By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

Logan Northern had an outstanding day from the rubber against the Doniphan Dons.

The junior right-hander threw a complete game, giving up just four hits with five strikeouts, no earned runs, and didn't give up a walk until there were two down in the seventh, leading the Bearcats to a 7-1 victory in his first start of the season.

"I thought Logan Northern did a heck of a job for us today," head coach Brian Becker said after the win. "He threw a great game. He kept us in the ballgame whenever we struggled to score some runs early, and we eventually busted it open for him."

"I felt pretty good all game. I tried to keep the ball away from the middle of the plate and away from them," Northern said. "I just followed Coach Pixley and tried to get the ball down so they could hit it to my defense, and my defense did the work."

Dexter's offense started out on a slow pace, as the Bearcats stranded four base runners in the first three innings. Becker attributed the early woes at the plate to much slower pitching compared to their first two games.

"We started off slow, but I thought we swung the bats a little better today than what we have so far," he said. "It was a bit of an adjustment for them, coming from what we saw Wednesday to some pitchers that didn't have as much velocity today, and it took us a while to adjust."

"We got our rhythm, and started hitting the ball pretty well. We hit some 'at-em' balls today, hit it hard a few times," Becker added. "We had some opportunities early and hit the ball right back at them, but that's just baseball sometimes."

The Dons struck first blood in the fourth inning; David Bara, after hitting a leadoff double, attempted to steal third; a throwing error by catcher D.J. Dowdy (Dexter's only error in the contest) allowed the shortstop to record Doniphan's lone run of the day.

The Bearcats responded in the bottom of the fourth, when Dowdy blasted a two out, two run double on the first pitch he faced to give the 'Cats a 2-1 lead. Jordan Miller smacked a double into left-center to drive in Chase Young in the bottom of the fifth and increase the DHS lead to 3-1.

The Bearcat offense exploded in the sixth inning; Brad Potts and Josh Overall each tallied one RBI, while Alex Cliff cranked a long single to center for two RBI's in the four-run rally.

Northern recorded a strikeout and fly out to open the seventh inning before walking his first batter of the day. Northern forced another pop-up on his next batter, and Young made the out to end the big win.

The Bearcats will be back in action on Monday afternoon, when they host a JV doubleheader against the Twin Rivers Royals. The Varsity squad will be back on the field Tuesday afternoon against the state-ranked Oran Eagles.

"Shoot, they'll be good; they're state-ranked," Becker said of the Eagles. "They lost some good players from last year, but they have some good kids coming back. They've got a great program over there, and are always well-coached. You have to respect their ball club every time you play them, and they have earned that respect through the years. Hopefully our kids will come out ready to play on Tuesday, and I think it will be a good ballgame."

Becker was unsure of his starter for Tuesday afternoon, but indicated it would most likely be Jordan Miller. First pitch is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.