Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Chemistry Takes Cards To Second
GREENBRIER TURNS BACK FARMINGTON IN STATE FINAL
BENTON — Disappointment couldn’t be hidden when Greenbrier recorded a third out leaving two Farmington runners stranded in a 3-2 loss in Saturday’s State 5A softball championship game.
Tears flowed among the Lady Cardinals as the teams came off the field. They were so close and yet so far away, having battled back from a 3-1 deficit to score a second run with two outs in the game’s final at-bat grittily refusing to go away and taking the game down-to-the-wire amid a hot 90-degree day in central Arkansas with the championship game played at Benton’s Sports Complex.
Madison Parrish walked to give the Lady Cardinals a chance with two outs. With runners at the corners (Carley Antwine walked with one out), Alyssa Reed drove in a run by singling to narrow Greenbrier’s lead to 3-2. The Lady Panthers huddled up and Greenbrier starter Jaylee Engelkes (7 innings pitched, 2 runs, 6 hits, 5 base-on-balls, 3 strike-outs) got McKenzi Bogan to ground out to
third preserving the state championship for Greenbrier and regulating Farmington to the second-place trophy.
It took the Farmington girls a few minutes to realize what they had accomplished. As the team broke up into clusters, players took turns holding the State Runner-Up trophy and posed with family and friends.
Farmington’s 3-1 record in state tournament play for 2018 marked the school’s first wins at state since moving to 5A in 2015. Next season the Lady Cardinals will compete at the 4A level.
“We talked about that,” Osnes said, explaining the team chemistry wasn’t right in previous years and the girls made efforts to improve that for 2018.
“It was the team chemistry and character,” Osnes said. “The personality of this team came along this year. It only takes one or two (players) to affect that. From the freshmen, who came in, to the sophomores, juniors, and our six seniors it was a great blend. You could tell in the seventh, there was no quit, no give-up whatsoever. A lot of teams would have walked away from that and just folded it up, but they didn’t. We were down 3-2, and McKenzi Bogan comes up. She’s been a good hitter for us all year. If that ball takes one hop right or if it takes one hop left, it’s still a ballgame.”
Osnes appreciated the support of hundreds of Farmington fans, many venturing from an early start to make the 10 a.m. game played at the Benton Sports Complex after the venue was changed twice, originally scheduled for Bogle Park on the University of Arkansas campus.
“We traveled almost 200 miles and one-half of the grandstands were Farmington,” Osnes said. “From the home plate to the dugout was three or four deep with Farmington fans. We had that all year. It’s just phenomenal to see community support for the softball program and all the athletic programs at Farmington.”
“We had 27 wins against some very quality teams,” Osnes said. “We had big time players making big time plays throughout the season. They’ve been a pleasure for me to coach, this bunch. We were told early in the year by some 5A coaches quoted in the news that we were a pretty good 4A team, but I think we’re a pretty good team that can play with anybody.”
GREENBRIER 3, FARMINGTON 2
Greenbrier 001 020 0 — 3 6 1 Farmington 100 000 1 — 2 6 4 Engelkes and Greiner; Devecsery and Reed. W-Engelkes. L-Devecsery. Sv-None. HR-None.