GC Softball: Josh Jones has Dawson girls rolling

DAWSON -- Josh Jones led Mildred to one of its best seasons in the program's history and was one of the Golden Circle's Coaches of the Year last year.

Now Jones is at Dawson and he has the Lady Bulldogs on a roll. His new team won twice this week and has a seven-game winning streak. The Lady Dawgs have won 14 games and are 4-0 in the district race.

The Streak started March 2 with a 10-1 victory over Palestine Westwood. The Dawson girls beat Madisonville the next day 10-8 and then hammered Centerville 18-0 and Coolidge 17-0 in the district opener. They edged Italy 4-3 last Friday and knocked off Abbott 15-5 and Wortham 12-6 this week.

The Lady Dawgs are hitting .330 as a team with 19 doubles, 14 triples, including four in a win against Wortham, and five home runs.

Tatum Hill leads Dawson with a .431 batting average while scoring 18  runs and driving in 15 more. 

Kaylee Payne is having a monster season. She's hitting .393 with a homer, driving in 22 runs while scoring a team-leading 25 runs. Ashlyn Matthews is next, hitting .345 with a home run and scoring 13 runs.

Kaylee Payne is tearing the ball and the bases up, hitting .340 with 18 hits, including seven extra-base hits -- five doubles, a triple and a homer.

Jady Miller is the ace of the staff, and she is also having a big year at the plate, hitting .321 while scoring 22 runs and driving in 14 more.

The Lady Bulldogs had to come back to beat Abbott 15-5 on Monday this week. Hill drove in two runs in the first inning with a double, but Abbott came back to take a 4-2 lead.

It didn't last long.

Matthews hit a sac fly and Emily Barnett had an RBI single to knot the score at 4-4, and Miller came through with a bases-loaded double, driving in three runs to give Dawson a 7-4 lead.

Barnett went 3-for-4 scoring two runs and driving in three and Payne went 3-for-4 and scored twice. Hill went 3-for-5 and drove in three runs and Miller went 3-for-4, scored twice and drove in three runs.

On Tuesday the Lady Dawgs brought out their triple bats.

Payne went 3-for-4 and belted two triples, scoring three runs and driving in three runs (guess 3 was her magic number -- three hits, three runs, three RBIs and two 3-baggers).

Barnett went 3-for-3 with a triple, scored three runs and drove in a run, and Brooke Martinez went 1-for-3 with a triple, scoring a run and driving in two more.

Hill, Marberry and Rylie Hawkins all had RBI singles and Miller went the distance to get the win on the mound.

Dawson plays xxxx.