Head Coach Jimmy Pruett and his Dawson County Tiger baseball team know in order to get deep into the playoffs they must play good baseball teams.

Such was the case last Monday, as the Tigers hosted AAA state runner-up Stephens County. The game marked the second time Dawson had played the Indians in a week. The first time was an 11-0 defeat in Toccoa. This time the Tigers fought hard, but came up on the short end of a 14-3 decision.

The score didn’t indicate how close the game was early. Dawson jumped out to a 3-1 lead after three innings.

Cody Marshall led off the game with a walk and came around to score on a single by Chase Gilreath.

Gilreath finished the game going 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.

Stephens tied the game in the second at 1-1.

Sloppy play by the Tigers allowed the run. Two errors after a leadoff walk contributed to the Indian run.

Dawson took the lead back in the bottom of the third. With two outs, Williams singled down the leftfield line.

Gilreath then doubled to right center, driving in Williams. Indian pitcher Chan

Cash then walked Kaleb Holbrook putting runners on first and second. Kaleb Kicklighter hit a ball to center, which the Indian outfielder dropped, allowing Gilreath to cross home and give Dawson a 3-1 lead.

The Indians retaliated with 13 runs over the next two innings to put the game away after five innings of play.

Ren Buttram started the game for the Tigers. He was relieved by Jacob Barr and Ryan Morawsky.

“If you take away the walks and errors we have a ball game,” Pruett said. “We have to cut down on throwing errors from the outfield if we are going to succeed.”

“I thought we hit the ball well and we weren’t intimidated by them. If we can correct some mistakes we will be OK. It’s still early in the season,” Pruett said.

Dawson rebounded on Thursday to take a 12-9 win over Region 8-AA foe Riverside Military Academy.

The Tigers will host Rabun County Friday. Game time is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

E-mail Pam Jacobs at sports@dawsonnews.com.