The Central Red Devils baseball team will wear these uniforms on Tuesday during their home game against Bucksport to honor Katie Fugel.
DEXTER—- The Central Red Devils recorded 20 hits in an 18-3 victory over Dexter on Friday afternoon. Caleb Shaw led the hit parade with four, while Zach Randall, Andrew Speed, and Grant Poulin pounded out three hits each.
The Red Devils (5-5) started quickly and didn’t stop all afternoon, Dakota Miller got things started with a double to deep right center, Speed drove him home when he hit a double to the center field fence. Ethan Mailman hit a single to score Speed, while Shaw ripped a single to score Mailman and give Central a 4-0 lead before they had to play defense.
“It was great to get everyone going. actually just switched Dakota Miller to the lead off spot. He is a great contact hitter with some speed,”Central coach Pete Speed said. “So it payed off. It’s always good when the lead off guy does his job. Gets the rest of the boys going.”
When the Red Devils did get on the field to play defense, Randall took things into his own hands. Randall worked around a leadoff double and a first and third one out jam in the bottom of the first inning. He struck out Cameron Pratt and Zach White to finish off the inning. Randall allowed three runs (one earned) on four hits and four walks, while striking out 12 in six innings.
“Zach (Randall) was great tonight. Very key in keeping them (Dexter) from scoring early and giving us the chance to get right back out there and hit,” coach Speed said. “Through the first few innings, he (Randall) really had them off balance and mixed it up really well.”
The Red Devils scored five runs in the second inning sparked by an Andrew Speed two run triple. They scored one run in the third inning, Micah Ward hit a two run double in the fourth. Central held a 12-0 lead going to the bottom of the fifth inning. Dexter (4-5) scored three runs to avoid ending the game on a mercy rule. Brayden Miller ripped a run scoring double, while Matt Richards also had a run scoring single. Miller had two doubles off Randall. The Red Devils put the game away with six runs in the seventh inning.
Andrew Speed reached base five times and finished with three runs scored and four RBI. Miller, Mailman, and Randall each recorded two runs scored and two RBI. Ward had three RBI, Poulin scored two runs and had one RBI,while Shaw scored three runs, stole three bases, and pitched a scoreless seventh inning.
The Central community has had a very emotional week. Katie Fugel suffered a cardiac event on Monday afternoon and collapsed during a warmup run for track practice. The 12-year-old Fugel died Tuesday at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
Dexter wore purple warmups in honor of Fugel and to support their opponent. Dexter coach Chad Graffam told Central coach Speed during pregame, “we are all one big community, looking out for each other.”
“It was great show of sportsmanship on Dexters part to bring out the purple in warmups. Very classy and it meant a lot to us,”Speed said. “I told Chad (Graffam) it was awesome to see that when we pulled up in the bus, all the boys were like- wow that’s pretty cool. It makes the game seem pretty small when something like this happens right in your back yard.”
The Red Devils are wearing the shirts with Fugel’s name on the back during their home game against Bucksport on Tuesday.
