Monte Dutton's Blog

By MONTE DUTTON

What is the scribe to do when it’s Saturday and the Red Devils are rained out?

Oh, it’s not so bad. I enjoyed a total of four quality conversations at the Waffle House and the laundromat. Let’s see. One was about religion. One was about racing. One was about photography. One was about getting old.

Familiar themes all.

I had a Rodney Dangerfield moment, only cleaner, a few days ago. Every time I go to Ollie’s Discount Outlet, I can’t find what I want but buy things I happen upon. I don’t mind. I bought a really good cut-rate novel, and a stuffed John Belushi that says, “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?” when his string is pulled.

My heart weeps for readers too young to understand the paragraph above.

Oh, yeah, back to Rodney. I passed a display of sanitizer bottles. I bought one. When I got home, I discovered it was a bottle that holds sanitizer, not a bottle with sanitizer in it. It was made of glass, so it felt heavy. I started pumping and nothing came out. I screwed the top off, and nothing was in there.

I don’t get no respect! No respect at aaalll …!

I didn’t take it back. It was my fault. I’ll just have to buy some sanitizer, and perhaps a small funnel, and pour it in the bottle. It’ll add a touch of class to my hand washing.

I don’t feel as if I’ve had an unproductive day. I read about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt while at the Waffle House and laundromat, which, given the current state of the land, seems like sci-fi. I washed and dried my quilt for the first time.

I spent 80 bucks to fill up the truck. That was a thrill.

Now I’m writing a blog because it’s raining in Charlotte, and few things on TV are worse than NASCAR rain delays, and the war movie on TCM is over.

As my late friend Jim McLaurin used to say, “Other’n’at, ain’t much hap’nin’.”

The site is supported by reader contributions. If you’re interested, you can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports).

Or, if you’d like to make a contribution by check or cash, my mailing address is: Monte Dutton, P.O. 221, Clinton, S.C.  29325 (hutdut@outlook.com).

It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I write.

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.

By MONTE DUTTON

News like this is unsettling. I was well out of college when Kyle Busch was born. I’m at the age where life seems a bit more frail.

And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

The older I get, the more scary that prayer gets. Fred Neil wrote a beautiful song often associated with escape and freedom. I see it as a beautiful homage to death.

Banking over the northeast wind / Sailing on summer breeze / Skipping over the ocean like a stone.

Then it ends.

I don’t want to leave your love behind. …

Acquaintance with my own mortality occurred in 2025. Coming out of surgery, I wasn’t in any pain, and  I thought, well, that might not be good news. At some point, I had a bleary conversation with a man in what, I guess, was post-op. I don’t remember his name or what he looked like. All I remember is that he was from Greenwood. Sometime, in this dreamy blur, I realized I still had my marbles.

On Thursday, I was doing what I often do: writing and posting the story about Clinton High winning the Upstate baseball championship and advancing to the finals. I went to Steamers and bumped into Buddy Bridges, Harold Nichols and Gene Simmons. All the while, I was gradually hearing about Kyle Busch.

He was sick. Someone else was going to drive at Charlotte. He was seriously ill.

He was dead.

What?

Few die when they’re ready. I’m 27 years older than Kyle Busch … was. I was in the process of refurbishing my life before I found myself spinning across the universe. It postponed everything for the longest time. I wonder if I still have time to do what I want to do.

I need to rewrite my outmoded will. I’m waiting to determine what to put in it. My mind changes slightly every day. If I live long enough, there won’t be much left to quibble about. I’m stalled out with big plans. At best, I’ll become a success again. At worst, I’ll have enough money to make it to glory. Or thereabouts.

Nothing is guaranteed.

I first met Busch when he was 19. I was in Las Vegas to write a chapter on Brad Paisley for my book about Americana music. I didn’t get much of an interview, but I spent two nights at the best-run sporting event I’ve ever seen, the National Finals Rodeo. Kurt Busch had just won the Cup (I … think … Nextel) championship, and the city had a big party on the Strip to honor Kyle’s older brother.

I met the family, the mayor, mingled within the proximity of showgirls and with apparently influential people I didn’t know.

