Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Lions fend off Cardinals to win district
Farmington loses momentum after 8-run sixth inning
GRAVETTE — Gravette appeared to have things going its way, when its lead vanished into the night, then regrouped scoring four runs in the seventh and held off Farmington, 12-10.
The Lions (13-8) answered an 8-run outburst by the Cardinals that tied the game in the sixth with a four-run rally of their own in the seventh to win the District 4A-1 baseball championship Friday.
“When you’re playing a good team like Farmington eight runs is not enough and they showed why they’re a good team, why they were the No. 1 seed and why they’re one of the best teams in our conference and best in the state. My guys did a good job of not letting that hurt us and we were able to bounce back and do what we needed to do to get a win,” said Gravette coach Bryan Bearden.
Kyle Murphy’s two-run triple in the seventh inning became the cornerstone of the Lions’ counter punch as second-seeded Gravette found a way to contain Farmington, which came in as the regular season champion and advanced to the 4A-1 District Tournament championship on a rainy Friday night at Gravette.
Gunnar Woolard began the Lions’ rally in the seventh with a double and scored on a wild pitch to break the 8-8 tie forged in the fire of Farmington’s 8-run sixth inning.
Up next, Rhett Hilger walked and also scored on a wild pitch to push the Lions’ lead to 10-8. McCoy Kildow and Justin Trucks drew walks and each scored on Murphy’s hit, which landed in right field and went past a diving Cardinal outfielder. That provided the Lions with a 12-8 cushion and they needed the insurance runs.
Farmington tried to rally once more with Will Hellard’s one-out single. With Lawson DeVault batting, the rain played havoc and Hellard twice advanced on passed balls. He scored on DeVault’s single, trimming the Lion lead to 12-9.
Owen O’Bryan took four straight balls after a called strike, placing two Cardinals on base. DeVault scored on a wild pitch to pull the Cardinals within 12-10 but Woolard, the third Gravette pitcher, retired the next two batters to seal the win for the Lions.
Captured in Bearden’s mind was the final out he described as “the little flicker to the second baseman.”
“I’m just praying that he catches it just so we could get out of this and move on. I didn’t want to play them for any more innings than I had to. They’re a good team, they’re well-coached, they have good athletes over there so I wanted him to catch that,” Bearden said.
Farmington trailed 8-0 going into the bottom of the sixth inning. The Cardinals struggled to find their bats, going without a hit for an extended number of at-bats, then began finding a hit or two before exploding for eight runs in the pouring rain, getting a huge inning to make a game of it.
“They did a good job against us. We didn’t pitch it well enough today. We walked too many people, gave up too many free bases, put pressure on our defense and they took advantage of that,” said Farmington coach Jay Harper.
Sophomore Klayton Clark’s two-run triple ignited the Cardinal comeback. Classmate Luke Elsik walked. Hellard doubled to drive in one run and DeVault added a two-run double, slashing
Gravette’s lead to 8-5. O-Bryan walked and Bearden brought Woolard to the mound with one out and runners at the corners.
Woolard got Kooper Beach, another Farmington sophomore, to hit into a fielder’s choice for the second out, but one run scored. Farmington senior Case Enderland made contact sending the ball over first, which was hard to judge in the pouring rain.
Gravette couldn’t locate the ball and it landed for an RBI single. Farmington sophomore Zane Schmitt walked, bringing a potential go-ahead run to the plate in sophomore Morgan Schader. He drove in the tying run to even the score at 8-8, but Woolard got Clark to fly out to left center to end the inning with the teams deadlocked.
Gravette jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, and added a run on Hilger’s single in the second. The Lions tacked on a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth and led 8-0.
“We could have folded up our tent and went to the house and got beat 8-0 or 10-0 and we didn’t. We battled and it’s a credit to our seniors. It’s a credit to our players, to our starters, but we’re going to have to pitch it from here on out to beat teams to advance. I’m proud of our team today because they battled. They could have gave up and they didn’t,” Harper said.
Gravette garnered its first district tournament championship since 2009, and takes the league’s top seed for the 4A North Regional tournament and will play at 10 a.m. Thursday on its home field. Farmington will play at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Gravette against the third seed from the 4A-4 Conference.