Sometimes, perspective helps. Sometimes, it helps ease the pain or at least helps explain things. But perspective probably isn’t easing the pain for the Dexter baseball team. Portage Northern knocked out Dexter from the Division 1 baseball playoffs on Wednesday in a Regional semifinal at Mattawan with an impressive 10-0 win that only went six innings.
The loss ended a strong season for the Dreadnaughts. Dexter, led by a solid core of seniors, were competitive in the always tough SEC and won their first District title in seven years with a 9-5 win over rival Pinckney on Monday at U-M’s Ray Fischer stadium. So, the Dreads had a lot to be proud of this season.
And so does Portage Northern. The Huskies, currently ranked second in the state, improved to 35-7 on the season. They won their sixth District title in seven years in rather easy fashion – outscoring their opponents 35-3 in the three games. So, perspective.
The Huskies set the tone early against the Dreadnaughts, scoring four runs in the top of the first. They added four more runs in the fourth and then added a run in the fifth and sixth innings. Portage Northern, which came into the game hitting .371 as a team, pounded out 13 hits against Dexter.
The Huskies also have some quality pitchers. They brought a team ERA of 2.13, with 233 strikeouts in 250 innings into Regionals and held Dexter to five hits.
David Kreske went 2-for-3 for Dexter. Kevin DeVoogd, Joe Horne and Nathaniel Fiegel had hits for the Dreads.