That’s when I came to understand the Busch brothers. They grew up in Vegas, which is a long way by several measures from Whitney Mill. Or Level Cross. Or North Wilkesboro.

Both Busch brothers were talented. Both were ambitious. When things didn’t suit them, they could be brats. Kurt delighted me with his exalted misstatements. He tried so hard to be smart that it sounded dumb. He didn’t turn a lap. He “circumferenced the track.”

My working relationship with both was mainly good. I understood them within the context of the place that raised them.

We get nostalgic. Time turns bad guys to good guys. These past three dry seasons left me hoping Kyle Busch would win another Cup race. We gradually accept in adversity what we overlook in triumph.

Nothing prepares us for the shock of sudden, unexpected death.

The site is supported by reader contributions. If you’re interested, you can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports).

Or, if you’d like to make a contribution by check or cash, my mailing address is: Monte Dutton, P.O. 221, Clinton, S.C.  29325 (hutdut@outlook.com).

It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I write.

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.

By MONTE DUTTON

The sun was still out, and the sky was still blue when Clinton won the Upstate Class 2A baseball title on Wednesday.

The Red Devils had a loss to spare when Batesburg-Leesville arrived. The Panthers put up a fine effort, and reigning state champions don’t give up the crown without a fight. Clinton (29-3) won in gallant style, 4-3.

Gallantry is evinced further by eight straight victories, six in the playoffs. The state finals, a best two-of-three affair, are scheduled to begin on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Clinton against Atlantic Collegiate Academy (29-3), a charter from Conway. The Armada won the Low Country with a 4-2 win over East Clarendon (23-10).

Game two is in Conway on Tuesday. If necessary, game three is at Lugoff-Elgin High School on Saturday, May 30.

Third baseman Jaydon Glenn drove in the winning run with a two-out single in the bottom of the sixth inning, driving in center fielder Camden Finley, who had tied the score with a double.

“I looked bad on some sliders he [Braydon Hallman) threw me in,” Glenn said. “I battled some pitches off. I knew it was coming again. I saw it good, and it hit my bat.”

Glenn was 3/4 with a double. Camden Finley was 2/4. Tanner Finley, who had started on the mound, was also 2/4.

Tanner Finley, who pitched 5-1/3 strong innings, allowed two hits and struck out three. The Panthers regained the lead, 3-2, in the sixth, so Isaac Cain (1-2/3, two hits, a run, two K’s) earned the decision. Neither walked a batter. Finley threw 45 strikes in 68 pitches; Cain, 20/26.

“We take a lot of pride in everything we do,” Tanner Finley said. “Every team considers making the playoffs very important, but this team plays every pitch, every practice, like that. We take everything seriously.

“It feels so good to be out there with my boys, leaving all we’ve got on the field.”

Hallman turned in a complete game in a losing cause, allowing nine hits, four runs (three earned) and a walk. He fanned four.

The players at the top of the B-L order, center fielder Reese Boehnke and second baseman Landon Soper, each went 2/3 with a double. Soper drove in two runs.

Tanner Finley drove in the game’s first run with a two-out single to right in the third inning, scoring Glenn, who had doubled. In the fifth, Glenn reached on an error, and Camden Finley, who had led off with a single, scored on a second error on the same play.

Four straight hits – a single by Mason Lowe, doubles by Boehnke and Soper and a single by Hallman – put Batesburg-Leesville (20-10) ahead 3-2 in the top of the sixth inning.

Clinton has not committed an error in its past three games. The Red Devils turned two double plays.

“[Batesburg-Leesville], they’re state champions, they’re coached extremely well and play extremely hard,” said Clinton head coach Peyton Spangler. “We made them stumble. We had the champ wobbling, but we knew we had to have a knockout punch.

“Every team in the state, every team in the country, talks about being tough, being resilient, but when you get in those moments, that’s when you’ve got to ‘man up.’ I’m so proud of our seniors.”

Another state title – the Red Devils won the 3A crown in 2023 — takes two more wins.

The site is supported by reader contributions. If you’re interested, you can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports).

Or, if you’d like to make a contribution by check or cash, my mailing address is: Monte Dutton, P.O. 221, Clinton, S.C.  29325 (hutdut@outlook.com).

