Baker’s dozen run total gives Dexter a victory over Foxcroft
By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer
DOVER-FOXCROFT — Thirteen proved to be a lucky number of runs for the Dexter Regional High School softball team as the Tigers won the team’s first road game of 2013 at Foxcroft Academy on April 18, 13-0 in five innings. A dozen hits helped Dexter move to 2-0 after taking the opener at home earlier in the week, 9-1 vs. Central.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
FOOT AND KNEE RACE — Dexter senior Lauren Crane gets to the bag just ahead of Foxcroft freshman Gabie Johnson during the bottom of the second of an April 18 game at Dover-Foxcroft. The Tigers improved to 2-0 on the season after getting a win over the Ponies, who were playing for the first time in the regular season, 13-0. Crane would collect a game-high three RBIs.
Libby Kain
Dexter senior pitcher Libby Kain helped her cause on the mound by driving in senior Anna Ritland, who led the game off with a walk, and then two more runs came home in the first on an RBI single by senior Jordyn Bell and when Bell scored on some alert base running when the Ponies tried to get an out at second base and Bell dashed home on the throw to the top of the diamond.
Trailing 3-0 after the team’s first inning in the field of the season, Foxcroft began the home half of the first with singles by senior Gabrielle Henderson and freshman Avery Carroll. Kain followed by inducing a groundball out and recording the first of her game-high eight strikeouts, but a hit batter loaded the bases with two outs. 
Brittany Adkins
Foxcroft freshman pitcher Brittany Adkins, who was making her first career high school start, came to the plate next, and she made contact off the opposing hurler. Dexter sophomore shortstop Michaela White snagged the line drive in mid-air for the out to end the inning unscathed, as Kain and the rest of the Tiger defense would allow only three more base runners in four ensuing innings of play.
In the second, Dexter nearly tripled its run total with five RBI hits by an equal number of players — in an order of sophomore Abbey Jordan, Ritland, senior Lauren Crane, junior Abbie Melvin and sophomore Peyton Watson — and then added two more in the third for a 10-0 advantage.
Crane doubled to deep centerfield in the top of the third to score Ritland and sophomore Dana Webber, who took to the base paths as a courtesy runner for Tiger senior catcher Harley Ponte. Crane finished the contest with a game-high trio of runs batted in on a 2-for-3 day at the plate.
Dexter would end up getting over the 12-run advantage, needed to end a game after five innings, in the fourth. Melvin, White and Jordan all touched home plate to extend the Tiger lead to 13-0.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
BETWEEN GLOVE AND HAND — Junior shortstop Emily Higgins gets ready to catch a falling popup during the top of the third inning.
With one out in the home half of the fourth, Foxcroft sophomore Rebecca Strout was awarded a trip to first base after getting hit by a pitch — the softball veered out of the strike zone and right into Strout during both of her plate appearances. Kain responded by striking out the next two batters to keep the Pony side of the scoreboard at zero.
The Ponies threatened in the fifth as senior pinch hitter Kaitlyn Weymouth and Carroll both singled — Carroll led Foxcroft with a pair of base hits as she finished 2-for-3. The two each had a stolen base to put the pair of Ponies in scoring position, but Kain’s eighth and final strikeout concluded play and enabled her to improve to 2-0 on the young season.
Before the game and the simultaneous contest between Foxcroft and Dexter on the adjacent baseball diamond, a moment of silence was held for all those affected by the bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line earlier in the week.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
THIRD TO FIRST — Tiger senior Jordyn Bell throws a fielded grounder across the diamond to senior Lauren Crane at first base for the putout.