FARMINGTON -- A 10-run fourth inning broke open a tight game with Farmington ending the contest in five innings, winning 13-0 over visiting Siloam Springs March 6.
The Lady Cardinals piled up 10 runs in the fourth. Brandy Wallace went 4 for 4. She began the deluge, driving in a run on a triple. Singles by Kaylee Purifoy and Kally Stout brought in two more runs, followed by a Siloam Springs error which allowed another run to cross home plate. When Paige Devecsery came up with the bases loaded, she blasted a grand-slam home-run. Wallace capped the spree with a double. She singled in the first and second innings.
Devecsery and Wallace combined to produce seven of Farmington's 12 RBIs.
The short-handed Lady Panthers were missing four starters. Coach Scott Wright started several underclassmen due to illness. Freshman Rachel Mann started on the mound. For three innings, the Lady Panthers stayed in the game, although Farmington pushed one run across in each of the first three innings.
The Lady Cardinals took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Alyssa Reed's sacifice fly. Farmington's Devecsery was on, pitching a shutout. She struck out consecutive batters on three straight pitches to make quick work of the Lady Panthers in the top of the second.
Mann struggled with control issues. She hit opposing pitcher, Devecsery, to put the leadoff hitter on in the bottom of the second inning. Mann then struck out Farmington catcher Anna Holder and induced Cambre Strange to pop up before surrendering a two-out RBI single to Wallace. Mann came back by getting Carley Antwine to ground out to short stop and got out of the inning without further damage.
Trailing 2-0, Siloam Springs was unable to get a runner on in the third. Devecsery showed no sign of slowing down. She got Siloam Springs freshman Syndey Smith to ground out to first on a single pitch, then caught sophomore Aislyn Burchette looking with a called strike three. Another Lady Panther freshman, Ericka Galloway, went down swinging but missing three straight pitches.
Farmington's Madison Parrish reached on an error to lead off the third inning. Mann got Reed to fly out to shallow center field against the wind, but Callie Harper drove in Parrish by smacking a stand-up double. Mann hung tough, getting Mckenzi Bogan to hit into a fielder's choice. Bogan was out at first with Harper going to third. Mann then issued a free pass to Devecsery by hitting her with a 1-2 pitch. With runners at the corners, Mann fielded Anna Bennett's bunt and threw her out at first.
After producing no runs in the top of the fourth, the Lady Panthers ran out of luck when Farmington came up in the bottom of the inning. A 10-run explosion by the Lady Cardinals extended Farmington's lead to 13-0, effectively ending the game when Siloam Springs couldn't manufacture any runs in the top of the fifth.
"We're missing a lot of firepower," Wright said, while praising his younger players for their efforts. "We were missing a lot of hitting and our starting pitcher, who can throw it 61 miles-per-hour. Farmington is a good team. They are not in our conference, but they are a 5A team and they are a quality opponent to help get us ready for our district."
Sports on 03/15/2017