The Dexter Tigers baseball team had so much fun playing a home playoff game last season, they are hoping to do it again. The fifth seeded Tigers hosted ninth seeded Fort Kent in a class C semifinal game, the game ended with a Dexter 6-4 win on a Brayden Miller walk-off homer. The season ended in a 2-1 loss to Orono in the regional championship game at Mansfield stadium.
“Coming into 2018 our goal is to play home play-off games. Our kids had a chance to experience the great crowd we had last season vs Ft Kent and are excited to have that feeling again. We lost two seniors from 2017 in Brayden Miller and Zach White. While we know those two young men can’t be replaced we are hoping that their leadership skills they had will carry over to our veteran guys this year.”Dexter coach Chad Graffam said. “Brayden (Miller) and Zach (White) were tremendous leaders. We have 17 kids out this year with several returning starters. We will be lead by Jacob Bickford, Matt Hanscome, Matt Richards, Tyler Beem and Tylor Handy, all returning starters. Junior Trever Richards and younger brother Nathan will also be returning to build on their success they had a year ago.”
The loss to eventual state champion Orono, wasn’t the way the Tigers wanted to end the season. They hope the experience they got can carry over to this season, that is scheduled to start on April 17th at Central. The schedule for the season opener will depend on field conditions and weather. All teams in the area have had a difficult time getting practice time outside this spring.
“As we know it wasn’t the outcome we were after but I believe we took many positives from that game and we are hoping they carry over to 2018,”Graffam said. “As always getting outside is never easy this time of year but we make no excuses because we are all dealing with those issues. When the 17th of April comes around it’s all real and excuses end up becoming losses.”
Graffam has a deep team and he will need contributions from a pair of sophomores for the Tigers to match or surpass the success the 2017 team had.
“Other players to see plenty of time are sophomores Gage Stone and Logan Perkins. They will be very big pieces if we are to be successful in being contenders. We look to be better offensively than we were a year ago and hope that our pitching staff competes day in and day out, if this happens we will have the opportunity to win games and battle the other quality teams in our league,”Graffam said. “Our league is tough with quality teams everyday. GSA, Bucksport , Mattanawcook , Orono, Central, PCHS and Penquis are all very good. Foxcroft is our Class B opponent and as we know are talented and well coached. Again as stated last season there are no easy games on our schedule. Health and luck will be important to all in getting to the end. We will see when the dust settles.”
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