Edwards rolling out young Dexter arms, veteran Carrier through solid start

Second-year Dexter High School baseball coach Steve Edwards has already thrown six different arms in the Bearcats’ initial five games this spring, and that number may grow as the spring continues.

“We’ve got 10 or 11 guys who can throw,” Edwards said recently. “We’re not afraid to put a different guy on the bump.”

Edwards has thrown freshman Trey Pedigo for five innings this spring while the only senior on the Bearcat roster (Ryan Young) has worked three innings.

Sophomore Gibson Booker has thrown a couple of innings while freshman Justus Lovelady looked very solid in a recent rout of New Madrid County Central through four innings, a game in which sophomore Houston Neely closed the final inning.

“Right now,” Edwards said, “we are kind of mixing our lineups a little bit.”

The Bearcats (2-3) will visit East Carter (6-2) today at 4:30 p.m. and there is a good chance that Edwards will go with his ace, who has been junior Beau Carrier.

“Beau just works,” Edwards said recently. “He’s a student of the game. He is always picking our brains as coaches and talking about the game.

“He just works on his craft.”

Carrier has started three games and worked six innings in each start.

To open the season, Carrier threw a one-hitter with no runs allowed against Malden while striking out an astonishing 16 Green Wave batters.

He followed that outing up with a two-hitter against Class 4 No. 2-ranked Kennett, as he allowed four earned runs, walked four, and struck out two.

In his most recent outing, Carrier gave up eight hits in a loss to Bernie, but he allowed just one earned run, no walks, and struck out six Mule hitters.

“Beau did well on the bump,” Edwards said following that game. “He stayed in his pitch count like we knew that he would. He threw around the plate. He had strikes with his curveball, which looked good, and his breaking ball.

“He even threw a knuckleball in there and it looked good.”

It’s early, but the Dexter defense and pitching are limiting opponents to fewer than four runs per game, which is the lowest figure that the program has achieved in well over 15 seasons.

“We’re throwing strikes,” Edwards said of his young arms, “and they are not afraid of the moment.

“That is a great thing. Until we run up against a team that is hitting home run after home run, we’re going to keep filling it up, and that is exciting.”