Dexter pitchers lead solid all-around performance in 3-1 win over NMCC

Dexter's Brock Wyman pitches to New Madrid County Central's Clay Cope during the fourth inning Saturday, March 27, 2021, at East Park in Dexter. Wyman pitched four scoreless innings in Dexter's 3-1 victory.

DEXTER STATESMAN/Kyle Smith

DEXTER — The Dexter baseball team excelled in all three areas of the sport.

The Bearcats received strong pitching from Brock Wyman and Peyton Driskill, played solid defense and hit the ball hard en route to a 3-1 SEMO Conference victory over New Madrid County Central on Saturday at East Park.

“All in all, I thought we played a pretty solid game,” Dexter coach Drew Pixley said. “We hit the ball like I was hoping we would. We just hit it right at people. I can't fault the guys for that. It happens. It's baseball.”

Wyman pitched four scoreless innings to secure the victory. The sophomore right-hander pitched out bases-loaded jams in the second and third innings and struck out Jace Robison after Carson Pfeffer singled with two outs in the fourth.

“Brock did a great job for us,” Pixley said. “I would have kept going with him if I was more comfortable with his pitch count. He was already up above 70. At that point and this early in the season, we really have to watch that.”

Wyman struck out four and walked three while allowing four hits.

“He’s got two different curveballs — one he throws a little bit softer and gets a bigger break and one he throws a little bit harder. It's a little bit more sharp,” Pixley said. “The key with him though is that he's able to throw strikes. When you’re able to throw for strikes, you get swings on those pitches. Every single one of our pitchers throws off-speed pitches, but the ones that succeed are the ones that can throw it for strikes.”

Driskill pitched out of trouble in the seventh inning to secure the save. The senior righty allowed one run on three hits with three strikeouts and no walks in three innings.

Trailing 3-0, the Eagles (0-3, 0-1 SEMO) rallied in the seventh.

Pfeffer and Robinson opened the inning with back-to-back singles to left field.

Driskill struck out Landon McDaniel for the first out, but Matt Riley doubled to left-center, driving home Pfeffer. Driskill induced a fly ball by John Michael Stanley. Shortstop Camden Riley backpedaled to make the catch in shallow center field. After he made the catch, Robinson took off from third and Riley threw him out at the plate, despite a creative slide to the inside by Robinson.

“We had a little miscommunication,” NMCC coach Joe McClarty said. “We wanted to draw a throw, and he didn't hear me say stop. He took off but I’ve got to get a little louder in that situation. Definitely can't blame him, he hustled. He almost made a great slide and got around the tag.”

Pixley thought Riley’s play was one of many made by the Bearcats.

“I thought we played great defense all around,” Pixley said. “Camden did make a good play right there, but Riley (Slusher) had a couple good plays at first. (Cole) Nichols had a couple good plays at third. We had a couple good routes in the outfield tracking down balls.”

The Bearcats (1-3, 1-1) took advantage of a wild outing by Riley in the first inning. The starter struck four batters and walked another, while allowing three runs on only one hit. He retired only one batter after he fielded a grounder back to the mound by Slusher and threw home to force out Nichols.

Driskill singled to center field to open the inning and Nichols drew a walk. Kaeden Kennedy and Riley were hit by pitches, with a run scoring on Riley’s plate appearance.

After the force out, Josh Kaufman and Adam Saylors were struck by pitches with a run scoring each time.

However, the Bearcats didn’t reach base the rest of the afternoon.

Nate Pipkin relieved Riley and struck out Reece Justice and Braxton Greenfield to end the inning.

“Matt, first inning there, he just couldn't find anything,” McClarty said. “He's got something going on with his mechanics we need to take look at. Matt’s one of our better pitchers. He's gonna bounce back from that.”

Pipkin retired the final 17 batters of the game to give the Eagles a chance. The right-hander struck out eight over 5 2/3 innings.

“He was nails,” McClarty said. “Nate’s a junior. First time he’s thrown in a varsity contest since he was a freshman, so he did extremely well. He’s probably one of our better strike throwers.”

The Eagles stranded nine baserunners in the loss.

“We left the bases loaded twice. We stranded a lot of runners today,” McClarty said. “We’ve got to hit better with runners on base. We had a lot of popups today (and) a lot of anxiousness at the plate. We'll work on that stuff and they'll be better.”

Pfeffer and Riley finished with two hits apiece to lead the Eagles. Driskill had Dexter’s only hit.