Rhythmic pings of metal meeting leather inside the batting cages adjacent to Burks Field are music to Kevin Dawkins’ ears, and they can mean only one thing: another season on the horizon for the sixth-year head coach of the Social Circle High School baseball team.
Emboldened by four straight appearances in the Sweet 16, including a historic Final Four run in 2022, Dawkins and his Redskins opened their latest campaign on Tuesday with a 8-0 win over longtime rival Commerce. Social Circle finished with a 21-14 record a season ago and enters 2025 as one of the Top 10 teams in the state at the Class A level. The Redskins are one of the favorites to win the newly formed Region 4-A, which includes Jasper County, Lamar County and Putnam County.
“It would mean a lot to our guys to win a region championship,” Dawkins said. “The past couple of years, we’ve finished just short of a region championship, and the sting of missing out on those has been felt by the program. I think it would be a source of pride for our guys to be able to go out and claim a region championship.”
A deep and experienced pitching staff figures to provide the foundation for whatever success Social Circle enjoys across the next three months. Returning senior starters Caden Richardson and Gehrig Knapp are bolstered by the arrival of senior transfer Cooper Duncan, who earned Region 3-AAAAAA “Pitcher of the Year” honors with Alcovy in 2024. Well established as the staff ace, Richardson compiled a 9-4 record with a team-best 2.66 earned run average as a junior.
“Anytime you can have three veteran guys that you trust to take the mound and win a game for you, it does a lot for the confidence in your team,” Dawkins said. “Having three guys like we do is huge at any level. It gives you the chance every night to go out and be put in a position to win a game. It pays even bigger dividends when you get to the playoffs, where you have three-game series and you know that you have a chance to win and advance no matter who’s taking the mound for you.”
Junior Brayden Allen expects to assume a high-leverage relief role, and a strong sophomore class—Garrett Brooks, Jake Frachiseur, Zach Smallwood and Ian Miller—should provide Dawkins with some additional depth on the mound, along with hard-throwing senior Jayden Smith. Consider it an embarrassment of riches, at least on paper.
“Having the depth of pitching that we do is always important for us,” Dawkins said. “It allows us to rest guys throughout the season or at least limit their pitch counts early on so that they can go deeper into games as we get later in the season. We have a good mixture of veteran pitching and younger guys who are super talented and are going to be relied upon to go out and win or save a game for us.”
Defense could be another strength for the Redskins, as they return their entire starting outfield: Jake Blankenship in left, Barrett Bramlett in center and a slimmed-down, howitzer-armed Lucas Langley in right. The sure-handed Allen anchors the infield at third base, with Luke Cross holding down the fort at first and Griffin Conn handling a majority of the catching duties. However, Social Circle must replace its entire middle infield due to the graduations of shortstop Landon Davis and second baseman Landon Harpe.
“Anytime you lose two starters up the middle, it’s going to be a huge loss, but I feel like the guys that we’re going to replace them with are more than capable of filling those spots,” Dawkins said. “I think that’s a testament to the work the two Landons put in during their time here. They made sure to invest in the younger guys and teach them along the way, so that when it was their time, they would be ready to come out and compete.”
From an offensive standpoint, Dawkins touts the options he has at his disposal. Allen, Langley, Richardson, Cross and Conn are likely to comprise the heart of the lineup in one form or another, with sophomore Cooper Davis perhaps forcing his way into the conversation.
“I think we’re much deeper this year, top to bottom,” Dawkins said. “I think at times last year we struggled because we were so young and didn’t have a lot of experience. A year later, we have a much more experienced lineup that’s capable of producing positive results on a game-to-game basis.”
Social Circle makes its home debut against Eastside on Feb. 13. Given the program’s track record and talent level, expectations are high.
“I told our guys that their goal from the very beginning was to win a region championship and a state championship,” Dawkins said. “I think anytime you don’t set your goals at the very top you’re selling yourself short. I think this team has the talent to compete with some of the best in this state. We have a tradition of making deep playoff runs, and this year is no exception.”
