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The Dexter baseball team opened its season with a doubleheader split with a strong Hartland team Tuesday night.
The Dreadnaughts dropped the opener 4-1 and bounced back to win the nightcap 4-1.
The match-up was a rematch of last year’s Division 1 district semifinal in which the Dreadnaughts knocked off the second-ranked Eagles to end their season earlier than expected.
Both teams are highly ranked in the preseason polls this season and are expecting big things in 2022.
The opener was a match-up of two of the top left-handed junior pitchers in the state with Dexter’s Wyatt Novara and Hartland’s Gannon Grundman. Novara has committed to playing ball at the University of Michigan and Grundman at Michigan State.
As expected with the season opener, both pitchers struggled with their control early as Novara walked four and Grundman three.
Dexter threatened in the second with a pair of walks and an Eagle error, but the Dreadnaughts had a runner thrown out at third for the first out. A groundout moved the runners up to second and third with two outs but a pop-out ended the inning.
Hartland broke through in the fourth with a two-out, two-run double to take a 2-0 lead.
The Dreadnaughts got one back in the bottom of the fourth and Tucker Dunn doubled in Cam Rosen to cut the lead to 2-1.
The Eagles would add runs in the sixth and seventh for insurance and held on for the win.
Dunn and Rosen had the only hits for the Dreadnaughts. Novara struck out four in the loss.
The nightcap saw Hartland take a 1-0 lead in the first, but the Dreads would rally in the third.
A Davis Bennett triple drove home Braeden Fuson and Joey Tessmer for a 2-1 lead and then scored on a wild pitch for a 3-1 lead.
The Dreadnaughts would add to the lead when Tessmer scored on an error in the fourth to make it 4-1 and Brennan Parachek put the Eagles down in order in the fifth to end the game and earn the save.
Tessmer finished with two hits and two runs scored, while Davis had a triple and two RBI’s and Parachek one hit. Rosen allowed six hits and struck out two for the win on the mound. Parachek struck out two for the save.
Photos by Mike Williamson