It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I write.

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.

By MONTE DUTTON

NINETY SIX – Softball ran its course for Clinton High on a hot Monday evening as Ninety Six eliminated the Red Devils from the Class 2A Upstate bracket, 8-2.

Clinton (19-7) banged out seven hits, among them doubles by Alyssa Young and Sierra Templeton, but couldn’t group enough together off Ninety Six pitcher Jocelyn Coleman, who, to borrow a familiar cliché, scattered the Red Devils’ safeties. She gave up two walks and struck out nine. Only one of the two runs she allowed was earned.

With one out in the bottom of the first inning, weary Clinton starter Me-Me Smith, who pitched complete games twice last week, gave up two walks and hit a batter. Coleman singled to left field, scoring Olivia Coster, and Katie Allen’s two-out single to center drove in Katie Fortner.

Ninety Six (15-6) didn’t lead wire to wire. The Red Devils tied the game in the fourth inning on Young’s double. Clinton had scratched out its first run in the second when Taylor Davis reached on an error, scoring Templeton, who had doubled.

The stalemate was short-lived. Ninety Six quickly put up three runs in both the fourth and fifth. Cat Wilkie took the loss, toiling five innings and allowing six runs off seven hits and six walks. She struck out nine.

Only Lyla Kuykendall collected two hits for the Devils, although five others hit safely. Clinton put two runners on base with two out in the fifth inning but went down in order in the sixth and seventh.

Coster, Coleman and Emily Jones each had two hits and scored twice for the Wildcats.

Clinton (28-3) is very much alive in the baseball playoffs. The Red Devils have to win only once against Batesburg-Leesville (20-9) to claim the Upstate championship and play for the state title.

The Panthers, who lost at home, 11-0, to the Red Devils on Saturday, stayed alive by defeating Chesnee (22-12) on Monday, and take on the Red Devils in Clinton on Wednesday at 5 p.m. Should Batesburg-Leesville win that game, another follows.

Red Devil athletes from all sports are to be honored on Tuesday in 6 p.m. awards ceremonies that begin in the main gym.

Gardner-Webb (25-30, 10-14 Big South) brought down the curtain on Presbyterian College’s worst baseball season, capturing the final series with victories of 11-6 and 9-2 after the Blue Hose won the opener, 11-2.

PC (12-44, 8-16) lost five of its final six games.

The Blue Hose rank 11th in a field of 14 after one round of the NCAA men’s golf Bermuda Run (Winston-Salem, N.C.) region.

Gage Gaskins is tied for ninth in the individual standings after an opening-round 70.

Virginia leads the regional at 271, 19 shots ahead of Big South champ PC.

The site is supported by reader contributions. If you’re interested, you can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports).

Or, if you’d like to make a contribution by check or cash, my mailing address is: Monte Dutton, P.O. 221, Clinton, S.C.  29325 (hutdut@outlook.com).

It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I write.

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.

By MONTE DUTTON

It’s Sunday, and I’ve wrapped up the photos and story on Clinton High School’s latest baseball triumph and am presently surfing back and forth between the NASCAR all-star race and the PGA golf tournament.

I’m going to subsist on what is left in the cupboard, which consists of Pop Tarts, peanut butter and crackers. This is okay because I ate at Shealy’s Bar-B-Que, which has been considered must-eat for any visit to that dusty burg – Batesburg or Leesville or Batesburg-Leesville, depending on what road sign one believes – since I was riding the back roads with my daddy back in the 1960s.

Hyphenating the name of one town is akin to naming another Townville, which, translated, means Towntown.

As for Shealy’s, maybe my expectations were a bit high. It was great, but it’s become fashionable to put fried, not barbecued, chicken on buffets. The chicken was fine, but I know a lot of places hereabouts that serve great fried chicken.

I can survive today on snacks because, based on what I ate at Shealy’s, I could go into hibernation for a week. I can even stand black coffee because I’ve also run out of Sweet-n-Low.

In the past week I’ve had a little old and a little new. I hadn’t been to Shealy’s in at least 20 years. In my best Jeff Foxworthy accent, that time was for a wedding. You can’t beat a bride wiping mustard sauce from her gown.

