Dawson has another "ho-hum" outing as Cougars defeat Bulldogs to extend winning streak

NEWNAN 7 TRI CITIES 2

Brandon Dawson held the Tri Cities Bulldogs in check Friday night as the Newnan Cougars were 7-1 victors at Joe Pope Field.

Anybody attending a Newnan Cougars baseball game may have exclaimed ho-hum at the end of recent games including Friday night.
Brandon Dawson also provided his own version of ho-hum as he allowed one hit while recording 15 strikeouts in the Cougars 7-1 Region 3-AAAAAA win over the Tri-Cities Bulldogs at Joe Pope Field.
The eighth straight win for Newnan improved the overall ledger to 12-3 and the region mark to 5-0 as they will play Tri Cities on Monday in East Point before starting a three-game series against Westlake ahead of the showdown series against East Coweta.
The game didn't start as Dawson had hoped whe he hit Demario Williams to start the game but a caught stealing, his first strikeout and an overrun of first base on a hit allowed him to avoid any trouble.
The Cougars took the lead in the bottom of the second  inning as Sam Buchanan led off by reaching on a walk, taking second on a passed balland after advancing to third on a groundout would come home courtesy of a two-out double by Rodney Tennie.
In the bottom of the third inning, the Cougars added a run as Devin Henry reached on an infield error and in his own ho-hum fashion, stole second and scored on a one out single to left by Derrick Nelson.
Newnan took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the two out single by Nelson,
The Cougars broke open  the game in the bottom of the fifth with four more runs as Jonny Swenson reached on a one out single advanced to second on an error by Bulldogs pitcher Darvelle Booker and scored on a single to right by Dawson.
A dropped flyball in center field forced courtesy runner Justin Groover at second base, but Buchanan manged to score a run on the play.
Reeves, who reached first on the force play, and Tennie who reached on a walk scored the final Newnan runs of the game as a ball Connor Dunn was misplayed by the Tri-Cities right fielder.
Meanwhile, Dawson was retiring Bulldogs along the way through six innings of work with the strikeout ball as the only other outs recorded during his stint were a groundball to Nelson at second base in the top of the second and a first inning caught stealing along with the overrun.
The only way the Bulldogs could find to reach base was to get hit and on four occassions that happened while three others reached on walks.
No problem for Dawson who had nine swinging strikeouts in his six-inning stint before turning the game over to the bullpen.
Blake Payne opened the top of the seventh inning for the Cougars but would struggle as he hit the first batter and after a strikeout walked the next two and tossed a wild pitch that allowed the only run of the game for the Bulldogs.
Newnan head coach Kenny Morris relieved Payne in favor of Zack Crawford who recorded the second out of the inning as an illadvised stolen base attempt was thwarted as catcher Connor Dunn threw a strike to second.
However, the next two batters reached on walks, but they were left stranded as the Bulldogs rally and the game would come to an end on a flyball to Reeves in left field