By MONTE DUTTON

The latest of life’s ironies occurred to me Thursday morning as I augmented, updated, corrected and reposted Wednesday’s crop.

NIL (name, image and likeness) provides college athletes monetary compensation, yet the world “nil” means nothing.

Thus could the athlete at an unmonied institution say, “My NIL is nil.”

Or, the athlete at a monied school could say, “I’m getting big-time NIL.”

I don’t often quote Scripture here, but Matthew 16:26 reads:

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Or, let me hasten to add, a woman.

Money takes over. I’ve nothing against money. In fact, I wish I had more of it.

Once upon a time, though, when we routed, on our bicycles, around the dinosaurs that walked the earth en route to football practice, being on a team was a righteous thing.

I still can’t imagine a player skipping a bowl game because it isn’t important enough to risk injury. I don’t see how he can do that to his teammates.

Yes, I can. For the money. For a smooth-talking agent.

Back in my day, there weren’t any agents. Back in my day, any agent would be uninterested in me, unless, of course, I was friends with someone who was, in fact, a playuh.

It wasn’t an issue.

Clinton provided no Rest for the Travelers on Thursday night, 7-0, down in the valley, the valley so low for the Devildogs.

All else being equal, Devildogs make a poor match for Red Devils. Devildogs are Red Devils’ pets.

Clinton (14-11) staved off Class 3A baseball elimination and presented it to Travelers Rest (9-18) behind the reliable virtuosity of lefty Carson Glenn and the power of Camden Finley.

Glenn was both effective and economical. He threw only 73 pitches in 6-2/3 innings, allowing three hits and two walks. He struck out five. Zack Lawson retired the final out.

Finley, batting eighth, homered to lead off the second inning, his first, and doubled with two out in the third. He walked in the fifth and sixth innings, scored a run and drove in two.

The first batter of the game, TR’s Kaden Jones, reached on an error. With one out, Luke McKittrick singled. With runners on first and second, Lucas Tankersley grounded into a double play. Second baseman Jaydon Glenn fielded his grounder, tagged out McKittrick and threw to first baseman Harry Moore.

Crisis averted.

The Red Devils tried to hit, but Brett Young was hit by a pitch, Zane McLendon walked and Carson Glenn was hit by another pitch from TR’s Colin Goldsmith (L). Moore laced a single to right, sending Young and McLendon home.

The Red Devils added their third run on Finley’s homer in the second inning and his double in the third.

In between, third baseman Tanner Finley – Camden was the DH – speared a liner and doubled the Devildogs’ Eli McCall off first.

Clinton topped it all off with a three-run fifth inning. The first three batters – Moore, Luke Young and Jaydon Glenn – singled.

Tanner Kyko’s sacrifice fly to right drove in runner Rhett Gilliam. Camden Finley walked to load the bases. Bryce Young walked to drive in a run. Brett Young’s single drove in Jaydon Glenn.

Camden Finley and Moore each had two hits. Brett Young, Luke Young and Jaydon Glenn each had one.

Travelers Rest’s Goldsmith walked three Clinton batters and beaned five. In 4-1/3 innings, he gave up six hits and seven earned runs.

Clinton gets another shot at Wren (13-14), once again at home, on Friday at 6:30 p.m. The Hurricanes upended the Red Devils, 8-4, on Tuesday night.

At the same time, Catawba Ridge (24-3) visits Laurens (22-6) in a Class 4A game.

Clinton (12-11) visits Travelers Rest (11-5) on Friday evening in a Class 3A softball elimination game.

Boys’ tennis ended in the Upstate finals for Clinton (11-2), which fell. 5-1, to Daniel in a Wednesday match in Central.

Daniel 5, Clinton 1

# 1 Singles, Nathan Meade lost to Allen Hong  6 – 0, 6 – 3; #2 Singles, Edwin Orr lost to Andrew Mogge  6 – 0, 6 – 4; # 3 Singles, Matthew King lost to Nolan Garrett  6 – 0, 6 – 1; # 4 Singles, Jacob King defeated Aiden Rollins  6 – 2, 6 – 2; # 5 Singles, Malakye Brewer lost to Royer Luo  6 – 0, 6 – 0.

# 1 Doubles, N. Meade & E. Orr (CHS) did not play; # 2 Doubles, Brady Mason & Ethan Wargo lost to Brooks Dunn & Dylan Turbes  6 – 0, 6 – 0.

Laurens bade farewell to the Class 4A softball playoffs, falling, 15-1, to Pickens at LDHS.

The Raiders (8-12) actually led after an inning, thanks to Ashlyn Messer’s RBI single.

After a quiet first inning, the Blue Flames scored six in the second inning and six in the third. Pickens finished the game with 16 runs, 16 hits and no errors. Laurens went one, three and six.

Kylie Thornall gave up three hits and a run over five innings with one walk and seven strikeouts. The unusual stat was that of Laurens’ Summer Nations (L), who allowed the same number of earned runs as Thornall. Nations pitched five innings and gave up 16 hits and 15 runs, but only one was earned. She walked one and fanned two.

Nations, Azaria Johnson and Messer had the Raiders’ hits.

Pickens first baseman Aleah Bryant had four hits by herself. Seven Blue Flames batters scored two runs each, and four had two hits apiece.

Led by three hits apiece from Josiah Jackson and Michael Felder, North ousted Thornwell (7-15) from the Class A baseball playoffs with a 16-4 victory.

Jackson was the winning pitcher. Fielder drove in five runs.

By the way, it was 4-4 after three innings. The game ended early because the Eagles scored 12 runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Fifteen came to the plate. Six walked. There was a sacrifice fly. Six had hits. One was a triple. The last was a home run by Stetson Stack.

Griffen Raines and Parker Workman doubled for the Saints. Sam Robertson tripled. Robertson took the loss but two more followed him in the inning almost without end, amen.

Presbyterian College’s Avery West, a sophomore, is All-Big South second team in lacrosse, and Willow Hammond is all-academic.

West, a Keller, Texas product, is the third all-conference selection for PC, and Hammond, a junior from Johns Creek, Ga., maintains a 3.5 grade-point average in biology.

For the third time, PC center fielder Joel Dragoo is Big South Player of the Week.

Dragoo, a junior from Beckville, Texas, batted .571 with a slugging percentage of 1.143 slugging percentage.

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