Boys Lacrosse: Tigers end regular season in style

Trevor Howard 6-point night (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Farmington punctuated the end of its first-ever winning regular season with an exclamation point in a 9-4 win over Rochester Mayo Tuesday night at Tiger Stadium.

The triumph boosted the Tigers final record to 7-5 and gave them some momentum heading into next week's section tournament.

"We played a more complete defensive game, middies and poles," coach Paul Sorensen said. "I'm proud of our overall team play this year. It's something we've emphasized from day one."

Farmington controlled the ball most of the game against the Spartans but led only 4-3 at the halftime break.

A third period score made it a two-goal contest before the winners erupted for four goals in the fourth to put the game away.

Brendon Berg 4 goals (photo by Jim Lindquist)

The attacking trio of Brendon Berg, Trevor Howard and Matt Ackerman did most of the offensive damage for the Tigers.

Berg scored four goals while Howard put together a six-point night with two goals and four assists. Ackerman scored two goals and assisted on two others.

The ninth goal, which Sorensen said was one of the highlights of the night, came from senior midfielder Marty Gliva.

"He has played hardly at all this year," Sorensen said, "but he is the heart and soul of our team."

The Tigers outshot the Spartans by more than a 3-1 margin (25 to 8). Tiger netminder Charlie Weierke had a quiet night with four saves.

Seeding for next week's section tournament will take place Saturday and Sorensen said he is hoping for a home game in the opening round.

"We will have to lobby along with 13 other teams, so who knows?," he said.

Baseball: Tigers win 4-1 in 10

Ty Vincent 2-run double in 10th

Farmington got quality pitching performances from J.D. Hinks and Drew Hegseth and Ty Vincent rapped a two-run double in the 10th inning to give the Tigers a 4-1 Missota Conference win over Chanhassen Tuesday night in Chanhassen.

The victory was Farmington's (6-11) second of the season over the Storm. The Tigers prevailed 6-2 when the teams met last month at Tiger Field.

"We only had one error and gave up three walk in 10 innings," coach Mike Winters said. "Pitching and defense kept us in it long enough to finally let us break through in the tenth."

The first eight innings featured a quality pitching duel between Tiger sophomore J.D. Hinks and Chanhassen's Daniel Furhman.

J.D. Hinks 8 innings of shutout ball

Furhman fanned 11 batters in his eight innings of mound duty but Hinks matched him inning for inning, allowing only two hits while striking out four and walking one.

Drew Hegseth picked up the pitching win with two innings of one-run relief, striking out four and walking two.

In the 10th Jake Baskerville walked, Jordan Lugowski singled and Nathan Graham walked before Vincent delivered his two-run double. Graham scored on a passed ball and Vincent raced home on Hegseth's double.

Drew Hegseth 3-5, pitching win

Hegseth had three hits to go with his pitching win. Lugowski and Graham each stroked a pair of hits for the winners.

Farmington closes out it Missota Conference season Thursday with a home game against Red Wing. Next Monday the Tigers end the regular season when they host Lakeville South in a non-conference contest.

Tiger Scoreboard: May 16, 2012

Softball
Farmington 9 Chanhassen 5

Baseball
Farmington 4 Chaska 1 (10 innings)

Boys Lacrosse
Farmington 9 Rochester Mayo 4

Girls Lacrosse
Farmington 15 Rochester Mayo 4

Boys Tennis
Section 1AA (opening round)
Owatonna 7 Farmington 0

Girls Golf: Pecking away

Brianna Swenson shot 97 at Creek's Bend

The young and inexperienced Tigers finished eighth at the third Missota Conference tournament of the 2012 season played Monday at Creeks' Bend Golf Club.

Red Wing won the meet with a low team total of 301 strokes. New Prague placed second with 318, followed by Chanhassen 327, Northfield 339, Chaska 343, Shakopee 359, Holy Angels 403 and Farmington 473.

Though the Tigers trailed the league field for the the third consecutive meet, coach Jon Stock said his young and inexperienced team continued to show signs of promise.

"Most of the girls had a personal best in the meet," he said. "The team is very happy with its continuing improvement."

Brianna Swenson led the Tiger effort with her first  sub-100 round of the spring, a 97. Halea Wright shot 124, Kaitlin Jokenin 125 and Jessica Singewald 127.

Thursday the Tigers will be looking to shave some more strokes off their score at the fourth Missota Conference meet of the season, this one at Mississippi National Golf Club in Red Wing.

Softball: Late rally carries Tigers to 9-5 win

Six-run sixth inning the difference (photo by Jim Lindquist)

The Tigers roared back from a 5-3 deficit to score six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and defeat Chanhassen 9-5 in a showdown of Missota Conference leaders Tuesday afternoon at Tiger Field.

The win coupled with Shakopee's 10-4 win over Chaska leaves Farmington and Shakopee tied for the league lead with 10-3 records with one game to play. Chanhassen, who entertains Shakopee Thursday in its conference finale, is one back at 9-4.

"We're all now huge Chanhassen fans," Tiger coach Paul Harrington said. "If they can beat Shakopee and we beat Red Wing, we're all all alone on top."

Tuesday's game was one one of big innings for both teams. The Tigers struck for three runs in the first inning before the Storm tied it with a three-spot in the third.

The visitors went up 5-3 with a two-run fifth before the resilient Tigers exploded for the winning runs in the home half of the sixth.

"The biggest thing about this game is our girls never hung their heads," Harrington said. "We never gave up. That should help us down the road in the section."

The winners used an error, a walk, two-hit batsmen and RBI singles by Allie Rice, Taylor Yousse and Erin Wurst to jump to a 3-0 lead in their first at-bat.

Trailing 5-3 with only six outs remaining, the Tigers sent 10 batters to the plate in the sixth and pulled a rabbit out of the hat.

Taylor Yousse (2 H, 2 RBI) tags out a runner at second (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Brooke Searles started the rally with a single and moved to third on a two-base error. Amber Doyle walked and Ashley Betzold followed with a single to left to make it 5-4. Rice walked to load the bases and then two costly Storm errors and another run-scoring single by Yousse gave the Tigers some breathing room.

"We executed when we had to," Harrington said. "The girls deserve a lot of credit for hanging in there."

Farmington starter Betzold allowed a couple of hits in the seventh but got the last two outs on fly balls to post her 12th win of the season.

Though Harrington was pleased with the win and how it was accomplished, he said his team could have made things easier for itself.

"I don't know exactly how many runners we left on, but I know it was a ton," he said. "We had lots of opportunities."

Allie Rice 3-3, RBI (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Rice went a perfect 3-3, including a double, to lead the Tiger offense. Yousse had two hits and a pair of runs batted in and Searles scored twice.

For the most part, the defense also did its part, committing two errors neither of which played a part in the Chanhassen runs.

"We hit the ball and they hit the ball," Harrington said. "They earned what they got. We didn't give them anything."

A win at Red Wing Thursday would deliver at least a tie for Farmington's first Missota Conference softball championship since 2007.

Section 1 play begins next Wednesday with an opponent and a site to be determined by seeding completed over the weekend.