Influx Of Freshmen

CARDS START 2-1 AT TOURNAMENT

FARMINGTON — Farmington began the season 2-1 in baseball while competing at the River Valley/ Northwest Arkansas baseball tournament held at Dover and Ozark last week.

Farmington coach Jay Harper has 11 freshmen on this year’s squad which helps offset the graduation of key players from last year’s 4A-1 Conference champions.

“We’re excited about our freshman class. We’re starting two of them right now in the outfield, Tyler Gregg and Trenton McChristian. It’s one of the best classes we’ve ever had here at Farmington,” Harper said.

Farmington piled up runs early ending their tourney-opener in three innings against Lavaca in posting a 22-0 win last Wednesday. Keaton Austin started for the Cardinals and pitched all three innings to take the win. Adam Ness belted a home-run as did freshman Tyler Gregg.

Farmington played a doubleheader on Friday and lost 8-3 to Dover in their first game of the day. Ness took the loss on the mound.

“Our bats weren’t very hot that night,” Harper said, noting the game was tied 2-2 in the sixth. “We had a chance to win and things didn’t fall our way.”

In the second game on Friday, Farmington rebounded with a solid 7-4 win over 7A Springdale. Harper was pleased with sophomore Britton Garner, who pitched six innings, allowing two hits and four runs and Austin, who recorded the save with a strikeout for the third out after Springdale produced two runs in the top of the seventh.

After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first, Farmington rallied to capture a 2-1 lead in the third on senior Cade Black’s sacrifice fly and a Gregg RBI single. Ness blasted a solo home-run in the fifth and the Cardinals followed that up with a four-run sixth inning. Junior Hayden Sutton drove in two runs with a double. Farmington got another run in on Gregg’s double and added one more on Black’s RBI single.

“We always like to go down there and face those teams cause we know we’re going to face some of those teams later in the Regional,” Harper said. “For us to go down there and see those teams is big for us.”

“I’m encouraged about our pitching staff. We lost Levi Strope but we’ve got 5-6-7 kids who can step up and pitch for us in varsity games,” Harper said. “Replacing Spencer Boudrey, Levi Strope and Taylor Burba in the lineup is going to be difficult. We’re still trying to assess where we need to put people in the lineup.”

“Flint Oxford has taken over the catching responsibilities and is doing a good job as a junior so we’ll have two good years behind the plate. You always lose people. How these kids step up and do their roles on the baseball team will determine whether we are a good baseball team or not.”

Ness