Five days earlier, I visited my first Buc-ees. It was at the Sevierville, Tenn., exit. My basic suspicion is that Wal-Mart ran all the locally owned stores out of business, and now Buc-ee’s is going to run Wal-Mart out of business. Such is the world.

The brisket sandwich, recommended by a friend, was better than average and, like Martinsville Speedway hot dogs, extraordinary for that which is mass-produced.

I loved driving to Batesburg, etc., in my old truck, admiring the cattle. I almost stopped to take a photo of acres and acres of hay rolls (they aren’t bales anymore, sports fans) but there was barbecue and baseball on the docket. I hated driving back in the dark, though I did get a whiff of charcoal grilling from a house I passed. I’m pretty sure it was beef on the grill.

The two-lane highways underscored the need for roadwork in the state. It was like riding a stagecoach. A new highway sound effect is the low hum of nearby vehicles (and mine) ticking the rumble strips on the center line. I wonder how that affects tire wear.

I didn’t get all the work done quickly because I wanted to sing and strum guitar, and Will Ferrell was hosting SNL, and Paul McCartney was the musical guest. Also, I bore down when I wrote the game story, even though no good can come from that. I just wrote it like a song, hoping someone out there liked the tune.

Denny Hamlin won an All-Star Race that was lively, at least until the end. Dover was a better site than I expected. I worried that no one would show up. I was wrong. It was a good crowd. Those folks want their points race back. Those folks used to have two.

The PGA? I surprised myself. I didn’t pay much attention until Sunday and then not much. Every time I heard something during the first three rounds, Tricky McGillicuddy or somebody was leading. I checked on it from time to time on Sunday just to see if anyone I’d ever heard of was making a charge.

Aaron Rai won it. Rhymes with rye whiskey and wry humor. He was Hank Aaron for a day. Until I heard Rai speak, I couldn’t have told you which of 50 countries could have produced him. Everyone now can speak English, and Americans speak English, at best. It’s a long way from London to Louisiana.

The site is supported by reader contributions. If you’re interested, you can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports).

Or, if you’d like to make a contribution by check or cash, my mailing address is: Monte Dutton, P.O. 221, Clinton, S.C.  29325 (hutdut@outlook.com).

It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I write.

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.

By MONTE DUTTON

BATESBURG-LEESVILE – Following the destruction of the reigning Class 2A baseball champions on Saturday evening, Clinton (28-3) is one win away, on Wednesday back in the Red Devils’ home valley, with three days’ rest, against one of two teams it has defeated, by a combined score of 21-1, in the past three nights, from the Upstate title.

Got it? A fan couldn’t get those kinds of odds in Las Vegas. Or even in his phone. (Of course, we’ll have none of this balderdash among the innocent minds of youth.)

The Red Devils played their best game of the season to date, at least from among the many I have seen.

Clinton humbled Batesburg-Leesville, 11-0. The Red Devils bunted and bashed, made all the plays and dazzled the Panthers’ batters with their pitching artistry. They had as many heroes as Greek mythology.

Everybody was somebody.

At the plate, Clinton, all righties, produced a triple and three home runs, four stolen bases, five walks, two sacrifices and a hit batter. No telling how many times head coach Peyton Spangler, coaching at third, ordered them to flash a bunt and pull it back. Twenty-five, maybe?

“We knew their pitching goal was to keep us off balance,” said Spangler. “The fake bunt and bunt-and-run were designed to make them attack us, and we were able to make better swings.”

The effect was gradually to drive a really good team, Batesburg-Leesville (19-9), batty, which was ironic because what looked like bats were swooping and flitting about like fighter jets at an air show. In the heat of the afternoon! Turns out they were starlings, who get ornery during games because they nest in the dugouts.

After the teams played a tense, scoreless two innings, the Red Devils scored in crooked numbers of 2, 2, 2, 3 and 2 the rest of the way.  Arlington, Va., has in its possession the zip code of 22232.

Let’s turn to the heroes. It’s getting late.

Graydon Watkins, who began the game in center field and finished it in left, went 3/4 with a triple and a home run, three runs scored and three driven in. Camden Finley and Luke Young, who began the game as the battery, each homered. None of the three bombs was a cheapie. Young’s looked like Scottie Scheffler hit it.

