By MONTE DUTTON

Some things are just meant to be.

Clinton’s fourth baseball state championship – and second in the past four seasons – occurred at the right time, in the right place, by the right young man.

I was in the dugout, camera hanging from my neck. It was the eighth inning, score tied.

It wasn’t a vision from on high. Luke Young was walking up to the plate. I can’t prove it. I didn’t write it down. I knew Young was going to hit a game-winning homer and that the Red Devils were about to win the Class 2A state championship. It was perfect. First pitch. It couldn’t have happened any other way. It was the reason I was there. It was the reason Young was there.

It was eerie. It looked like the ball might land in Lake Erie. The scene, though, was cheery. After Young touched the plate and the game was over, the Clinton kids tried to create a human mountain, and the Atlantic Collegiate kids walked off the field, heads down.

Joy is often accompanied by sorrow.

The senior catcher hit Logan Newcomb’s first pitch over the fence in left-center field, giving the Red Devils a 5-4 victory over Atlantic Collegiate. Young and Newcomb are Class 2A’s Co-Players of the Year as chosen by the S.C. Baseball Coaches Association.

Newcomb, who started in center field, was the Armada’s third pitcher of the game.

Again. What else could have happened? Nothing.

Clinton (31-3) had won Game 1 of the best-of-three series in Myrtle Beach on Tuesday, 5-1. The Red Devils, who won all eight of their playoff games, closed the season with 10 straight triumphs.

Young, who rewrote the Clinton record book with 13 home runs, hit a slider about 380 feet.

“I took a good swing at it. All of my teammates were up on the (dugout) fence, yelling that I got it,” said Young, a senior. “It was the same with just everybody in the stands. It’s unbelievable how much this community is behind us.”

The Red Devils only collected four hits, but two – Young’s homer and Camden Finley’s double — were for extra bases. Atlantic Collegiate (29-5) had eight singles, three by first baseman Eli Chowning and two each by right fielder Cam Craft and second baseman Gavin Street.

Clinton made ample use of six bases on balls and a hit batter. Jaxson Rzemyk started on the hill for ACA, but it was A.J. Kipybeda who held the line, giving up only an unearned run in five frames of middle relief.

Street drove in three of the Armada’s four runs, including a two-out, two-run single that tied the game, 4-4, in the top of the sixth inning.

Clinton, by contrast, had two sacrifice flies (Young and Camden Finley) and two stolen bases, and played flawlessly in the field for the fourth time in its final five games.

“To beat good teams, you’ve got to be good in every area,” Clinton head coach Peyton Spangler said. “You can’t have any weak links, and this team didn’t have any.

“The Clinton way is to just grind it out and do what we’ve got to do.”

Isaac Cain won in relief. Starter Tanner Finley gave up three runs off four hits in five innings with four walks and three strikeouts.

“We’ve got a great group,” said another senior, third baseman Jaydon Glenn. “I’ve been playing with these guys for as long as I can remember. It’s great to go out with a win.”

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Most of my books are available at Amazon. Two of my novels, Cowboys Come Home and Lightning in a Bottle, are available in audio versions.