FARMINGTON -- A 10-run fourth inning for Farmington broke open a tight game as the Lady Cardinals defeated Siloam Springs 13-0 in five innings on Monday.
The short-handed Lady Panthers were missing four starters, and head coach Scott Wright started several underclassmen due to illness. Freshman Rachel Mann started on the circle and for three innings the Lady Panthers stayed in the game, although Farmington pushed one run across in each of the first three innings.
Farmington's Paige Devecsery was on. She struck out consecutive batters on three straight pitches to make quick work of the Lady Panthers in the top of the second.
Mann struggled with control issues. She hit opposing pitcher, Devecsery, to put the leadoff hitter on in the bottom of the second inning. Mann then struck out Farmington catcher Anna Holder and induced Cambre Strange to pop up before surrendering a two-out RBI single to Brandy Wallace. Mann came back by getting Carley Antwine to ground out to shortstop and got out of the inning without further damage.
Trailing 2-0, Siloam Springs was unable to get a runner on in the third. Devecsery showed no sign of slowing down. She got Siloam Springs freshman Sydney Smith to ground out to first on a single pitch, then caught sophomore Aislyn Burchette looking with a called strike three. Another Lady Panther freshman, Ericka Galloway, went down swinging but missing three straight pitches.
Farmington's Madison Parrish reached first on an error to lead off the third inning. Mann got Alyssa Reed to fly out to shallow center field against the wind, but Callie Harper drove in Parrish by smacking a stand-up double. Mann hung tough, getting Mckenzi Bogan to hit into a fielder's choice. Bogan was out at first with Harper going to third. Mann then issued a free pass to Devecsery by hitting her with a 1-2 pitch. With runners at the corners, Hook fielded Anna Bennett's bunt and threw her out at first.
After producing no runs in the top of the fourth, the Lady Panthers ran out of luck when Farmington came up in the bottom of the inning. A 10-run explosion by the Lady Cardinals extended Farmington's lead to 13-0, effectively ending the game when Siloam Springs couldn't manufacture any runs in the top of the fifth.
"We're missing a lot of firepower," Wright said, while praising his younger players for their efforts. "We were missing a lot of hitting and our starting pitcher, who can throw it 61 miles-per-hour. Farmington is a good team. They are not in our (6A classification), but they are a 5A team and they are a quality opponent to help get us ready for our district."
The Lady Panthers are scheduled to play at Harrison on Thursday and then host the Lady Panther Invitational on Friday and Saturday at La-Z-Boy Park. Due to a late dropout by a team in the tournament, a finalized bracket was not available at presstime.
Sports on 03/08/2017