HANCEVILLE – Like any successful athlete, Wallace State baseball sophomore Stephen Dobbs is eager and willing to seek advice or draw inspiration from family members or coaches in order to become a better player.
Dobbs doesn’t have to go far down the family tree to find someone who has experienced success and a lot of high-pressure situations. Dobbs’ first cousin is Joshua Dobbs, the University of Tennessee’s senior starting quarterback who has the Volunteers’ program on the rise and continued to climb the school’s statistical leaderboard last season.
“Josh and I text a couple of times a week. He’s always sending me encouraging texts, asking me how things are going with our team and making sure we are prepared to play. Josh is a great inspiration and a great athlete. He wants to see me succeed,” said Stephen Dobbs, a Hoover graduate who plays both catcher and third base for Wallace State. “Josh is the face of the Tennessee campus right now. He plays one of the most important positions on the field and is following the footsteps of many great players there.”
Stephen Dobbs has been one of Wallace State’s most consistent hitters since last postseason when he made the Alabama Community College Conference (ACCC)/Region 22 all-tournament team and helped the Lions finish conference runner-up for the second time in four seasons. Up until last postseason, Dobbs struggled at the plate during his freshman campaign.
“Once the conference tournament begins, it’s a new day and a new start. You automatically turn it up a notch and try to keep the momentum in your dugout. Something clicked for me and for the team last year, and it made me want to grow even more in my baseball knowledge. I truly became a student of the game in the offseason,” Dobbs said.
Dobbs enters this weekend’s ACCC tournament in Ozark with a team-high .365 average, three homers and 41 RBIs. He’s also fifth in the conference with 15 doubles.
Dobbs and the Lions, the ACCC North Division’s fourth seed, play Faulkner State at 12:30 p.m. Friday in a first-round tournament game. Wallace State is making its 25th postseason appearance in 27 seasons under coach Randy Putman.
Dobbs said he spent hours upon hours in the offseason, studying his swing through film and discussing the mental aspect of competition with Joshua Dobbs.
If one watches a Tennessee football game on television in the fall, Joshua Dobbs’ career goals off the field are bound to be discussed during the broadcast.
Joshua Dobbs is an aerospace engineer major, and Stephen Dobbs said his cousin is spending the first portion of the summer in Canada, interning with an aerospace company.
Stephen and Josh’s fathers are brothers.
“People are intrigued to know how smart Joshua is when they find out we are cousins. His major is as important to him as football. I can’t go wrong picking his brain about things on and off the field,” said Stephen Dobbs, who grew up an Alabama football fan, but has cheered for Tennessee with his cousin under center, including visiting Neyland Stadium multiple times.
Putman has been impressed with improvement Stephen Dobbs has made over the last year.
“When Stephen came out of high school, I thought he was a good player. He’s matured and developed so much since last year. One of my favorite things about Stephen is he works hard to apply things I tell him as far as hitting goes,” Putman said. “I’m thrilled he’s had a successful season.”
As the postseason begins, Wallace State (32-23) is seeking its first conference title since 2006 and eighth overall.
Wallace State’s pitching staff finished the regular season third in the league with a 3.37 ERA and second with 401 strikeouts. They also limited opponents to a .241 batting average against.
Wil Eiland (2.32), Garrett Suchey (2.60), Blake Schilleci (3.03) and Jesse Scott (3.19) have all pitched more than 50 innings and registered ERA’s under 3.30.
At the plate, along with Dobbs, Turner Vincent is hitting .300 with five homers and 41 RBIs, and freshman Cole Collins is hitting .317 with a homer and 34 RBIs.
Wallace State dropped its tournament opener last season before reeling off five consecutive victories and advancing to the championship game.
“In a week’s time this season, we’ve gone from the first seed to the second seed to the fourth seed to all over the place. For us, it’s just a matter of staying consistent. We haven’t won consistently this season, but if we can get hot for a week, we can win this tournament. If we don’t put it together, we can lose two in a row,” said Putman, who has 971 career victories at Wallace State. “We need our hitters to get hot and for some of our pitchers to be heroes and pitch beyond the call of duty.”
Dobbs added: “It’s been a pleasure to be a part of this program for two years, and I would love to win a championship before we leave. There have been many championship teams to walk through these doors. Maybe we can add our picture to the wall.”
For more information about Wallace State athletics, visit http://athletics.wallacestate.edu/.
