Northside Faces Wrath Of Bats

Farmington Baseball Team Defeats 7A Grizzlies

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER Farmington senior first baseman Hayden Sutton slides in to score a run at home against Northside. The Cardinals defeated the 7A Grizzlies, 8-5, on Friday pulling away from a 5-5 tie in the fifth inning.
MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER Farmington senior first baseman Hayden Sutton slides in to score a run at home against Northside. The Cardinals defeated the 7A Grizzlies, 8-5, on Friday pulling away from a 5-5 tie in the fifth inning.

FARMINGTON -- Fort Smith Northside went through five pitchers in six innings and no matter who the Grizzlies put on the mound they couldn't contain Farmington hitting after the third inning.

Farmington bats took a while to get going but several players in the lineup produced at the plate when the game on was on the line and Cardinal pitching was solid except for a 4-run fifth inning.

"I think as we go through the season our hitting gets better," said Farmington coach Jay Harper. "We did a great job of pitching it tonight. We had some timely hits. I'm really pleased with what we did today against a quality team. We're looking at balls better and hitting better. You've got to get key hits when you need them."

Northside went up 1-0 early and starting pitcher Andrew Rideout was effective pitching a shutout over the first two innings. After one out in the bottom of the third he quickly ran into trouble. Blake Putnam singled over third base, then Kelton Price did the same over first base. With two runners aboard, Farmington's starting pitcher Flint Oxford helped his cause by driving in a run although he was thrown out at first. Rideout then hit Hayden Sutton with a pitch and was replaced by Brian Albertson, who allowed runners to advance on a wild throw, then gave up a 2 RBI single to T.J. Askegaard on a 2-2 delivery. Farmington took a 3-1 at the end of the third.

Oxford gave up a leadoff walk, then retired the next three Grizzlies in the fourth. In the bottom half of the inning Rideout issued a walk to Nick Huff. Trenton McChristian followed that by blasting a triple plating Huff for a 4-1 Farmington lead, which quickly escalated to 5-1 on Putnam's sacrifice fly. Price added a standup double and was relieved by Triston Wolfe for Northside, who after giving Oxford a free pass struck out Sutton to get out of the inning.

Oxford induced leadoff hitter Adam Richardson to hit a grounder which forced Sutton off the bag to field. Recognizing this, Oxford raced over to cover first and took the short toss from Sutton to record an out. Northside scored a run on an error and loaded the bases for Ethan McNally, who smashed a 3-run triple into right center field tying the game at 5-5. Oxford got out of the inning when Colby Edwards hit a fly ball into left center.

Wolfe faced 7 Farmington batters in the bottom of the fifth and got into trouble with two runners on advancing on a passed ball setting up Nick Huff's RBI single into shallow center field putting Farmington back on top, 6-5. Wolfe paid for issuing walks to Drew Vinson and McChristian because Putnam drove in a seventh Cardinal run on a groundout.

Cale Petrie pitched the sixth inning and was aided by Price at short stop gunning out a runner at first. Petrie let one batter on by hitting him with a pitch but induced a pair of fly outs. In the bottom of the sixth Sutton earned a base on balls and was replaced by courtesy runner Carson Sharp, who stole second and scored on Caleb Reagan's standup double to account for Farmington's eighth run.

McChristian pitched the seventh inning striking out Evan Rollans on a called strike-three. He plunked Tanner Cross with a pitch and Bryce Geels reached on an error to build drama but McChristian was up to the task. He got McNally to hit into a double play with Price catching a line drive and tossing the baseball to second.

With the 8-5 victory Farmington improved to 9-6 overall with a 4-2 league mark after sweeping Clarksville, 4-3 and 9-0, on April 7. Putnam and Keaton Austin were the winning pitchers in the sweep.

Sports on 04/15/2015