By MONTE DUTTON

A lot of my early trips to Darlington Raceway were in the spring. The first race I saw there was on Labor Day, but I was occupied practicing football on that Monday for the next five years.

David Pearson won an all-time best 10 races at the unique track, which is shaped like an egg you wouldn’t buy. Seven of the victories were in the spring, so about all I knew was Pearson, and he was the best I ever saw. It was the Rebel 400, then the Rebel 500, and it didn’t matter. Pearson was king.

Only one driver, Bill Elliott, has ever reminded me of Pearson’s Darlington smoothness. Pearson was faster than everybody else and looked like he was running 19^th, two laps down. Even as a lad, I paid attention to such things.

Dale Earnhardt drove a Chevrolet tough enough to hold him, and he drove Darlington the way most drivers who couldn’t drive it did. He was rough, and exciting, and found a way to drive every track that way. Tony Stewart reminded me of Earnhardt at Darlington, and he never won there.

Jeff Gordon, who, like Earnhardt, won nine races at Darlington, was between the two.

A Darlington race interests me whether the finish is close or not. The racing groove is a sidewalk compared to other tracks. Winning at Darlington signals that a driver is going to win at lots of other places.

It’s not as good on TV because I can’t watch it the way I would at the track. When I could choose what I saw, I liked to time laps of cars all over the track when they were free of traffic. Sometimes I could figure out that a driver running 11^th in the first 50 laps was the driver who was going to win.

I haven’t been there in about a dozen years, so I reckon I’m used to it.

What Darlington has always been is The Track of Many Nicknames. The Lady in Black. The Track Too Tough to Tame. The NASCAR geniuses tried to foist A NASCAR Tradition (with the branded logo) for a while. The Southern 500 is The Granddaddy of Them All.

The Citadel won its two-site weekend series with a 3-1 verdict over Presbyterian on Sunday at Riley Park in Charleston.

The Bulldogs also won the season series, 3-1. The teams split in Clinton, with The Citadel winning, 12-7, on Friday and the Blue Hose, 9-6, on Saturday. The Bulldogs defeated PC in Charleston, 3-2, on March 12.

Three Bulldogs hurlers – Landon Slemp (W, 3-5), Sam Swygert and Ben Hutchens – split the nine innings three ways, and limited PC (26-25) to one of its four hits in the first six innings. The Blue Hose left only three runners on base.

The Citadel (19-30) led from the bottom of the first inning on, scoring a run in its first at-bat and two in the fifth, when Fenix DiGiacomo (L, 3-5) failed to record an out.

Neither of the three pitchers who followed – Jeffrey Hays, Robbie Boykin and Sean Hollister – allowed a run.

Presbyterian’s Noah Lebron ripped the game’s only extra-base hit, a double, and led the Blue Hose with two hits. Joel Dragoo and Jackson Hugus had singles.

Thomas Rollauer, Travis Elliott and Anthony Hausner each had two of The Citadel’s nine hits.

The Blue Hose visit Western Carolina on Tuesday at 5 and complete the regular season next weekend with three home games against Big South foe UNC Asheville.

Take a look at the box here.

What’s the line from The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Endeavor to persevere.

That’s the way playoffs are.

Laurens (24-6) is right back where it always intended to be, the Class 4A Upstate title series in baseball, two-out-of-three against Easley (25-4), beginning on Monday night at the Raiders’ home diamond. Game time is 6:30.

The Raiders were right here last year, when they lost two in a row to Catawba Ridge. This time they took care of the Copperheads on Saturday, 5-1.

Laurens has won nine games in a row, four of them in the playoffs.

Decision time is approaching. What’s next? Do I keep doing it the way I am now? Do I amend this site? Do I continue to concentrate on local sports coverage, or do I change my priorities?

I’m thinking. I’m thinking.

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