"Why do they [write] for their money? Why do they [work] for short pay? They ain't getting nowhere and they're losing their share. They must have gone crazy back there." — Michael Burton (paraphrased)
By MONTE DUTTON Brett Young went deep (Monte Dutton photos). Click here. And then, in the Upstate, there were were four. Four schools, in Class 2A, to decide the representative to play for a state championship: Clinton in District 1, Batesburg-Leesville in District 2, Mid- Carolina in District 3 and Strom Thurmond in District 4. …
Continue reading Devils advance past Chesnee, rain, protest, triple play …
MONTE DUTTON photos
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. Clinton High School, undefeated at 11-0, is playing for the state boys’ tennis championship on Saturday in Cayce at 10 a.m. Red Devil teams have already won the Class 2A state title in football and reached the Upstate final in girls’ basketball. This is always a tall order, never more …
By MONTE DUTTON Tommy Spangler (Furman photo) Click here. At about the same time I arrived in the baseball valley on Tuesday, a familiar figure in a red shirt and a purple cap yelled my name. He brought someone with him. Was it a Clinton fan with Saluda roots? The only such person I know …
By MONTE DUTTON Owen Glenn (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Both Laurens and Clinton highs experienced early disappointments in baseball region play. The Raiders lost three straight to Fountain Inn (21-5, 13-2), and the Red Devils fell twice to Mid-Carolina (18-7, 10-0). Neither has lost in region play since, and as such, optimism rises as …
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. I don’t know where I got The Miracle of Castel di Sangro. I don’t remember when. I didn’t know I had it until I rummaged through a box looking for a book to read. I can only speculate. I may have bought it when I was interested in the World …
By MONTE DUTTON Isaac Cane (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. Visiting teams laid lots of goose eggs in Laurens County on Monday evening. Laurens blanked Southside, 17-0. Thornwell quieted Calhoun Falls, 16-0 and 12-0. Clinton erased Fairfield Central, 12-0. Be they Raiders, Saints or Red Devils, they all laid goose eggs, a mere day after …
By MONTE DUTTON Bennett Edwards (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. A few weeks ago, before a Laurens High baseball game, I commiserated with the Raiders’ head coach, Tori Patterson, about how bad a Clinton region opponent, Columbia, was. Patterson offered one word: “Southside.” The Tigers, Laurens’ final Region 1-4A opponent, are 0-17. Southside, 0-9 in …
Continue reading Raiders, Red Devils position themselves for playoffs
By MONTE DUTTON Coleman Coker (17) homered to put the Raiders ahead (Monte Dutton photos). Click here. How many times do you see a team with five straight shutouts … itself get shut out? About as many times as you see a team turn a triple play … and lose. The latter happened to Laurens …
Nightrider's Lament 