The Dawson County High School Varsity Tigers Baseball team had a rough spring break as they were swept in a home-and-home series against West Hall, 10-3 and 18-8.
Dawson County (10-12) got off to a slow start in the first game at West Hall April 2 and couldn’t recover. The Spartans (16-4) scored six runs in the first two innings to take a 6-0 lead.
The Tigers were able to settle things down in the middle innings as starting pitcher Cameron Moore threw three scoreless innings, but the Tigers were unable to put any runs on the board over that stretch and the game remained 6-0 after five innings.
In the top of the sixth, senior Connor Bearden got the Tigers on the board with a three-run homerun, but that was all Dawson County could muster on the road as the Spartans added four more runs in the bottom half of the sixth inning to take Game 1, 10-3.
Game Two didn’t start off much better for the Tigers as West Hall was able to put up four runs in the top of the first inning, including a three-run homerun, on April 4 at Dawson County.
This time around the Tigers were able to answer West Hall’s strong start with two-runs of their own in the bottom of the first inning, however, the Spartans were able to score six runs over the next two innings to effectively put the game out of reach with a 10-3 score after three innings.
Dawson County scored five more runs led by Connor Bearden’s team-high three RBIs, but the pitching struggles continued for the Tigers as they have all season.
Despite an impressive showing by the Dawson County pitching staff last week against Lumpkin County, the Tigers couldn’t keep the Spartans off the scoreboard as West Hall scored six runs in the top of the sixth to end the game 18-8 via the mercy rule.
The good news for the Tigers is they didn’t lose any ground in the region race with losses to the out-of-region Spartans. In fact, due to North Hall’s sweep over East Hall last week, the Tigers control their postseason destiny.
A sweep over East Hall this week would clinch a playoff berth for the Tigers. It’ll be tough for the Tigers, however, if they drop even a single game to the Vikings as the Vikings’ next opponent is last-place Union County, while the Tigers close their season with first-place North Hall, a team undefeated in region play.