By MONTE DUTTON

Oh, they ringed the baseball stadium on Tuesday night, and ever how many were there, all but a few got what they came for, which was a Class 3A state championship for the Clinton Red Devils, 5-4 over Hanahan.

This was no carefree celebration the Devils earned. They fought for everything they got. Every pitcher who took the mound — Gabe Dotterweich of Hanahan, and Wil Stewart and Carson Glenn of Clinton – veered in and out of trouble but got out of more jams than they got into.

Clinton (26-4) scored four runs in the first inning, and Hanahan (26-9) immediately got three of them back. The Hawks tied it in the fourth and there it stood for what seemed like forever but was really two innings.

What won the game – and by extension, the title – was vintage Sean McCarthy run manufacture. Justin Copeland walked, Caleb Taylor bunted him over and it was close at first, Copeland kept on getting it, the first baseman yanked it across the diamond wild and Copeland hustled home like he was trying to catch a freight train.

“We knew we were gonna go first and third with them charging,” McCarthy said. “Of course, we didn’t know they were gonna throw it away.”

It predictably got tense again in Hanahan’s last stand, but, ultimately, after an evening of pressure, the pipes burst on the Hawks.

“We knew it was going to be a grind,” shortstop Zach Fortman said. “We put in the work at practice, and we just became a family this year. We knew what it was gonna take. Gotta work hard every day.”

The patrons set up their chairs as if staking out homesteads in the Cimarron. By game time, the entire field was ringed by people, trucks around the outfield, makeshift mezzanine from the top of where softball normally dominates.

It was about four times as large as any crowd I’ve ever seen at a Clinton baseball game, impossible to estimate how many, since the actual seating capacity is, maybe, 200? They were a tiny, tiny minority. Hanahan brought a nice crowd from a long way, but the Clinton folk knew something historic was afoot.

Just for starters, the Red Devils last won a state championship in 1961, and the great Kinard Littleton was there to prove it. This team last lost on March 29 and won 18 straight games, eight of them in the playoffs. They won three of those playoff games by one run, but the combined score was 75-27.

If you’re looking for a trivia item to store away, the winning pitcher in five of the eight games was Glenn.

Hanahan outhit the Red Devils, 8-4. Third baseman Riley Turner had two of them.

The losing pitcher, Dotterweich, gave up four hits and four walks, striking out five. Four of the five runs charged him were earned.

Glenn, a lefty, shut out the Hawks for the final three innings, giving up two hits and three walks. Stewart threw 59 pitches and Glenn 62.

With one out in the top of the seventh inning, Glenn walked Landon Gomes and Turner followed with a single. With runners on first and third, Glenn struck out Mason Brady. Then, on a 1-2 count, Hunter Gomes grounded out routinely to Bryce Young at second base, and everyone wearing red piled on top of one another. Then they all tidied up a bit to shake hands with their worthy opponents and have championship medals hung around their necks.

They are royalty.

Four of the new princes – Zack McLendon, Wilson Wages, Luke Young and Harrison Moore – slapped singles for the Red Devils.

Way back in the first inning, Clinton put its first four batters on base – walk, walk, single, hit batter – and four runs on the scoreboard on a two-run Wages single, a Luke Young single and a Brett Young sacrifice fly.

Clinton had demolished the Hawks, 17-3, on Saturday. Hanahan’s pitching depth had been decimated by having to play two games the night before to get there.

“You expect [Hanahan] to battle back,” McCarthy said, “We just weren’t going to flinch. It’s the same way teams make runs in basketball. They’re gonna battle back in baseball, and they did and we executed when we had to.”

After 62 years, the Red Devils were due.