“I knew his (Knox Bouknight) heater wasn’t going to beat me. I was sticking my approach to up the middle, right back at the pitcher,” Young said. “He threw me a fastball middle away. You take a good swing, good things happen.”

Camden Finley, No. 1 in roster and hearts, 3/4 with a bat in his hands, pitched five innings, surrendering a mere two hits, hitting a batter and walking another. He fanned seven. Jaydon Glenn then made the short stroll over from third base to stop the Panthers for the final two frames.

Batesburg-Leesville never had more than one man on base. Clinton turned three double plays.

On Monday, Batesburg-Leesville is to play Chesnee (22-11) in an elimination game. The Red Devils await the winner

Peyton Spangler and his dad, motivation maestro Tommy, are now yanking bank on the team’s reins, knowing that dreams of a state championship are dancing like sugar plums in their heads.

The coaches will have none of that. They are watching closely to make sure the caps aren’t tightening up on big heads.

Too soon, lads.

“We’re in a good spot,” said Peyton Spangler. “The first game (Wednesday) is obviously the biggest game of the year because it’s the next one.”

The site is supported by reader contributions. If you’re interested, you can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports).

Or, if you’d like to make a contribution by check or cash, my mailing address is: Monte Dutton, P.O. 221, Clinton, S.C.  29325 (hutdut@outlook.com).

It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I write.

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.

By MONTE DUTTON

Clinton (19-6) ran out of outs in its Upstate-final Class 2A softball game at home against Chesnee (20-5) on Friday evening.

The Red Devils had three with the bases loaded.

Clinton trailed, 5-0, entering the bottom of the fourth inning, at which point the Red Devils came alive. Taylor Davis put Clinton on the board, scoring on Alyssa Young’s fielder’s choice.

Sierra Templeton walked with the bases loaded and two out in the fifth, pushing Addie Watkins home to narrow the Eagles’ margin to 5-2.

Watkins launched a two-run homer in the sixth, setting the stage for an agonizing ending.

Davis singled to left field, leading off the seventh. Me-Me Smith was hit by a pitch. Templeton singled to load the bases.

Chesnee’s Tayte Calvert then struck out Lyla Kuykendall, Alyssa Young and Sophie Young in succession to end the game.

“All the chips are on the table, and if we get one hit, we’re coming out of here happy,” said Clinton head coach Joe Terry. “You’ve got to give [Calvert] a lot of credit at that point because she bore down and did what it took to get us out.

“We’ve been hitting really well for the past three weeks, and we needed it tonight. We just came out a little bit short.”

The Red Devils outhit the Eagles, 10-8, but three errors plagued them as Chesnee built a five-run lead.

The Chesnee shortstop, Jada Sellers, doubled twice, scored twice and drove in two runs. Claire Owens, who started in the circle, was 3/4. Bixley Koon was 2/4. The first three slots in the batting order were a combined 7/12.

The Clinton order was balanced. Center fielder Halleigh Luke, batting first, was 2/4. Kuykendall collected a pair of hits from the sixth spot, and Watkins homered and doubled from the bottom of the order.

Smith gutted out a complete game, her second in three days for the Red Devils. She gave up eight hits and two walks, striking out five.

The Red Devils must defeat Ninety Six (14-6) on the road Monday in order to stay alive. Saluda (26-4) blanked the Wildcats, 6-0, on Friday.

The site is supported by reader contributions. If you’re interested, you can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports).

Or, if you’d like to make a contribution by check or cash, my mailing address is: Monte Dutton, P.O. 221, Clinton, S.C.  29325 (hutdut@outlook.com).

It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I write.

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.

By MONTE DUTTON

Let’s not get carried away by Clinton’s 10-1 victory over Chesnee in the first game of the Upstate baseball bracket on Thursday evening.

Sure, the Red Devils are 27-3. They have won four straight playoff games and six in a row overall. They have scored in double figures 13 times in the last 19 games.

But … Clinton delivered a nine-run haymaker in the first inning. Chesnee (21-11) collected 10 hits, same as the Devils, and managed to keep Clinton in sight – Eagles have excellent vision – for the full seven innings.

