 90 mph fastball past the Cardinal batter for the third strike.

“He (Tiger catcher Nick Sugg) called for a fastball with the count 0-2 and I just let it go. I was really just trying to hit my spot,” said Tice about his 90 mph heater.

Adam Ness was tagged with the loss for Farmington after pitching 2 2 ⁄ innings

3 and giving up five runs (four earned), with one strikeout, three base-on-balls and one hit batter.

Farmington grabbed an early 1- 0 lead in the first inning when Taylor Burba’s bloop single scored Josh Mueller, who had reached earlier in the inning with a base-on-balls. Prairie Grove countered with one run in the second inning when Aaron Kincaid scored on a Sugg sacrifice fly to right field, knotting the score up at 1-1.

The Tigers added four runs to their total in the third inning, giving them a 51 advantage. Jon Halbert put two runs on the board when he blasted a double into right field, plating Weston Bartholomew and Tice. Spencer Kilgore followed suit later in the frame with a two RBI single to center field.

Speed helped his own cause in the fourth inning and got a little help from Tice to add a run to Prairie Grove’s total.

Speed led the inning off with a single, stole second base, advanced to third on a fielder’s choice, and finally scored on Tice’s grounder to first base.

In the sixth inning, Ness pounded a ball to deep left field for a double and was followed by Cade Black, who reached on an error. That concluded Speed’s day on the mound as he gave way to Tice, who struck out the first Cardinal he faced. The next three batter’s earned walks, which allowed Ness and Black to cross the dish, making the score 6-3.

Tice settled down and struck out the next two outs, then finished the game in the seventh when he sand- wiched a pair of strikeouts around a groundout, giving him the save and securing the Regional title for the Tigers.

Bartholomew, Halbert, Kilgore, Sugg and Speed all recorded hits for Prairie Grove on offense, with Halbert and Kilgore tallying two RBIs.

Farmington got hits from Burba, Ness, Black, Spencer Boudrey and Chase Noewood.