"He hits her with the bat, knocking one of her teeth out, and he grabs hold of her, threw her on the ground and dropped his bat. I grabbed the bat and told him don't move or you're going to get punished," he told us.
A woman in a nearby building, in the 300 block of South High Street, called police.
The first officer on the scene saw Cardwell standing over the man, with two women nearby. One of the victims had blood all over her face. The officer, not knowing who the attacker was, ordered Cardwell to drop his bat. Police say that’s when the attacker struck again, diving at and tackling the two women. The officer used a stun gun to stop the attacker.
Police later identified him as 35-year-old Barry Lawson. He was taken to the Greene County Jail on suspicion of felonious assault.
The women told police they were visiting from Michigan, in town for a yoga convention at the Mills Park Hotel. The women were renting a home, and the victim had left the convention to walk back to the rental home when the attack happened.
She also told police that her tires had been punctured on Monday and Tuesday, the days leading up to the attack on Wednesday. However, it was not immediately clear if the tire slashings were related to the baseball bat assault.
Both women were taken to area hospitals for treatment of injuries not considered life-threatening.
Cardwell knows how dangerous the situation was. "If I hadn't stepped in, that lady might be dead today,” he told us. “I mean his intentions were bad. So, if I didn't do it, there was nobody else there to help."
Richard Wilson and James Buechele contributed to this report.