FARMINGTON — Doug Gibbs is hoping that the offense he saw from his Farmington All-Star team on Sunday afternoon is here and here to stay.

"Finally," Gibbs said of his team's offense showing up. "We didn't hit in the first couple games until tonight."

And hit they did. Farmington used nine hits to power itself past Winnisquam, 10-0, in a mercy-rule shortened game (five innings) on Sunday during the District 6 Cal Ripken 12-year-old tournament.

"I think they did an awesome job," Coach Gibbs said of his team. "They stayed up as a team, they were smiling more, they were playing harder with each other. They were kind of down the last couple of games, but today they really pulled it together."

Farmington (3-1) came out of the gate hot against Winnisquam (1-4) pitcher Tim Harmon. After Tanner Gibbs reached on an error to start the game, Zack Cardinal also reached via error to allow Gibbs to score and make it 1-0. Mike Cook followed with an RBI double to right field to go up 2-0. With one out, Reggie Pennell grounded out to bring home Cook and give Farmington the early 3-0 advantage.

"I thought it was OK," said Winnisquam coach Matt Harmon of his team's pitching. "It wasn't great. The combination of not enough strikeouts and defensive errors killed us."

While Winnisquam struggled to keep Farmington off the board, Farmington starter Pennell kept the Winnisquam guessing all game long. Pennell allowed just two hits, no runs, two walks and struck out eight in five innings of work for the win.

"Awesome start," Coach Gibbs said of Pennell's performance. "He was hitting the corners, he was keeping the ball down most of the time — where it's supposed to be."

The offense kept churning in the third inning. After being held off the board in the second, back-to-back singles in the third put Pennell in good position at the plate. He took the offering and sliced it into right field for a two-RBI single to extend Farmington's lead to 5-0. Anthony Bennett later scored in the inning on an error to give Farmington a six-run lead.

"It was a tough game," Coach Harmon said. "(Farmington) has a powerful lineup from top to bottom. It's hard to tell where the No. 9 hitter turns into the leadoff hitter."

Farmington came right back out in the fourth to tack on three more runs. Back-to-back singles set the stage for Cardinal, who doubled to bring home Gibbs and Jamen Gunnison. Cardinal came around to score himself when Cook hit a double to left field and give Farmington the 9-zip edge.

In the fifth, Sean Dale reached via an error. With Dale on second, Gunnison ripped a double to left to bring home Dale and end the game early as Farmington went up, 10-0.

"We only had three 12 year olds on our team, but they hung tough," Coach Harmon said. "We battled."

Farmington will play Mount Washington Valley (4-0) today at 5:30 p.m. and will need to beat them to make Tuesday's championship round. The top two teams from each pool (four teams total) will advance to the double elimination championship round. There is a potential for a three-way tie in Farmington's pool as Newfound, which handed Farmington its only loss on Friday, is also 3-1.



Farmington, 10-0 (5 inngs.)

Winnisquam (1-4) 000 00 — 0 2 5

Farmington (3-1) 303 31 — 10 9 0

Batteries: W-Harmon, Lacourciere (3), Hoey (4) and Hunt; F-Pennell and Gunnison. WP-Pennell, LP-Harmon. LOB: W-4, F-5.

Mike Whaley/Democrat photoWinnisquam's Joey Correia ducks out of the way of an inside pitch during Cal Ripken District 6 12-year-old tournament action Sunday against Farmington. * Order a print of this photo