HARRISON -- Farmington's softball squad modeled efficiency in the batter's box finding ways to get on base and score runs to beat Paragould in Friday's State 5A quarterfinal, 7-0.
The win was tougher than the final score indicated. Three of Farmington's runs were driven in on ground-outs. The Lady Cardinals drove in 6 runs by taking advantage of teammates getting on base through walks or errors.
"We had some productive outs that moved runners along," said Farmington assistant coach Steve Morgan. "We were doing it in other ways. The bunt game was important. The stolen base game was important. Capitalizing on the other team's errors was important."
Farmington was efficient despite struggling as they did the day before in a 5-4 win against Magnolia in the batter's box. The Lady Cardinals were a collective 6-for-27, a .222 average against Paragould starter Ariel Young, who took the loss. She threw 6 innings, and yielded 7 runs on 6 hits with a pair of strikeouts.
Farmington's leadoff hitter senior Carley Antwine was 2-for-4 with a double and a triple, scoring twice and driving in a run. She scored the Lady Cardinals' first run on McKenzi Bogan's ground-out to open up a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
That was a lead Farmington starter senior Paige Devecsery, who was so dominant that she faced only 24 batters over seven innings, made hold up. Devecsery picked up her 15th win of the season against only 2 losses by limiting the Lady Rams to 3 hits, striking out 5 and walking none.
Antwine, first baseman Kally Stout, and Madison Parrish each drove in a run to contribute to Farmington's 3-run second inning which gave the Lady Cardinals a 4-0 lead. Farmington added a run in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to put distance between them and Paragould.
"It was very encouraging to see quality at-bats," Morgan said.
The win was the second for Farmington (25-4) in the 5A State tournament sending the Lady Cardinals into Saturday's semifinals against DeQueen at Harrison's Equity Bank Sports Complex. The Lady Cardinals, 2018 5A West Conference tournament champions, have won three state championships in 4A, the last in 2011, under coach Randy Osnes but had not won a state tournament game in the 5A ranks until this year.
They edged Magnolia, 5-4, despite committing multiple errors Thursday, and found a way to manufacture runs Friday. Two other 5A West teams, Morrilton and Greenbrier, meet at 2:30 p.m. in Saturday's other semifinal.
Sports on 05/16/2018