Taylor Yousse scored winning run in 6th inning
(photos by Jim Lindquist)
Call it May Madness. Farmington has reached the Final Four.
The fourth-seeded Tigers won the rubber game with fifth-ranked Northfield 3-2 Wednesday, May 25, to advance to the Section 1AAA four-team, double elimination tournament starting Friday, May 27, in Austin.
The teams split two regular season contests with the Raiders prevailing at Farmington 5-3 and the Tigers dominating at Northfield 11-3.
In game three of the series played at Tiger Field, Northfield got on the board first with a run in the top of the third, but the Tigers countered in the bottom of the inning with two scores of their own.
Ashley Betzold singled to start the rally and gave way to courtesy runner Rachel Brietch. Alyssa Hagen singled and Dani Muelken followed with a rbi single to knot the score. Tony Hunsinger's sacrifice fly to center chased home Hagen with the second run.
The Raiders came back to tie the game in the sixth with the run scoring on a passed ball.
The game-winner scored in the sixth when singles by Taylor Yousse, Allie Rice and Betzold loaded the bases and Yousse raced home on a passed ball.
"You don't see a high school game where two of the five runs come on passed balls very often," Farmington coach Rob Laden said.
Betzold went the distance in the circle for the Tigers and picked up her 11th pitching victory of the season.
Laden said he was pleased with the performance of his young squad and excited to be moving on to the Section 1 Final Four.
"We played a good, hard-fought, intense game," he said. "It's nice to see the team playing a lot better now than we were at the start of the season."
The Tigers (11-10) will take on top-seeded and state-ranked Hastings in Friday's opening round at Todd Park in Austin. Game time is 5:00.
