By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

BERNIE - The Lady Bearcats had an explosive day at the plate on Wednesday afternoon when they hit the road to take on the Bernie Mules.

It was a welcome change for Dexter, as the Lady Bearcats struggled at the plate in their first two games of the season (a 13-4 loss against Clearwater, followed by a 17-3, run-rule loss to Kennett), but big offensive production in the third, fourth, and fifth innings propelled the Lady 'Cats to a 15-5 win.

Ashley Brown and Kendra Stevenson both plated runs for the Lady 'Cats in the first inning; after already scoring one run in the third, Riley Rickman blasted a two RBI double to increase Dexter's lead to 5-2.

The scoring rally continued in the fourth inning, with the Lady 'Cats plating three runs, but the Mules responded with three runs of their own to bring the score to 8-5 heading into the fifth inning. Becky Anderson, who pitched in the contest, led off with a double and was later driven in by Taylor Owens to start the rally. A two RBI single from Emily Triplett plated the Lady 'Cats seventh run of the inning, and sealed the final score at 15-5 in Dexter's favor.

The Lady Mules struggled in the field throughout, committing a whopping 15 errors in the contest. Coach Brad Botsch noted this as a big area the team needs to improve on.

"At this point, we really just need to get better at catching and throwing the ball. We are trying to learn the fundamentals of the game and hopefully we will improve," Botsch said. "It's frustrating right now, but we aren't going to stop trying or pushing them to make improvements. They must learn how to compete."

The Lady Bearcats, now 1-2 on the season, will be in action again on Saturday in the first annual 'Swing Pink' tournament. The tournament is in the vein of the volleyball team's 'Dig Pink' contest last season, and the middle school squad's 'Hits for Hope' game earlier in the year; all proceeds raised at the tournament will go to the benefit of the Ben Kruse 18 FORE Life foundation.

All teams participating in the all-day tournament will be guaranteed three games, with contests at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m.

Photo Above:
Becky Anderson fires a pitch during Monday's loss to the Clearwater Lady Tigers. Anderson's record stands at 1-1 after Wednesday's big win at Bernie, where she struck out two batters (Submitted photo by Kay Stevenson).

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

An explosive nine run first inning, coupled with near-flawless pitching, was enough to propel the Dexter Bearcats (4-1) to a 13-1 victory over the Kelly Hawks on Wednesday afternoon.

Brad Potts took to the mound for the 'Cats, and hurled three perfect innings to open up a massive early lead for the Bearcats. Potts was good for seven strikeouts in his 64 pitch outing.

"I thought Brad Potts threw a great game today," Dexter head coach Brian Becker said. "He had command of every pitch, and he hit his spots really well today. We got up early, and Potts went out there and took us the rest of the way, and he did a great job."

Kelly started a side-arm pitcher, and Becker noted that despite pre-game concern about the unorthodox throwing mechanics, his squad did an outstanding job producing at the plate.

"When we saw him warming up, I thought, 'Oh boy,'" Becker said with a laugh. "We told them to keep their front side on, and to make sure they tried to work up the middle to the opposite field, and I thought they did a very good job of that."

Cody Neldon was hit by a pitch in his first at-bat, advanced to second on a stolen base, and was moved to third on a Brad Potts single. Chase Young hit a hard shot to right-center to drive in Neldon and open up the floodgates during the first inning. After 14 batters and nine runs, the Hawks were able to move into the second inning, but Potts sat down the first three batters he faced.

"We busted it open there in the first; [Kelly] had a little trouble fielding the ball, but we also put the bat on the ball pretty well," Becker said. "We were able to put nine runs up there in the first, and Potts goes out and throws nine pitches in the first inning, that's a coaches dream right there."

The 'Cats played great defense throughout the contest, committing just one error opposed to Kelly's six. Josh Overall and Jordan Miller swapped their usual positions, with Overall at third and Miller at second, but showed their versatility with great efforts in the field.

"We played great defense today. Josh Overall did a great job at third today and made some outstanding plays," Becker noted. "[Chase] Young did a good job at short, and made the routine plays as well. I've been really satisfied with our defense so far this year, and hopefully we can keep that up."

The Bearcats will be off until Saturday afternoon, when they face off against Ste. Genevive in a 'meet me in the middle' game played at Cape Central High School.

"I'm not sure [about them]," Becker said of the Dragons. "What i do know is that they always put a quality product out on the field every year. I think it will be a pretty good battle."

Becker indicated that either Logan Northern (1-0) or Owen Flowers would get the start for the Bearcats.

Photos above:
Top: Brad Potts delivers a pitch during Wednesday's 13-1 rout of the Kelly Hawks. The junior gave up one earned run on two hits, struck out seven and walked one on the day.
Bottom: Josh Overall watches a fly ball go foul during the fifth inning on Wednesday's big win. The senior walked once and scored a run in the run-rule victory.

The Dexter Middle School Eighth grade volleyball team continued its winning ways in the Bernie Tournament this week. The eighth grade squad pulled out hard-fought victories over Advance and Bernie to take home first place. The team consists of: (front row, from left) Amber Spence, Ashlyn Werneck, Julia Hahn, Lauren Thrower, Brittany Brown, (back row, from left) Alyssa Pixley, Delaney Pullen, Kendall Adams, Paige Chasteen, Mary Kate Miller, Madison Bishop, and Matney Davis. (photo submitted by Lori Pullen)

Dexter’s 7th grade volleyball girls participated Saturday in the Poplar Bluff 7th grade tournament. There were 10 teams that competed in pool play to determine seeds for the tournament. In the Dexter pool, the local team beat Clearwater, Sikeston, Caruthersville, and Bernie. Dexter beat Bloomfield in the first tourney game then Poplar Bluff for the championship. Team members include Macy Graves, Ashlynn Wyman, Alexis May, Sydney Rogers, Zoe Schumer, Emily Mouser, Sarah Miller, Emily Page, McKenzie Anthony, Kayla Murdock, Madison McConnell, Janie Lindsey. Congratulations, girls!!! (Photo submitted by Michelle Kirkley)

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.