Dexter Baseball Comes Up Just Short in District Finals

The Dexter baseball teams bid for a D1 district title came up just short as the Dreadnaughts fell to SEC Red champion Saline 3-2 in the finals Saturday.

The Dreadnaughts finish the season with a 22-12 overall record.

Saline took a 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the first.

Dexter rallied back with two runs in the third when Nate Baughman scored on a wild pitch and Joey Tessmer followed with a rbi-single to tie it at 2-2.

Saline would retake the lead with a run in the bottom of the third when a single and error put a runner on third and scored on a groundout.

It would be the last run of the game as the Dexter offense struggled until the seventh.

Larry Salisbury opened the seventh with a single and a pinch runner moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Drew Bennett. A wild pitch and a walk put runners on the corners with one out, but two strikeouts ended the game for the Dreadnaughts.

Wyatt Novara was stellar on the mound allowing just four hits and striking out six in five innings of work.

Tessmer finished with a pair of hits and rbi, while AJ Vaughn added two hits and scored a run. Chance Sobbry, Salisbury, and Tucker Dunn had one hit each.

Joey Tessmer scores from second on a sacrifice fly against Pioneer. Photo by Mike Williamson

Dexter reached the finals by taking down Ann Arbor Pioneer 6-3.

Pioneer took a 1-0 lead in the first, but Dexter answered with two runs in the second on a sacrifice fly by Tessmer and a run-scoring single by Garrett Sharp.

The lead didn’t last long when Pioneer scored twice in the bottom of the third for a 3-2 lead.

Aedan Rye doubled in a run in the top of the fourth and scored on a wild pitch to put Dexter on top 4-3.

The Dreadnaughts would add a pair of insurance runs in the seventh when two came home on a sacrifice fly by Sobbry and a wild throw allowed Tessmer to score from second for a 6-3 lead.

Pioneer would threaten with two runners on in the bottom of the seventh, but Andrew Cusick got a ground out to end the game.

Sharp finished with two hits and a rbi, while Noah Pitts had two hits and two runs scored. Tessmer and Rye had a hit and rbi, Vaughn a hit and run scored, and Dunn one hit.

Ben Pitts picked up the win in relief with one strikeout in 2 2/3 innings. Cusick struck out one in 1 2/3 innings for the save.

Photos by Mike Williamson