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- Updated: August 9, 2016
Life getting back to normal for Oxford’s Campbell after helping Team USA take silver in Mexico
Oxford’s Dawson Campbell wears his Team USA jersey and the silver medal he helped it win in the 12U Pan American Championships in Mexico. (Photos courtesy of Keith Campbell)
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
Dawson Campbell starts the seventh grade at Oxford Middle School tomorrow and, boy, will he have stories to tell.
He just spent the last 12 days in California and Mexico as part of the USA Baseball 12U National Team playing in the Pan Am “A” Championships that he called the “greatest baseball experience” of his young life.
The young Americans went 7-2 in the tournament and brought home the silver medal. Their only two losses were to host Mexico in their last two games of the event.
“It truly was a great experience,” Campbell said Tuesday decompressing from the trip in the comfort of his home. “I wasn’t really sure if I was going to make the team, but once I did, I was extremely excited because I got to go out of the country and represent my country. Playing with all those players on the USA National Team and all the other teams around the world … they’re all great baseball players and I got to play with and against them.”
Campbell played in seven of the games, mainly in the outfield. He did pitch twice, working the final two innings to complete a no-hitter against Brazil and starting the first game against a “very, very good” Mexico team in front of some 4,000.
He went 7-for-9 with six runs and six RBIs at the plate. He gave up four hits and struck out three in his three-plus innings on the mound. He threw 14 pitches – 12 for strikes – against Brazil, but was charged with six runs in his Mexico start.
Before the two Mexico games, Team USA outscored its opponents 136-21. Only one of those games went past the fifth.
“I think the coaches definitely put me in a good situation and I think that really helped me,” Campbell said. “Against Mexico I did well, but I let a few balls get away from me and they squared them up pretty well and hit some good.”
Before the Team USA experience, the biggest thing he had done in his baseball life was playing on Oxford’s Dixie Youth AA State and World Series team his father Keith helped coach when he was 8.
Going forward, he will be working towards making the USA Baseball 15U and 18U teams. This year’s 15U team that just won bronze at the World Cup in Japan had several players from the team that won gold as 12Us.
Campbell will still be in high school when baseball returns to the Olympics in 2020, but the 2024 Games are “one thing I’m definitely working for.”
But for now, he goes back to being a regular middle-school student, and that all starts tomorrow.
He’ll be easy to spot. He’ll be the one wearing the Team USA jersey and stirrup socks.
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