HARRISON -- There were some valuable lessons from Farmington's disappointing, 3-2, semifinal loss to Morrilton at the 4A North Regional softball tournament at Harrison Friday.
Insights gleaned by examining how their opponent functioned might help the Lady Cardinals regroup for the Class 4A State softball tournament, which Morrilton hosts this week.
The Lady Devildogs created and maintained an atmosphere conducive for successful play on the field with a raucous dugout throughout the contest. They became their own biggest cheerleaders, celebrating each time they recorded an out, got on base or moved a base runner.
The Lady Cardinals understand they must match that energy because when a program achieves consistent success that long time coach Randy Osnes enjoys, opponents draw motivation wanting to beat them.
Morrilton played well on the field. The Lady Devildogs scored a pair of runs in the top of the third on a neatly executed sacrifice bunt and Taylor Berry's RBI single to capture a 2-0 lead. Makenna Keeton secured the win for Morrilton. She allowed two runs while scattering six hits over eight innings, striking out six and walking one.
"She pitched a very good game against us. They deserve to be in the championship game," Osnes said.
While the Farmington girls struggled to get on base, they made two of the biggest clutch hits in the storied history of Lady Cardinal softball during the contest.
Senior leadoff hitter Shayley Treat began the sixth by smashing a solo home run over the left field wall on a 1-0 pitch. The critical hit not only cut Morrilton's lead in half, but also lifted the spirits of the Lady Cardinals.
"I thought I hit it too high at first and I didn't think it had enough to actually go out of the park so I was really happy when it happened," Treat said. "But, of course, I was wishing somebody else was on base so I could have tied the game up. But I was very happy to get the first run of the game and I was hoping [to] get my team up."
Treat felt the atmosphere shift with an infusion of fresh hope permeating the Lady Cardinal dugout.
"We started to get more energy and we started to feel we could still win this game, which I thought was the best part of the whole thing," Treat said. "I just wanted to get my team [going]. I wanted to rally my team and show them we could win it, and we still had plenty of time, we're going to get hits, we're fine."
Farmington got down to its last out and last strike with sophomore Kamryn Uher falling behind 0-2 in the bottom of the seventh. She coolly took ball-one, then delivered for her team -- driving another solo home run out of the ballpark to tie the game, 2-2.
"I was just trying to keep us in the game, not swinging at the rise ball like I had done the past two at-bats. Just keep on playing and see what the rest of the team could do," Uher said.
With the odds stacked against her, Uher made an improbable play in a dire situation by keeping her head in the game and drawing confidence, although she had been hitless in the Regional prior to the clutch homer.
Uher stepped up, forgetting about past at-bats, and performed in the heat of the moment.
"It was better than striking out three times," Uher said. "It felt pretty good. I didn't know if it went over or not. Once I saw it go over it just made it feel a lot better."
As a senior leader, Treat perceived the connection between her homer, which stimulated her teammates and produced an aura favorable for Uher to send the game into extra innings.
"We were definitely louder in the dugout. It seemed that we had more hope. We were a lot louder, more than we had been the entire game. I felt like it made our defense play better because we realized that we were back in the game," Treat said.
Morrilton broke the 2-2 tie in the top of the eighth when Berry doubled on a 3-1 count, scoring the winning run. Morrilton had seven hits with Graci Thomas and Berry each recording multiple hits.
"Obviously, we did not win, which was rough. It was hard, but it helped Kamryn step up to the plate because had we not scored that run, we never would have went into extra innings," Treat said. "It helped our hitters step up. Everybody was sharp on defense, diving bodies, where I feel like it did help everything even though it didn't come out how I wanted."
Treat and her teammates perceive the loss serves to sharpen Farmington's resolve for the state tournament.
"Yes, I believe it does, because this is the first time in my high school career we are not going to the Regional championship or winning Regionals, which is very difficult for me to have to deal with, so, yes, I think it will," Treat said.
Treat could have potentially played in four state finals during her career if the 2020 season hadn't been canceled due to covid. She realizes she holds a unique place in Lady Cardinal history -- unequaled since the Lady Cardinals went to four straight state finals from 2000-2003.
"I think it's awesome. I've never heard of any other team doing that besides Bentonville, I believe," Treat said. "The people I'm surrounded with, they all want to work hard. We all know who we're playing with, we all know what we're dealing with, and we play together."
"Every single year we've had great team camaraderie and I feel that it's helped us achieve our goals and I also feel like Coach Osnes has definitely really helped us by making sure we practice hard and we have no off days. If we do, he makes sure we correct them very quickly so I feel like all of that included has helped us achieve this goal [of qualifying for state] where we're at right now."
The Lady Cardinals begin Class 4A State tournament play at Morrilton by taking on Valley View Thursday at 5:30 p.m.