FAYETTEVILLE — With a disappointing finish to last baseball season fresh on his mind, Farmington baseball coach Jay Harper got right back to work this spring with lofty goals and expectations for the Cardinals.
Talking big goals and expectations is one thing. Accomplishing is another. But with Harper turning to four senior veterans and a perfect mix of youth, Farmington took off right from the start in the 2013 campaign.
“Last year didn’t fall the way we wanted at the district tournament,” Harper said. “But we had four great seniors this year and they did everything we thought they would do.
“The seniors, they set the goals for this team and the first thing they talked about was winning conference.”
And that’s just what Farmington did, as seniors Spencer Boudrey, Taylor Burba, Levi Strope and Josh Mueller were the backbone of a team that raced through the 4A-1 Conference regular season. Seven opponents and seven wins later, the Cardinals were outright conference champs, winning their first league title since 2010.
Farmington would bow out in the first round of the Class 4A state tournament, but the run back to the top of 4A-1 was still plenty to be proud of. And more than enough reason for Harper to be named All-NWA Media Baseball Coach of the Year.
“We had high hopes this season,” Boudrey said. “We wanted to win the whole championship and didn’t do that. But it was still a really good year. Coming back from last year and winning all of our conference games, and beating Prairie Grove, was really good.”
Harper turned to Strope and sophomore Keaton Austin for pitching dominance, as the two hurlers combined to go 15-1. In the lineup, there was plenty of pop as Boudrey, Burba and Strope all hit over .400.
For Harper, the credit for this year’s success is proudly shared with his players. Particularly his seniors.
“These four seniors we had are great players and great leaders,” Harper said. “We asked them first what their goals were for this team. And it’s the seniors who came up with our list of goals for the season.”
Boudrey said that trust relationship with his players is one part of Harper’s coaching that worked so well this year.
“He always asked us for our opinions,” Boudrey said. “If we had some ideas, we would bounce them off of him and he’s bounce his ideas off of us.”
Farmington finished the year 20-5 and must replace the four seniors who were such a big part of the success. But laying the foundation for future Farmington teams is one part of the season Harper hopes will carry on.
“We want to be that program that competes in conference, regionals and state every year,” Harper said. “We’re moving up to Class 5A pretty soon so it’s going to be tough. But hopefully we have laid that foundation and we’ll be thought of as one of those top programs.”