In the early innings, Clinton’s pitching and defense sidestepped jam after jam.

In the second, Chesnee had a walk and two hits. Left fielder Graydon Watkins cut down Banks Davis at the plate, and pitcher Isaac Cain struck out Owen Ehlich and C.J. Morgan.

In the third, Cain fanned Davis and Coy Wall with the bases loaded. Cain dispatched three batters in a row with runners on second and third. Chesnee left two baserunners in the fourth. The Eagles finally managed a run in the sixth, but Clinton matched them in the bottom half when Angel Vargas scored on a passed ball.

The Red Devils finally put the ailing Eagles out of their misery when Jaydon Glenn retired the final two batters in the seventh.

Cain, Tanner Finley and Glenn combined to give up a run off 10 hits and four walks, striking out 10. Cain got the win by working four innings with two walks and six K’s.

Clinton’s first inning was a merry-go-round. Camden Finley walked. Jaydon Glenn and Luke Young were both hit by the first of five Chesnee pitchers, Kevin Grant, who didn’t retire a batter.

Tanner Finley walked. William Addison singled. Vargas sacrificed. Watkins ground out but drove in a run. Owen Glenn singled, as did Logan Johnson, as did Camden Finley, Jaydon Glenn, Luke Young and Tanner Finley.

Nine runs. Seven hits. Two walks. Two hit batters. A sacrifice bunt. A Chesnee error.

When it all finally ended, only Camden Finley and Addison had more than a hit, but Jaydon Glenn, Young, Tanner Finley, Vargas, Owen Glenn and Johnson all had one.

All for one. One for all. At the plate. On the mound. In the field.

Four Chesnee batters had two hits each. Klay Davis and Ehlich doubled. The number that mattered was runs: one off 10 hits and two errors.

Clinton visits Batesburg-Leesville (19-8), a 4-1 winner at Landrum (23-7), next on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Will wonders never cease?

“We actually did have times when we played good ‘small ball.’ After the first inning, we couldn’t finish what we set up,” Clinton head coach Peyton Spangler said. “We executed early.

“I’m proud of the guys. Our main focus – we’d been a little timid at home recently – was to attack and throw the the first punch.”

Following the boxing metaphor, Chesnee staggered to its feet after a nine count, then lingered stubbornly. It wasn’t pretty to watch.

I was behind the plate snapping photos during the nine-run first inning, shooting through a gap next to a Chesnee couple in their lawn chairs. Nice folks. I moved around, as usual, but I felt a little sympathy for the visitors who had to sit through it.

A little. The Eagles had half the hits and less than 1/10th of the runs. I’m sure the ride home seemed longer than my drive home from Nashville, Tenn., the day before.

Them’s the breaks.

Baseball isn’t the only Clinton sport chasing a state championship.

Up the hill from the baseball yard, the softball Red Devils (19-5) take on – who knew? – Chesnee (19-5) on Friday at 6:30.

Come early. Chesnee’s schedule lists the game as 6.

The Red Devils defeated Buford two out of three, finishing off the Yellow Jackets, 8-3, on Wednesday in Lancaster.

Buford led, 2-0, until Clinton scored three runs in the fourth inning, one in the fifth and four in the sixth.

Me-Me Smith was the winning pitcher, thanks to 5-1/3 innings of six-hit, one-run relief of Sierra Templeton. She struck out six, walked none, and was 3/4 at the plate with two doubles, a homer and two RBI.

Presumably, Smith sold no tickets or popcorn.

Halleigh Luke, Sophie Young and Addie Watkins chipped in two hits apiece. Watkins doubled, homered and drove in four runs. Alyssa Young, Sophie Young and Watkins each scored twice.

Luke Young, Camden Finley and Tanner Finley made the S.C. Baseball Coaches all-state team in Class 2A. Young shared Player of the Year with Logan Newcomb of Conway’s Atlantic Collegiate Academy.

As expected, megapower Oceanside Collegiate won the Class 2A/3A boys’ tennis state title over Clinton, 6-0, just as the Landsharks feasted by the same score the year before.

Also, the Red Devils are, for the second year in a row, the unofficial state champion of Class 2A non-charters.

