This is one in a series of articles highlighting some of the best players in the area heading into the 2022 high school baseball season.
CLARION, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Dawson Smail already has plenty of options.
Only a sophomore, he has major Division I colleges like Xavier, Duke, West Virginia and Indiana clamoring for his baseball services in the future.
(Above photo by Diane Lutz)
“I have it narrowed down to those schools,” Smail said. “It feels pretty good.”
Smail, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound shortstop at Clarion Area High School, is an attractive commodity because of his compact and smooth left-handed swing, soft hands on defense and speed on the bases.
In his debut season with the Bobcats last year, he batted .400 with 13 doubles, two triples, 19 RBI and 28 runs scored out of the leadoff spot.
Perhaps most impressive was his eye and patience at the plate. He drew 13 walks and struck out just nine times in 81 plate appearances.
“Four of those strikeouts came in one game,” Smail said. “(A-C Valley left-hander Broc Weigle) threw me nothing but curveballs low and away. It was just a bad day.”
Those have been few and far between.
He hopes for many more good days this season.
Smail has some lofty goals for himself and his team this spring.
“There’s always room to improve,” he said. “I just have to be consistent. I’m pushing for a .500 average this year. And I know I’m only a sophomore, but I set a goal back on New Year’s to be league MVP. That’s very doable, I think.”
Smail may be pitched to more carefully this season.
But Smail has a simple approach at the plate during the high school season after playing for an elite travel team out of New Jersey, Artillery, which features players from all over the country. There he routinely sees superior pitching with fastballs clocked in the 90s.
He has to adjust when it comes to high school season.
He sees far more breaking pitches and very few hard throwers at the high school level.
“The first pitch of a game is typically right in the middle of the strike zone,” Smail said. “There’s lots of statistics on this, even in the MLB.. Pitchers want to get that first-pitch strike to start a game and I try to pounce on that.
“One of my main strengths as a hitter is when a pitcher does get two strikes on me, I fight and fight and fight, foul off everything, forcing them to throw me a pitch they don’t want to,” he added. “That’s when I feel confident I can smash it anywhere in the park.”
Smail, though, is perfectly content to take walks. That’s his role, after all, as a leadoff hitter.
Get on base.
When he does, he can turn those walks into doubles. Smail swiped 14 bases last season.
Clarion went 12-8 last year, but has a wealth of talent returning, especially on the mound.
Hard-throwing southpaw Chase Kriebel is finally back after missing his sophomore year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and his junior year because of injury.
As a freshman, he was 4-0 with a 0.32 ERA with 97 strikeouts in just 43 1/3 innings.
Smail said he is looking better than ever.
“It’s really exciting,” he said. “We have some good kids and I think we can have a really good season.”
