Stingy Lady Cardinals Slip By Clarksville

SPORTS EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of an ongoing series highlighting top sports stories for the 2010-19 decade at Farmington High School and its alumni.

FARMINGTON — Clarksville got stingy after letting runners on base, allowing only 4 runs despite 13 Farmington hits but those were enough to pull out a 4-2 win qualifying for state.

Fortunately the Lady Cardinals were just as stingy limiting Clarksville, host team for the 4A North Regional softball tournament, to 2 runs on 3 hits behind the pitching of Madison Barnes, who struck out 5 on May 6, 2011.

After Clarksville tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the third, the Lady Cardinals responded by loading the bases for sophomore Payton Wiedner, who singled to bring Christian Parker across the plate giving Farmington a one-run lead.

The way the Lady Cardinal defense performed, Parker all but finished off the Lady Panthers when she blasted a solo home run pushing Farmington’s lead to 4-2 in the fifth.

Farmington grabbed an early 1- 0 lead on Kala Crisp’s RBI single with one out in the bottom of the first inning. Lead-off hitter Michaela Larabee singled into left center and moved into scoring position on Jayme (Doss) Kutter’s sacrifice bunt. Crisp scored Farmington’s second run, Parker singled to move Crisp up a base and Samantha Combs drove in a run by sending a single deep into left center.

Clarksville short- circuited the threat by retiring consecutive batters leaving a pair of base runners stranded.

FILE PHOTO NWA DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Farmington senior shortstop Michaela Larabee makes a diving stop on a ball against Ashdown in the sixth inning during the 4A State Championship at Bogle Park in Fayetteville on Friday, May 20, 2011. The 2011 softball championship season is one of the top stories of the decade: 2010-2019 at Farmington. Larabee now works in Event Operations for Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals.