In the summer of 2012, 17-year-old Ronnie Dawson faced a life-altering decision.
He tore an anterior cruciate knee ligament, and there would be no senior year of football at Licking Heights for a 6-foot-2, 225-pound linebacker. Mid-American Conference teams and the University of Cincinnati had been recruiting him.
Then a job as bat boy for the Clippers directed Dawson toward baseball, a sport that has put him in the national eye as Ohio State’s game-changing left fielder going into a semifinal against Wright State at 2 p.m. today in the NCAA regional at Louisville.
There are many reasons the Buckeyes (43-18) have made it this far, but at the top was Dawson hitting .