By MONTE DUTTON

One aspect of sports – in most every one except NASCAR, where races are increasingly contrived – is that close games and matches are becoming rare.
Once I was at a trade show in Pennsylvania and said to a favorite race driver, “A man’s got to drive like hell to lose a lap in this day and time.”
His reply? “And then when you finally lose the [lap], they won’t let you keep [it].”
I suppose I could do something constructive like research, but it’s unnecessary. It’s obvious. Rule changes have made individual plays more exciting, but the same cannot be said for games. Fans of one team, which is what most fans are, don’t care. A Clemson fan has no particular concern for a close game when he or she is sitting in Death Valley. He wants to see death (figuratively, of course).
Clinton High School won 12 games en route to the Class 2A football championship last fall. The narrowest point spread in those victories was nine points (Newberry, 23-14, Sept. 6). In the playoffs, the Red Devils won by an average score of 40-12.
No one wearing red was disappointed. Clinton left no doubt it was numero uno. Ecstasy is more fun than agony.

It’s why I love the Southern Conference basketball tournament, though. Furman won classics over Samford and Chattanooga and lost one to Wofford. The last left me with viruses in both my body and my laptop. My surgically repaired belly is upset. It’s sore from innumerable coughs. I can’t sleep at night or stay awake in the daytime, and the brand-new machine is being cleaned and disinfected. The laptop I’m using now is as fast as continental drift.
I’m rallying. I’ve become adept at it.

Baseball and softball are variable. Outcome often depends on the quality of the pitching. The closest baseball game around here was Clinton’s 4-1 victory on Thursday over Union County, a school it defeated, 20-4, two nights earlier.

The Red Devils also defeated Laurens, 7-2, in softball, on Friday, piling up 15 hits to the Raiders’ five.
Elsewhere, in Friday-night baseball, Laurens Academy defeated Newberry Academy, 13-0 and 11-2; and Abbeville defeated Thornwell, 17-0.
Since Thornwell Charter resumed sports, competitive games have been exceedingly rare. As a general rule, the Saints either win big or lose big. Thus far, the baseball team has won games by scores of 14-9, 7-1 and 11-1, while losing by scores of 14-3, 10-0, 16-1 and 17-0.

It’s early yet. Young players are developing skills. Both Laurens and Clinton are rounding into form. In their last four games, the Raiders have lost 10-0 and 11-1, then won 11-1 twice. On Monday, Fountain Inn visits Ed Prescott Field in its Region 1-4A. The Raiders (3-6) then play the Fury in Fountain Inn on Wednesday.
Clinton (5-2) has won four straight and opens Region 3-2A play on Tuesday at home against Mid-Carolina. They do not resume the season until the following Wednesday against the Rebels in Prosperity.

Having just swept a pair from Newberry Academy, Laurens Academy (3-1) enters a string of four road games, beginning in Winnsboro against Richard Winn on Monday and then traveling to Spartanburg Christian on Tuesday.
Some basketball players are masters at ball movement. A few are masters at watching the movement of the ball. Players learn to watch a ball being shot, then turn around and establish rebounding position. A few understand where another player’s shot is going.
Such a player is Clemson’s Ian Schieffelin. Another is Furman’s Ben Vander Wal. The Paladins’ two great scorers, Pjay Smith and Nick Anderson, were grateful at Vander Wal’s willingness to make plays they didn’t have to. He and Schieffelin track balls like outfielders and cheerfully dive on floors and over tables in order to keep them in play. Neither has much concern for his own well-being.

At least North Carolina fell by its own mistake. What happened to Clemson’s Chase Hunter was, uh, actionable. He was fouled by three different Louisville players on one play, and not at the same time. The whistles were apparently digestible when swallowed. It was a great comeback that wasn’t.
Seldom do I criticize officials. They have thankless jobs. They make mistakes. Sometimes, I think, their reflexes aren’t fast enough. That play late Friday night looked like a convergence of Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots on Hunter. Refs should be brave.

The good news for a lot of major colleges is that they’re going to the national tournament anyway. Some think the lane violation is going to cost the Tar Heels a tournament bid. I don’t believe it.
Presbyterian blasted Winthrop, 18-9, in the Big South baseball opener on Friday in Rock Hill. The Hose blasted the Eagles in large part because they blasted five home runs.
Freshman third baseman Matthew Rollison went yard twice for Presbyterian (9-10, 1-0 Big South).
The Blue Hose broke on top with a two-run first inning. Trey Fenderson homered and Jake Randolph, Amman Dewberry and Rollison followed with singles.

PC exploded in the second inning, tallying a season-high seven runs on five hits. Jackson Hugus led off with a walk before Brody Linker doubled to left center, putting two runners in scoring position. Andrew Albertus then grounded out to the pitcher but scored Hugus in the process. Fenderson, already with a home run, added an RBI single to score Linker. After Randolph singled and stole second, Dewberry delivered a two-RBI single to left center. Following a Winthrop pitching change, Hugus drew a bases-loaded walk, and Linker capped the inning with a two-RBI single, extending the lead to 9-0.
By the end of the third, the Hose led 12-0.

Starting off the Big South slate against the conference favorite, Presbyterian softball split a doubleheader with US Upstate, dropping the opener,7-2, but rebounding in the second clash via 8-6 decision.
Presbyterian beat the Spartans for the second time in school history and handed star pitcher Maddie Drerup her first loss of 2025 after a 10-0 start.
Kendall Owens, Mallory Fletcher, Maddi Wood,and Molly Mattas each had two RBI apiece in the team’s 15th victory of the season, clearing the fence twice.

I really have no excuse for watching all these basketball games. It’s not like I didn’t already watch a day’s worth of them in Johnson City, Tenn., and three days’ worth in Asheville, N.C.
Truth is I’m worn out. I’m coughing, sneezing and my surgically repaired abdomen is queasy. I was so proud of making it through that road trip. Now I’m paying for it. Gosh, it was fun. I’d probably be fine if Furman had won.
I’m weary, but I’m looking forward to hanging out at the county’s ballyards.

The written word is in decline. More and more folks get their information from what they see and hear. Just my luck. I’m a writer.
If you’ve still got some desire to read my fiction – and some non-fiction – a lot of it is available on Amazon and other bookseller sites. I wrote a modern western about two cowboys returning home to Texas at the end of World War II. It’s called Cowboys Come Home.
Thanks for putting up with me.