DEXTER— Jacob Bickford is expected to be one of the top three in the Dexter Tigers pitching rotation this season. On Saturday morning, Bickford turned in a solid performance in a final tune-up for the regular season.
Bickford struck out eight of the first nine batters he faced and finished with nine strikeouts in 3.1 innings in leading the Tigers to a 12-3 victory over the Nokomis junior varsity team in a preseason game.
“Jake (Bickford) will be one of our top three. He will throw strikes and work on a couple secondary pitches,”Dexter coach Chad Graffam said. “If he can get a couple of those down he will be pretty competitive.”
The Tigers scored three runs in the first inning. They took advantage of two walks, hit batter, and wild pitch. They added one run in the second inning on a run scoring hit from Zach White. Dexter put the game away with six runs in the third inning, Cameron Pratt smacked a double that scored two runs, while White had another run scoring single. The Tigers scored two more in the fifth inning as they took advantage of two errors, and Brayden Miller had a RBI single.
Graffam and the Tigers took advantage of the new Maine Principals’ Association rule that allowed each team to bring more pitchers in at the pitchers/catchers start date, a week before the start date of full practice.
“With the new pitching rule, I brought everyone in. We went through everybody throwing,”Graffam said. “We are not going to be dominant, but I bet I have about 10 guys that can throw strikes, I am not going to have anyone that is going to be lights out, but we will be competitive.”
Dexter has a very young team that will jump into a tough schedule right away. They will host Foxcroft on Tuesday, before playing road games against Central and Bucksport on Thursday and Saturday.
“It has been going very good. I have a group of guys. We have four seniors, two juniors, the rest are freshmen and sophomores. They are a great bunch of guys that work hard and listen,”Graffam said. “If we go out and give them just 21 outs, make the plays we are supposed to make, and a few great plays, we may be fine.”
White led the offense from the lead off spot on Saturday with two hits, three runs scored, and two RBI. Pratt and Kyle Emerson also had two hits each. Bickford allowed two runs on three hits, he didn’t issue a walk. Freshman Trevor Richards pitched two perfect innings of relief, striking out one.