Oceanside has won six straight state titles that count.

The S.C. High School League also has an individual state tournament, after which the Red Devils’ tandem of Matthew and Jacob King were named all-state.

In the tourney, an invitation-only affair, Matthew King made the consolation finals, Jacob King the consolation quarterfinals and Edwin Orr the round of 16.

Matthew King won the state’s Sportsmanship Award.

The site is supported by reader contributions. If you’re interested, you can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports).

Or, if you’d like to make a contribution by check or cash, my mailing address is: Monte Dutton, P.O. 221, Clinton, S.C.  29325 (hutdut@outlook.com).

It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I write.

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.

By MONTE DUTTON

I hope I’m going to get a bit more profound when I take stock of my three-day trip to Nashville, Tenn., which I cheerfully refer to as Music City USA, but not Nashvegas, because I like Nashville better.

I didn’t go there to party, although Mike Hembree, Larry Woody and I partied in the responsible manner of men advancing in age. We listened to great musicians playing old country music for tips in bars where there is no cover charge. I drank one beer. That’s three since I got out of the hospital 15-plus months ago. No doctor has told me I couldn’t drink. It’s just too much trouble. We had a designated driver among us and everything.

What I enjoyed more than anything else was conversations, five hours up and five hours back and riding around the traffic jams of another rapidly growing city. Time goes faster when folks are having fun.

Mike and Larry covered NASCAR with me for 20 years. Both of them rode the circuit more than twice as long as I. Mike still has a few irons in that diminishing fire.

I miss the people and places more fondly than the races.

Woodrow (as he is almost universally known in the ranks) is one of the two funniest men I’ve known and the only one surviving. He is as irreverent as a pirate’s parrot and not as repetitive.

Once, at Indianapolis, we were greeted one morning by news that a couple fans had perished from asphyxiation in an infield tent. Woodrow’s take: “Damn it. Now I’m going to have to change my crowd estimate.”

We were watching a boring race in Atlanta. I said, “The good news is I just finished my federal income tax.” Woodrow said, “I taught myself Portuguese.”

I sent the other two a few photos late last night. Woodrow’s reply: “Thanks for the photos; it was a fun trip and we need to do it again before they cart us off to the old folks’ home. We can tell the same old stories because we’ll have forgotten them by then.”

My preference is to take photos on an actual camera. Most everyone else on Lower Broadway was snapping away on a cell. Woodrow wasn’t. He’s content with a flip phone. I probably would be, too.

We battled the crowds – on a Monday night! – at the most famous beer joint, Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, and then migrated to my favorite, Robert’s Western World, where I befriended a fiddle player from Massachusetts because he was passing around the tips bucket and I was wearing my Red Sox cap.

Lower Broadway has gotten lower and broader than when last I visited. The old block is still the best, but many new honky tonks have popped up for two more blocks, many of them opened by modern stars of the genre.

I liked country music better when the performers were uglier.

On Tuesday, we tramped the surrounding battlefields and cemetery of the Battle of Franklin. We toured Carnton, a plantation house used during the battle as a field hospital. According to legend, at battle’s end, six Confederate generals were lying dead on the front porch. The tour guide said it has been recently discovered that two of the generals had already been carted off to home. It was actually four generals and two colonels. History never stops. Blood never stops shedding.

We talked about our times following the NASCAR gypsies.

Once at Talladega, Carl Edwards’ car nearly bounced into the grandstands. At the scene, we saw fans rolling a tire up the steps. A fan had a welt all the way up his left arm from where a shock absorber hit it. He asked me if I thought Edwards would sign the shock. Rick Minter asked the man if he would sit in that location again. “Oh, yeah,” the man said. “That’s part of it.”

We got back to the press box. A release was being circulated to the effect that no pieces of the car had been found in the grandstands. “That’s true,” I said. “They’re all on E-Bay.”

Racing is much safer now. Thank God. It isn’t surprising that veterans of the Fourth Estate are prone to visit battlefields.

Thanks to Woodrow, I’m satisfied I enjoyed the best barbecue on Monday night and the best steak on Tuesday.

