For the third year in a row, the Farmer softball team will be battling in the area round as the playoff pursuit continues.

In 2013, the girls advanced to the state tournament and won the title. Last year the girls made it past the area round before meeting their defeat in the regional round. This year, the girls will be facing Southlake Carroll in their area matchup, hoping to advance to regionals. The one thing that stays in common every year is that competition only gets fiercer the farther into the playoffs the girls go.

Senior outfielder Summer Quiroga said that her favorite part of the area round is the excitement and competition.

“I’m excited that the competition is getting better,” Quiroga said. “Southlake is okay, but we haven’t played them since the scrimmage we had against them.”

The Farmers scrimmaged the Dragons in early February defeating them 9-0.

However, since that loss, the Dragons have won 18 games with only five losses.

The Dragons had a perfect district record of 12-0, outscoring their opponents 139-33. Southlake strives on their power offense, which will be quite a matchup against the strong pitching and defense from the Farmers. Southlake’s best hitters are junior Christina Hill [.467 avg. according to the Dallas Morning News], freshman Abigail Stewart [ .460 avg], and senior Gretchen Morgan [.448 avg].

Junior outfielder Nicole Nelson said the team thrives on their defense when the offense isn’t producing.

“Our offense isn’t consistent, but it’s there,” Nelson said. “We just need to work on our situational hitting.”

Farmer hitters will most likely matchup against senior Dragon pitcher Jessica Tunink in game 1, the arm Southlake has looked to most this year at the circle. Tunink had a 7-3 record this year with 3.20 earned run average.

The Lady Farmers will most likely look to junior and LSU commit Maribeth Gorsuch to pitch game one. Gorsuch had a 14-2 record this season with a 0.653 earned run average and 194 strikeouts.

Tomorrow’s game will be at Argyle High School at 8 p.m. Game 2 will be Saturday at Argyle at 4 p.m., and game 3, if needed, at 7:30.

If fans can’t make it to the game, they can follow the action on the team’s twitter feed.