The Dawson County Tigers varsity baseball team dropped a tough game to Lambert High School last Monday, March 8. The final score was 18-9. However,

Head Coach Jimmy Pruett’s squad bounced back the next day to hand Region 8-AA foe Union County a 9-5 loss.

With the split, Dawson currently stands at 3-2 overall.

The Tigers will play host to Banks County in a doubleheader on Friday and a single game against Fannin County next Tuesday. The Banks County game will begin at 5 p.m., while the game against Fannin County will start at 5:30 p.m.

Dawson held leads of 6-2 and 6-4 before Lambert erupted in the sixth inning, plating nine runs, which gave the Longhorns a comfortable 13-6 lead.

Lambert scored five more runs in the seventh inning to escape with the 18-9 win. It was Lambert’s first win of the season.

“We just let one get away,” said Pruett. “Our relief pitching let us down.”

Dawson scored five runs in a big second inning. The highlight of the inning was a leadoff homer by left fielder Cody Marshall. The Tigers scored four more runs in the inning from hits by Dylan Garrett, Chase Williams and Josh Harper.

The Tigers held a 6-2 lead after four innings of play.

Lambert picked up two runs in the fifth inning to cut into Dawson’s lead. But the Tigers still clung to a 6-4 advantage.

Things changed in the top of the sixth inning.

The Longhorns led off the inning with back-to-back walks off Tigers starter Chase Williams.

Five hits, a hit batter and an error later, Lambert had blown the game wide open scoring nine runs and chasing Williams from the game.

Lambert held a 13-6 lead.

Dawson tried to rally in the bottom of the sixth.

Garrett singled with two outs and scored on a long homer off the bat of teammate Chase Gilreath, which cut the Longhorn lead to 13-8.

The Longhorns answered with five more runs in the top of the seventh inning to put the game away.

On Tuesday against Union County, the Tigers rallied to pick up a big region win, with a final score of 9-5.

The Panthers scored first on a homerun off Tiger pitcher Chase Gilreath.

Gilreath seemed to settle down afterwards and pitched a complete game and picked up his second win of the season.

The senior Tiger recorded 12 strikeouts, while only walking one batter.

He has an amazing 0.84 earned run average this season.

Gilreath also helped the Tigers offensively. He went 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBI’s at the plate.

Dawson answered the Panther homer in the bottom of the first inning. After a one-out walk by Jacob Anglin, Gilreath launched a 2-1 pitch over the fence to give Dawson a 2-1 lead.

The Tigers picked up another run in the second inning.

With two outs, leadoff batter Mitch Starling walked and stole second base.

Anglin lined a single that drove in Starling and gave Dawson a 3-1 lead.

Pruett’s troops then added runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to come away with the win.

Josh Harper highlighted the fourth inning offensively with a double, scoring Chase Williams and Gilreath.

The Tigers added three more runs in the fifth inning on four straight singles by Marshall, Kaleb Kicklighter, Luke Williamson and Starling.

The Tigers picked up a single run in the sixth inning. With one out, Austin Papaik singled and stole second and third base. Williamson then singled driving in Papaik for Dawson’s final run.