Cardinals Sweep Prairie Grove In All Sports With Baseball Victory

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER/Farmington seniors (from left): Keaton Stone, Kaleb Penne, Jacob Freeman, Weston Sills, Eric Hill, Ellison Stephens, and Trenton Austin, display memorabilia from their careers on senior night.
MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER/Farmington seniors (from left): Keaton Stone, Kaleb Penne, Jacob Freeman, Weston Sills, Eric Hill, Ellison Stephens, and Trenton Austin, display memorabilia from their careers on senior night.

FARMINGTON -- Farmington (9-11, 3-4 4A-1) completed a school-year sweep of Prairie Grove (9-12, 1-6 4A-1) in all sports with the varsity baseball team handing the Tigers an 11-4 loss Thursday.

"This was a little special for us because we just realized that Prairie Grove did not beat a Farmington team (grades) seven through 12 in any sport this year," said Farmington coach Jay Harper. "We're the last ones to win. We swept them for the whole year. You don't usually do that in this type of rivalry and so we're going to cherish that. We're real excited about it."

Prairie Grove is taking applications until Friday for the position of Teacher/Head baseball coach according to a posting shown on pgtigers.org.

Licensure requirements include having a valid Arkansas license for secondary coach, teaching license, and CDL.

Additional trainings and/or experience that may be helpful are demonstrating successful head coaching experience, and proven leadership skills.

Contact person is Prairie Grove High School Principal Ron Bond by phone at 479-846-4212 or fax at 479-846-4207 or through emailing [email protected].

Shifts are full-time with location at Prairie Grove High School. Applications accepted from Feb. 27 through April 26, 2019.

Ellison Stephens drove in 5 runs on 3 hits and Brandon Hodge added 2 RBIs for the Cardinals. Stephens shone as the man-of-the-moment driving in runs in the first, second, fourth and two in the fifth to put the game away.

Drew Cates had 3 hits and 2 RBIs while Couper Allen had 2 hits for Prairie Grove.

Prairie Grove took an early 4-1 lead in the top of the second inning, but didn't score again.

Both starters, Eric Hill, of Farmington; and Garrett Heltemes, of Prairie Grove, lasted three innings. Hill recorded 6 strike-outs while Heltemes had two.

Each team put runners on in the first inning. Jadin Higgins walked and Drew Cates reached on an error with one out. Hill induced Kyle Fidler to hit into a fielder's choice, then struck out Will Luther.

Farmington put up a run in its first at-bat. Leadoff hitter Drew Sturgeon drove a 2-2 pitch into center field and stole second base.

Myles Harvey hit into a fielder's choice, advancing Sturgeon to third. With two outs, Stephens bounced a single over the head of Heltemes on the mound scoring Sturgeon.

The Cardinals loaded the bases but Heltemes struck out Chase Brown to end the threat.

In the top of the second Prairie Grove pushed 4 runs across.

Jackson Sorters led off with a single and scored on Sloan Smith's triple. Allen plated him by singling into left field. Kaine Caswell walked and Prairie Grove interim head coach Jed Davis substituted Cordelle Whetselle for Allen at second.

Hill struck out Higgins on a called strike three for the second out, but Cates drilled a 2-1 pitch into right field scoring a pair of runs and giving the Tigers a 4-1 advantage.

Farmington answered by loading the bases. Harvey's sacrifice fly drove in a run. Eric Hill beat a throw to first and Stephens came through by hitting into a fielder's choice. Prairie Grove got a force-out at second while a run scored pulling the Cardinals within 4-3.

Trey Hill got aboard as a Tiger relay to second didn't connect and the tying run scored for Farmington.

Prairie Grove brought in Josh Hyden to pitch. He started well in the fourth inducing a fly-out and a ground-out before yielding a double deep into center off the bat of Eric Hill.

Stephens belted a single to drive in the go-ahead run as Farmington claimed a 5-4 lead.

"That's what we've been lacking all year is getting the key hit when we need to and our kids did a good job of being patient," Harper said. "We gave them a couple runs there and we had one bad inning, but our kids fought back and they got key hits when they needed to and they did a really, good job."

The Cardinals exploded for 6 runs on 5 hits in the fifth aided by Prairie Grove mental mistakes.

Farmington's Evan Shoffit stroked a stand-up double into center field to start the inning followed by an error which allowed Brown to go to first and Shoffit to third. Colton Kilgore beat a path to first as the pitcher had to come off the mound to field the ball in the dirt. Shoffit scored on the play stretching Farmington's lead to 6-4 as a throw went to second with a Cardinal feigning an effort to get to third.

Hodge came up for Farmington and the scenario repeated. He made contact and a runner arrived at third while Hodge was safe at first. Again a Cardinal base runner came off second drawing attention and again a run scored as a throw went to second, this time from home plate.

Neither opportunity resulted in an out for the Tigers and Farmington took a 3-run lead, which became 8-4 when Sturgeon blasted the next pitch into deep right center.

Davis then sent Caswell to the mound, but Prairie Grove's problems persisted.

Harvey got aboard when a throw went to third trying to catch a runner off the bag, loading the bases. Caswell induced a fly-out before Stephens hammered a 1-2 pitch into right field, plating 2 runs.

Farmington's 11th run came on Trey Hill's sacrifice fly.

Brown threw 4 innings in relief, striking out 4 for the Cardinals, drawing praise from Harper.

"Chase Brown came in and finished it for us and you can't ask more for a freshman to come in that kind of a situation and get the job done," Harper said. "He did a good job."

Sports on 04/24/2019