File:Coach Roger Dawson from the Frederick News Post, May 3, 2018.jpg

Brunswick High School Baseball, 2018

Dawson nets 350th win for Railroaders

   By Joe Ferraro jferraro@newspost.com 5 hrs ago 0 

Something about coming out on the winning end of one-run baseball games resonates with Brunswick coach Roger Dawson.

“We’re playing some tight games,” Dawson said Wednesday at Brunswick. “And you need that going into the playoffs. You’ve got to be battle-tested.”

Pitcher Brenden Johnson stood out in two of those tight games — 3-2 wins over prominent Frederick County teams Catoctin and Walkersville — earlier in the season. Thanks to Johnson and an offense that came to life, Brunswick didn’t need to sweat out a victory on Wednesday, beating Tuscarora 11-1 in a game that ended in the bottom of the sixth inning. Lopsided as it may have been, it became apparent that this victory also resonated with Dawson.

Dawson sat in his office in the team’s clubhouse, and two baseballs signed by each member of the Railroaders sat on his desk. One will likely sit in a school trophy case while the other will become a piece of Dawson’s personal collection. The occasion: Dawson had just recorded his 350th career victory as the Railroaders’ head coach.

Shortly after Brunswick’s Matt Walker hit his second two-run homer of the game, a towering two-run shot to left that invoked the 10-run rule in the sixth inning, Brunswick athletic director Jon Jarrett drove a golf cart onto the field and parked it next to the Railroaders dugout. A large white sign, featuring the number 350 in Brunswick garnet, hung on the right side of the cart, and news of Dawson recording his milestone win blared over the public address system. Dawson received hugs from his assistant coaches and high-fives from each of his players before the team gathered in front of the cart to take pictures.

“It’s not so much what the accomplishment was for me, it’s the accomplishment in the program, and I think our kids really buy into the pride of our program,” Dawson said of his players congratulating him.

His players claim Dawson has much to do with that pride, saying he demands much of them while at the same time showing them he genuinely cares about them.

“Somebody’s got to be the boss, and that’s me,” Dawson said. “We’re going to play fundamental baseball, and sometimes that means I’ve got to jump your butt a little bit. But all these kids know that I love ‘em.”

In his 26th season as the Railroaders’ varsity coach, Dawson sports a 350-202 mark. He coached the team to state titles in 1996, 2015 and 2016.

“He’s a legend at Brunswick, honestly,” Walker said. “Everybody knows about him, everybody looks up to him. He leads us in various ways — with class and with respect.”

Recently, Dawson had stressed the importance of Walker getting his front foot down just before opposing pitchers deliver the ball. Doing so, Dawson said, brings out the power in Walker, who said he often sprayed ground balls to the left side of the infield when he failed to get his front foot down early enough.

“Today was the day I kept my front foot down,” said Walker, who hit his other home run in the third inning.

Dawson said Walker and others on the team have sprinkled in offensive contributions here and there throughout the season but have rarely bunched them together in single games. That happened on Wednesday, with Brunswick’s Matt Boyer highlighting a three-run first inning with a two-run double and George Auel sparking a four-run fourth with a bases-clearing double.

An improvement in weather conditions may have played a role in the Railroaders (9-7) rebounding from a 2-5 start to win seven of their past nine games.

“I don’t want to say my ballclub’s a fair-weather ballclub, but we seem to play a lot better in warmer weather,” Dawson said.

On the mound, Johnson and Bryson Shaffer have formed a solid 1-2 punch at the top of Brunswick’s rotation. Shaffer threw six shutout innings in his last start while Johnson has pitched complete games in his past three outings.

Against the Titans (5-10), Johnson was at his best with runners on base, stranding five in scoring position. With runners on second and third and nobody out in the third, he struck out two batters before retiring Nick Edge on a lineout to left.

Tuscarora scored its lone run in the second, getting a nice piece of hitting from Tyler Edwards, who served a low-and-outside pitch from Johnson into right-center for a two-out RBI single.

“The curveball was a big help today, and definitely pinpointing my fastball on either side of the plate,” Johnson said.