Shoe's On Other Foot

The shoe, or in this case softball cleats, were on the other foot, and Valley View (25-6) could not wear a Cinderella slipper -- losing, 4-3, to Farmington (26-3) Thursday.

Last week, the Jonesboro Sun reported Valley View coach B.J. Zipfel giving a typical comment about facing a strong opponent in the opening round of state tournament play.

Zipfel was quoted as saying the first round is as a good as time as any to see an opponent the caliber of Farmington followed by another commonly used expression stating that for a team which wants to win the state tournament it doesn't matter what round it's in.

In reality, it does matter regardless of how often coaches tend to downplay a game of that magnitude with Farmington pulling off a dramatic seventh inning rally on junior Remington Adams' 2-run homer at Morrilton.

Many a potential state champion in various sports has been unseated in the first round due to an unfavorable matchup that might have gone the other way if the teams met later in the tournament.

In addition to preparing for a quality opponent, who executes well in the playing arena, there are other drawbacks coaches must deal with such as the intimidation factor based upon an opponent's reputation.

Farmington athletes know this very well. How many times have the Farmington girls experienced the excitement of qualifying for state volleyball only to realize they were facing a first round juggernaut in Valley View?

That's happened at least three times with the most recent occurrence on Oct. 23, 2019, when Valley View swept the Farmington volleyball team (25-10, 25-12, 25-20) in Class 4A. The Lady Blazers accomplished a similar sweep (25-12, 25-17, 25-14) on Oct. 25, 2017, during the Class 5A State volleyball tournament; and also won 3-0 on Oct. 31, 2013, in another Class 4A state tourney first-round meeting.

Both teams held high expectations coming into this year's state softball tournament.

The Lady Blazers clinched the 4A-3 Conference Championship on April 27 by sweeping Brookland 4-2 and 4-1 on the Lady Bearcats' home field at Brookland. The Lady Blazers came into the double-header ranked No. 2 in the 4A-3 Conference while Brookland was leading the league, which did not hold a district tournament. The sweep gave Valley View (11-1) a one game edge over Brookland (10-2).

Brookland hosted the 4A East Regional, but the conference rivals never met in the tournament. The Lady Blazers advanced with a 19-0 win over Forrest City to punch their ticket to the Class 4A State tournament, then defeated Jonesboro Westside, 13-0, to advance to the Regional finals.

Stuttgart (23-5 coming into state) outlasted Brookland, 9-8, in the other semifinal and got past the Lady Blazers, 5-4, by scoring a run in the bottom of the seventh inning during the 4A East Regional finals. With the loss Valley View entered the state tournament as a No. 2 seed pitted up against the Lady Cardinals, who were upset, 3-2, by Morrilton, which scored in the top of the eighth inning in the 4A North Regional semifinals. Farmington earned a trip to state with a 10-2 win over Clarksville on May 6, then rebounded after the semifinal setback to beat Dardanelle, 5-1, in the 4A North Regional consolation game.

Technically, there was no defending champion because the Class 4A State tournament wasn't played in 2020. Pottsville beat Farmington, 7-4, in the 2019 finals at Bogle Park on the University of Arkansas campus, but got eliminated, 7-2, by Pea Ridge in last week's 4A North Regional. The Lady Cardinals also reached the 2018 finals in Class 5A and lost 3-2 to Greenbrier at Benton, site of the 2021 state championship.

MARK HUMPHREY IS A SPORTS WRITER FOR THE ENTERPRISE-LEADER. THE OPINIONS ARE HIS OWN.