Ronnie Dawson has come a long way since he was a rising star at Licking Heights High School in Pataskala, Ohio.

At the age of 25, Dawson is now officially a big leaguer after being drafted out of Ohio State in 2016.

Wednesday his day began in Corpus Christi at the Astros alternate training site and by mid-day, after a pre-game batting practice in the cages, he got the news he was headed to Houston to join the Astros. There would be no game against the Rangers squad and instead, he was headed to Houston.

“That’s the best hit I ever got,” Dawson said while describing his 7th inning single. “All the hard work from year’s past and all the time in the minor leagues asking yourself will you ever get a chance to be up there … All those thoughts and feelings kind of just walked away and I said it was time to play and I got the first one out of the way.”

Dawson is an outfielder but was penciled into the lineup by Dusty Baker as the designated hitter against the Tigers.

“They said we’re going up and my fiance’ said I was in the lineup and that was exciting,” said Dawson. “It was time to get there from Corpus and it was really surreal. I was really nervous. Hopefully, I played it off where it didn’t look like I was nervous.”

“It’s a different game with fans and different team pitching so it was cool to see the Tigers and represent and have the ‘H’ on me and play in front of people. I haven’t played a game in two years and in front of this many fans, for me, that’s a lot. I just go with that energy.”

Dawson got the ball after his first hit and told us on the zoom call he is giving that baseball to his parents.

Source: www.click2houston.com