Hawk Swoops Into The Cove
Dawson was in town as part of a meet-and-greet promotion through the South Bend Silver Hawks, and spend a good part of the early afternoon meeting fans. Still the stone-faced player he was known to be for much of his career, Dawson shook hands and signed autographs for the partisan Cubs masses during a luncheon and later at the team’s store beyond the left field concourse.
Dawson, while also a part of history in Montreal where he began his career, as well as stops in Boston and Florida to end his career, is still beloved by Cubs Nation. The Hawk, as he was known throughout his career, was elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010. He was the Rookie of the Year in 1977 and an MVP for the Cubs in 1987, where he led the league with 49 home runs and 137 RBIs for a last-place team. Dawson was also an eight-time All-Star, eight-time Golden Glove winner, four-time Silver Slugger, and wrapped up his career with 2,774 hits, 438 home runs, 1,591 RBIs and 314 stolen bases.
While Dawson was garnering expected attention in the team shop, the Silver Hawks found themselves in a slugfest with the Lake County Captains. The two teams combined for 25 hits and there were runs scored in every inning but the third and ninth of a Lake County 10-6 win.
Three Captains had three hits, but the biggest hit of the game came in the form of a Jake Lowery three-run homer in the fifth inning that gave Lake County a 6-3 lead. The Captains would tack on three more runs in the sixth inning and an insurance run in the seventh.
Roidany Aguila was three-for-three with two RBIs for South Bend, while teammate Matt Helm added two doubles and scored twice. The Silver Hawks loaded the bases in the ninth, but could not scratch a run across against reliever Enosil Tejada.
Elvis Araujo (6-9) earned the win, laboring through five innings but allowed just three runs. Andrew Barbosa (2-3) took the loss, giving up seven hits and six runs in five innings.