Farmington teams shut down Prairie Grove
Posted on Friday, March 28, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Sports/63588/
PRAIRIE GROVE — Evan Abrecht was nearly untouchable for a second-straight start against Prairie Grove.
Abrecht fanned 15 Tigers in a completegame, 2-hit shutout performance Thursday at Prairie Grove in a 5-0 Farmington victory. Abrecht now has 23 strikeouts in 11 innings pitched against Prairie Grove this season.
Abrecht struck out the side in the third, fifth and seventh innings and didn’t walk a single batter in seven innings of work. Abrecht also helped out his own cause at the plate, going 2 for 3 with an RBI double in the first.
“ Evan’s such a good pitcher and when he’s on, he’s tough against anybody, ” Farmington coach Jay Harper said. “ He hadn’t worked in a week except for an inning last Tuesday night. When he’s fresh, he’s tough to beat.
“ He kept people off base, kept the pressure off our defense and we scored when we had to. We didn’t hit the ball real well today but hit it when we had to and took advantage of their mistakes. ”
A pair of errors in the opening frame put Prairie Grove in a 3-0 hole early. Farmington’s Brandon Miller singled up the middle and scored on Abrecht’s double. Another error on a ground ball scored a run when the pitcher overthrew his target at home. A second error at first plated another tally.
Farmington (10-1, 2-0 ) pushed the gap to 5-0 in the third. Abrecht walked and Justin Darty rocked a double. One run scored on a fielder’s choice and Aaron Minor lofted a sacrifice fly to right to complete the damage.
Brad Loyd and Jessie Ketzler logged the only two base knocks for the Tigers (3-2, 1-1 ). Both were singles up the middle.
“ You’ve got to tip your hat to Abrecht, ” Prairie Grove coach Derek Dougan said. “ He’s the best pitcher we’re probably going to see all year. A D-I signee, he does a great job on the mound. The last time we faced him we didn’t get a hit. We were fortunate to get two hits tonight.
“ He picks his spots well. I don’t feel like our bats are that bad; he’s just that good. He’s an exceptional pitcher. ” Farmington 12 Prairie Grove 1 (softball )
The Lady Cards needed just five innings to dispatch rival Prairie Grove, 12-1, Thursday night.
Farmington led 4-0 heading into the fourth and the floodgates opened. The Lady Cards took a 9-0 lead with a 5-spot in the fourth and surged ahead 12-0 with three in the top of the fifth.
Skyler Smith allowed 1 run on 3 hits and fanned 6 in five innings of toil to pick up the win for Farmington (10-2, 1-0 ).
“ We hadn’t played in eight days and we showed up, played ball and knocked off the rust, ” Farmington coach Randy Osnes said. “ Anytime you can beat a rival like this we’re very proud of that. Skyler pitched a great ballgame and we made the plays behind her. ”
Lacey Kragel went 3 for 3 with a double and a key 2-run homer to left in the fifth. Samantha Luther went 2 for 3 with 4 RBIs, including a 3-run triple in the fourth.
“ We hit the ball well up and down the lineup, ” Osnes said. “ At first, they were pitching around [Kragel ] but she got a pitch to hit and parked it. She’s hitting the ball extremely well as is the rest of our lineup. ”
Prairie Grove (4-3, 1-1 ), though, didn’t quit. Kaylin Kirkman led off the fifth with a triple to right and scored on an RBI single by Nunning Sparkman. Judi Nichols added a single to right but Smith logged a strikeout to smother the rally.
“ Farmington’s the first real good team we’ve played this year but there’s no excuses from us, ” Prairie Grove coach Chris Collins said. “ We didn’t make the plays we’ve been making and the occasional hard play we usually make, we didn’t make those either.
“ It was a pressure situation with the hometown and rival crowd and that’s the first time we’ve experienced that. But it will get better. We will get better. ”