Baseball Coaches Renew Personal Rivalry

PRAIRIE GROVE -- Mitch Cameron has Prairie Grove baseball competing at a level Tiger fans became accustomed to from 2009-2015 while Jay Harper's Farmington Cardinals own the district tournament's top seed.

The rivals clashed Thursday to conclude conference play and the game contained all of the elements earmarking a classic battle baseball fans love to rehash.

"They competed and that's a quality ball club. Once again it's a Prairie Grove and Farmington rivalry that always goes down that way," Cameron said.

The win snapped a seven-game losing streak for Harper in head-to-head match-ups against Cameron, who utilized the services of Toronto Blue Jays Major League pitcher Ty Tice (Class of 2014) and St. Louis Cardinal 2019 draftee Logan Gragg (Class of 2016), along with a cast of other talented players to build the streak from 2013 to 2015.

Prior to that, Farmington met Prairie Grove in classic diamond confrontations with two Cardinal pitchers, Trey Spencer (Arkansas-Fort Smith) and Darren Pittman (Anderson University) signing college commitments in 2011 as did Prairie Grove ace Jalen Beeks, now in the majors with the Tampa Bay Rays.

"Mitch and I are really good friends and I knew it was going to be a battle," Harper said. "We are happy to beat Prairie Grove anytime, don't get me wrong, but Mitch and I have kind of a rivalry to ourselves as coaches and it means a lot for him, too; you can tell that after the game, and it means a lot for me."

Harper now owns a five-game winning streak in the rivalry series including wins over Chris Mileham and Jed Davis, and hasn't lost to the Tigers since April 27, 2015.

For the second time in as many days, Farmington utilized a late inning rally to secure a baseball win, then held off an opponent in its last at-bat.

Six runs in the top of the seventh propelled the Cardinals on the road at rival Prairie Grove by an 8-3 score on Thursday; and Friday Farmington again found a way to win, scoring two runs in the bottom of the sixth at home to beat Bentonville West, 2-1, to cap a 3-0 week that started on the road at Pea Ridge Monday, April 19 with a 13-3 Cardinal run-rule victory.

The Cardinals' comeback win over Prairie Grove granted them a share of the conference crown and the No. 1 seed in the District 4A-1 tournament which places them on the opposite side of the bracket from co-conference champions, Harrison and Shiloh Christian, this week. On Wednesday at 5 p.m., Farmington hosts the winner of Monday's play-in game between Berryville and Gravette.

Meanwhile Prairie Grove beat West Fork, 7-1, as Davis Stephens chipped in three of the Tigers' 10 hits while scoring twice. Sloan Smith drove in three runs for Prairie Grove, which scored three runs in the sixth. Sophomore Ryder Orr had two hits and an RBI. Senior Jackson Sorters earned the win scattering six hits and striking out two in a complete game that required an efficient 77 pitches.

Sorters, who isn't very tall at 5-4, wakes up batters with his first pitch, much like the 5-feet-9 Tice, who made his Major League Debut on April 9 after a frustrating 2020 in which covid robbed him of an opportunity to make the big league when the minor leagues shut down.

"He stayed in that reserve last year. He kept waiting for that phone call you know and when you get into that it's a money game and they didn't want to pull him up and start him and start his clock and all that stuff so he was a little frustrated," Cameron said. "But he knows that he should be there. He fights and he got his chance this year so he knows it's coming. He's going to get a full-time offer, I'm sure, at some point."

Cameron celebrates his return to Prairie Grove each time the Tigers enter a ballpark.

"To come back and to be able to compete the way we are competing is good. That's what we wanted," Cameron said.

"We got guys that want to be here, guys that compete and love the game and do things right and that's the most important thing is the kids do things right."

The Tigers begin district tournament play on the road at Huntsville Wednesday. The first pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m.

Doing things right goes a long ways in baseball and life -- just ask Ty Tice.