PRAIRIE GROVE -- As dusk set in temperatures fell and the wind showed no sign of letting up, neither did Farmington in a 20-4 defeat of rival Prairie Grove on Tuesday, March 6.
The Lady Cardinals smashed 10 runs in the third inning to earn a run-rule victory spoiling the debut of first-year Prairie Grove coach Brandy Carte in the rivalry against her mentor and former high school coach, Randy Osnes, of Farmington. Last season the two schools did not play due to Farmington (3-0, 1-0) dropping a late-season game in favor of a rescheduled 5A West contest -- something both coaches wanted to rectify this year.
"Our girls might have been a little bit nervous because we haven't seen them (Farmington) in awhile," Carte said. "Next year they will be back in our (4A-1) conference so it's good for us to get used to playing them."
Osnes has never been inclined to let an opponent off the hook, no matter who is coaching in the other dugout. Farmington scored six runs in the top of the first. Prairie Grove answered with three runs in the bottom half of the inning. Sophomore McKenzi Bogan drove in two runs with a single. Farmington then loaded the bases when Shayley Treat walked. Senior Carley Antwine singled in a run, but Prairie Grove got out of the inning with no further damage when Lady Tiger starter Laney Layman (2 innings, 10 runs, 11 hits, 4 bases on balls, 1 strikeout) induced Eliana Marano into hitting a line drive that Layman easily fielded.
Prairie Grove came up to bat trailing 10-3. Farmington pitcher Paige Devecsery (2.2 innings, 3 runs, 5 hits, 5 strikeouts) fanned Raegan Rochier but first Lady Tiger freshman Sydney Stearman, then senior Kylie Scott, reached on consecutive errors. Sydney Stearman scored on the second error for Prairie Grove's fourth run. Devecsery struck out Katharine McConnell and got Delaney Boyd to fly out to shortstop.
Prairie Grove junior Madie Stearman came on to pitch the third and this was not one of her better outings. She gave up 10 runs on 9 hits.
Farmington's first three batters got on base. Prairie Grove had trouble fielding with the wind making a high fly ball into short center difficult to judge. Once the ball was retrieved the play was compounded by hesitation. By the time a throw was made to second a Farmington base runner cruised in safely and a run scored. One run was walked in with the bases loaded and Treat stroked a bases-clearing triple turning the game into a rout. Not to be outdone by the freshman Antwine blasted a triple of her own off the wall extending Farmington's lead to 17-4.
"We had a lot of errors, you cannot win ball games when you have errors," Carte said.
The Lady Cardinals added three more runs before Prairie Grove could get out of the inning. The Lady Tigers couldn't score in the bottom of the third and the game ended early with 20-4 run-rule margin.
Carte saw some things she approved of in spite of the lopsided loss.
"I thought we hit the ball well considering the conditions," Carte said. "We were aggressive on the bases."
Sports on 03/14/2018