DAWSONVILLE — On a cold day in February, Dwayne Sapp walked off the field after his first game as the Dawson County baseball coach -- an ugly 11-6 loss to Gilmer in Ellijay -- and wondered silently to himself what he had gotten himself into.
“A new team, new players, and perhaps my expectations were a little too high,” he recalled. “But we were not good and based on that game I wasn’t really sure what we had. I was thinking it might be a long season.”
But as the season has warmed up, so have the Tigers. Since that opening day debacle, they have gone a blistering 12-1, with their only loss was to White County in a matchup at Coolray Field where Sapp flashed back to his Little League days.
“You don’t get a chance to play on a Minor League field everyday so I told everyone before the game that everyone was going to play,” he said. “We pitched seven guys one inning and got all the position players some action. It was a great day despite the loss.”
The Tigers also find themselves as one of just two undefeated teams in Region 7-AAA. Sapp and the Tigers (12-2, 6-0 Region 7-AAA) will put that streak to the test when they take on Class AAA No. 2-ranked Franklin County (16-0, 9-0) in a three-game series this week. The two teams play one in Carnesville on Tuesday and then head to Dawsonville for a doubleheader on Friday.
“It’s a huge series for both teams,” Sapp said. “Franklin is loaded and it will be a challenge to try and get one game. But, we feel like we’re just now hitting our stride so we’re going to go at them with everything we’ve got.”
Sapp has brought 11-years of success and experience from North Oconee and is already making area teams take notice of the Tigers, who are looking for their first playoff appearance since 2013. Offensively they are averaging just under 9.0 runs per game while the pitching staff is allowing just over 4.0 runs per game.
Sapp knew after the season-opener he was going to have to work on building a winning attitude.
“I had a system in place (at North Oconee) where even the younger players knew what was expected of them before they got to the high school level. I really didn’t have to deal with making kids understand what I wanted. They knew what to do.” Sapp said.
“That was the biggest thing early on, just getting the guys here to trust the system we had and make them believe they could win. That’s always a tough thing to do in a new place.”
It was a 4-3 win over 2015 Class AAA state runner-up Jefferson nine days later that changed Sapp’s opinion.
“(Jefferson) were coming off a trip to the finals and to be able to not only play with them but to beat them showed me, and themselves probably, they had the talent to win if they played together and believed in themselves,” he said.
Senior Tucker Maxwell, a Georgia-signee as an outfielder, has been the catalyst at the plate while sophomore Palmer Sapp has led the pitching staff.
Now, Sapp and the Tigers will begin to see if they are ready to take a very quick and substantial leap onto the big stage against Franklin County. The series winner will hold the tiebreaker with still half of the region schedule to go.
“Again, it’s a big series but we’re also trying not to put everything on these three games. You could get a sweep and then lose out, or vice-versa, and it wouldn’t mean a thing,” Sapp said. “We’re just trying to get better every day. It will be interesting to see how the team reacts with the first big pressure series of the season.
“Are we ready for this yet? It’s hard to say but it’s here right now so hopefully we are. We’ll find out after Friday.”
http://accesswdun.com/article/2016/3/380644/baseball-tigers-hope-new-attitude-will-payoff-in-7-aaa-first-place-showdown-with-lions