FARMINGTON -- The Cardinal baseball team won the school's first-ever State 5A tournament victory in two-part harmony with a game played over two days last week.
The accomplishment may have taken 48 hours to get the game done, due to a weather delay, but the Cardinal baseball team made history Friday with a 9-0 win over Batesville.
The Farmington vs. Batesville State 5A baseball tournament game, originally scheduled for and beginning late Thursday afternoon at Dupree Park in Jacksonville, became the first win in the state playoffs for a Farmington boys team since Farmington was moved to 5A beginning with the 2014-2015 school year.
Weather Factor
High school baseball games weren't the only sporting events affected by mother nature. With inclement weather forecast throughout the day, the Great American Conference announced they would not play any baseball championship games on Friday.
"We sat there for 2-and-a-half hours, then they finalled called it," said Farmington coach Jay Harper. "We started with Tyler, he gave up one hit in three innings, then he hit a home run. We were up 4-0 when the rains came."
Good Start Thursday
Tyler Gregg started on the hill and pitched the first three innings giving up 2 hits, 2 walks, no runs, and recorded 6 strike-outs. The Cardinals hit the ball hard in the first three innings, but had nothing on the board. The score was 0-0 to start the fourth inning when Gregg got Farmington's 9-run party started with a monster home-run to left field for a 1-0 lead. The Cardinals went to work with two outs. Cade Fenton doubled, Tripp Cheney reached on an error to score Fenton, Eric Hill walked, Eric Morales was hit by a pitch, Trenton McChristian had a two RBI single, Ryan Larkin walked to load the bases. The Cards had a 4-0 lead with Gregg walking to the plate when the game was postponed until 10 am Friday morning.
Fantastic Finish Friday
When the game resumed Friday morning, Gregg was walked to force in a run and Blake Putnam followed with a walk for an RBI and a 6-0 Cardinal lead. Logan Bobak started on Friday due to AAA pitching rules forcing Gregg to move to shortstop. Bobak was spectacular allowing a single hit in 4 innings of work and retiring 12 of 13 batters for the save. The Cardinals tacked on 3 more runs in the 5th inning when Cheney, Hill, and Morales were walked. McChristian had another 2 RBI single and was followed with a Larkin RBI single for a 9-0 lead after 5 innings. The 9-0 lead ended up as the final score. Gregg got the first 5A State playoff victory for the Cardinals. McChristian, Larkin, and Fenton had 2 hits each. McChristian had a 4 RBI game.
"Logan gave up only one hit and did a great job of getting people out," Harper said.
With the victory, Farmington advanced to the quarterfinals and was scheduled to play defending 5A state champion Magnolia (25-1) at 2 p.m. Friday. That game was canceled and moved to Saturday. The Cardinals were optimistic, knowing Gregg would be available with a clean slate for a pitch-count.
Sports on 05/17/2017