FARMINGTON -- Strong pitching coupled with a second consecutive night of double-digit hitting powered Farmington to a 13-0 run-rule win over Clarksville in 5A West baseball Tuesday, April 17.
A day after pounding rival Prairie Grove for 15 hits, Farmington had 13 in five innings against Clarksville. The Cardinals took advantage of four Clarksville errors ending the game early by run-rule. Five Cardinals combined for 10 hits. Seniors Logan Bobak (2-for-3, double, 3 RBIs, 3 runs scored), Hayden VanLaningham (2-for-3, two triples, 2 RBIs, 2 runs scored), Derek Perona (2-for-3, double, 1 RBI, 1 run scored), and Eric Hill (2-for-3, 2 runs scored), combined with freshman Tate Sutton (2-for-3, 2 RBIs) and sophomore Drew Sturgeon (1-for-1, 2 runs scored) to keep Clarksville scrambling. Sturgeon was hit by a pitch twice reaching base on all 3 at-bats.
"We jumped on them pretty quick early," said Farmington coach Jay Harper. "We scored seven runs in the first inning. Our guys are swinging it pretty good. I think we got at least one hit out of everybody in the lineup except one. When you do that you put pressure on a team."
Clarksville never could get the Cardinal bats under wraps with Farmington owning a 13-0 lead after three innings of play. The little success enjoyed by the Panthers came in the fourth when they held Farmington without a run with Harper liberally substituting pinch-hitters. Perona had a single as did senior Cody Parrish pinch-hitting for Will Danenhauer.
Starter Bobak threw scattered 6 hits over 4 innings allowing no runs and striking out seven Panthers while allowing only one base on balls. Sutton pitched the top of the fifth inning and after giving up a leadoff single struck out the next two batters. He induced a ground-out to third to end the game.
"I'm happy with the way we played offensively, I'm happy with the way we played defensively," Harper said. "We didn't make any errors. Our pitching was better than against Prairie Grove (the night before). We threw more strikes."
With the win Farmington improved to 12-6 overall and 6-3 in conference play.
"I'm happy with where we are right now," Harper said, "But you've got to get better every day."
Sports on 04/25/2018