Central falls to Farmington in district semis

After five days of weather postponements, the Class 4 District 1 softball semifinal between sixth-seeded Central and second-seeded Farmington resumed Tuesday.

The game had been halted at the top of the second inning Thursday when rain moved into the area and forced the two teams to resume at a later date with the Knightettes holding a four-run lead.

Brittany Link's grand slam gave the Knightettes a 5-1 first-inning lead Thursday, and Farmington added to its lead with a big fourth inning Tuesday to come away with an 11-2 victory over the Tigers at Seckman High School in Imperial, Missouri.

"I want to give our girls all the credit in the world," Central coach Amy Blattel said. "They never doubted the fact that they could pull this game out. The five days that we did not play and we were waiting to play, they were very positive, very upbeat and they weren't concerned about it."

Maggie Groshong suffered the loss in the circle for Central (11-16). She went six innings, scattered 11 hits and had four strikeouts and eight walks.

"I thought Maggie threw a very good game against a very good hitting team," Blattel said. "We came out today in the first couple of innings, and she shut some of their big hitters down early. That was nice."

Sarah Kitchen led the Tigers at the plate with a double.

Two walks and two errors assisted the Knightettes in the fourth inning as Central finished the game with six errors.

Seckman has a turf infield, which Blattel said was a different experience for her squad.

"When you're used to playing on dirt, the ball plays very differently. The way you have to field the ball is a little bit different [on turf]," Blattel said. "Our kids were being aggressive. We just had a couple tough breaks. We had a couple errant throws, and we bobbled a couple balls. But they fought hard and never gave up."

Kaila Nash went seven innings to earn the pitching win. She gave up three hits and had six strikeouts and three walks.

Emily Briese went 3 for 3 to power Farmington's offense.

"Farmington hits the ball well, and they hit the ball well from the top of the lineup all the way through to the bottom of the lineup," Blattel said. "I thought they did a good job of being patient at the plate. When they got runners on, they did exactly what you want a team to do, which is drive them in."

Blattel said she was pleased with the progress the Tigers made this season. She said they started strong and were playing their best softball when the postseason rolled around.

"I'm proud of the girls," Blattel said. "The kids really stepped it up, and at district time, they were really playing well. That's exactly what you want to have happen. You don't want to peak really early, and I think we did exactly what we set out to do, which was play our best ball at district time."

Farmington will play top-seeded Seckman in the championship.

Central 100 010 0 -- 11 3 6

Farmington 500 411 x -- 2 11 1

WP -- Kaila Nash. LP -- Maggie Groshong. HR -- Brittany Link (F). 2B -- Sarah Kitchen (C). Multiple hits -- Central: none; Farmington: Allison Pingel 2-4, Alyson Tucker 2-4, Emily Briese 3-3.