By the way, people are much bigger now than they were in the 1860s. The uniforms in the museum look as if they were worn by sixth graders. The chairs in the Carnton house dining room are tiny by today’s standards.

Mike and I thought about going to a movie Tuesday night. Instead, we found something on Netflix we hadn’t seen that was better.

Now that I live in a shoe box, a hotel room seems spacious.

Mike responded to my curiosity on what the modern race drivers are like. Now I just know what TV tells me. Mike mainly confirmed my suspicions. Even on site, the various entourages are a barrier. Writing about sports is mostly journalism by press conference. The last vestige of media freedom is the high schools and small colleges, but even in the latter the frontier is being fenced in.

West of Knoxville, Mike and I happened upon a barbecue joint where a man (and, undoubtedly, a woman) could enjoy a barbecue-sandwich plate for less than 10 bucks.

By the time I got home, I was ready to watch the Red Devils play ball again.

I first time heard Sheryl Crow sing “All I Wanna Do” while driving one of the various L.A. freeways. Our fun was a different kind, but the goal was the same.

Soon the sun is going to set on what I regularly write here. I’ll write about more topics. I’ll still write sports, just not comprehensively.

The site is supported by reader contributions. If you’re interested, you can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports).

Or, if you’d like to make a contribution by check or cash, my mailing address is: Monte Dutton, P.O. 221, Clinton, S.C.  29325 (hutdut@outlook.com).

It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I write.

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.

By MONTE DUTTON

Clinton (18-4) picked up a clutch, tense, 4-1, victory in its second Class 2A softball playoff game, basically making the most of about everything in Lancaster against Buford (14-9) on Friday.

Me-Me Smith pitched a tenacious masterpiece after spotting the Yellow Jackets a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. She allowed six hits but never walked a batter, striking out four.

Only the top four batters in the Red Devil order – center fielder Halleigh Luke, left fielder Kamryn Campbell, right fielder Taylor Davis and Smith — hit safely, each with a hit. Luke lashed the game’s only extra-base hit, a double.

In the top of the fourth inning, Campbell and Davis led off with singles, the latter being by a bunt. Smith walked to load the bases. Campbell and Davis scored on Buford’s only error, a ground ball to second base by Sierra Templeton.

Lyla Kuykendall walked. Courtesy runner Carlee Nabors scored on a wild pitch. Templeton scored the game’s final run on a groundout by Micah Snelgrove.

Smith allowed only four baserunners the rest of the way, closing out with a strikeout with two of those runners on base.

The Red Devils return home on Wednesday.

Presbyterian (11-39, 7-12) opened its final home baseball series with a come-from-behind, 6-5, victory over USC Upstate (23-27, 11-11) on Friday evening.

The winning run scored on Layton Hyneman’s sacrifice bunt. Cam Mallo had singled in the tying run.

Nine different Blue Hose batters had a hit apiece, highlighted by James Green’s double, Emory Guilford’s triple and Jonathan Williams’ home run.

Robbie Boykin (3-2) earned the win in relief of Tyrell Williams, who pitched seven strong innings and allowed only one earned run.

Henry Zenor and Maloy Heahney each had two of the Spartan’s seven hits. Andrew Kummer (2-2) took the loss.

The teams play again on Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1.

PC’s Big South champion men’s golf team plays on May 18-20 in the Bermuda Run (N.C.) Regional.

The Blue Hose are grouped with Virginia, Ole Miss, Pepperdine, Georgia Tech, Southern California, Wake Forest, Mississippi State, Little Rock, North Carolina State, Kentucky, Houston, Richmond and Navy.

Relax. I’ll be back soon. I’m off to Nashville. A longtime sportswriting friend and I are visiting another longtime sportswriting friend. The trip has been in the works for a while. I can’t get out of it. Nor do I want to. This is the closest I’ve been to a leisure trip in more than a decade.

The trip will definitely involve country music, barbecue and a visit to a Civil War battlefield. What I’m looking forward to, more than anything else, is the conversations of the road.

I thought about not even taking my laptop, but I’ll need it to keep up with the home front.

Many thanks to the advertisers who keep wellpilgrim.com going. The site is also supported by reader contributions. If you’re interested, you can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports).

Or, if you’d like to make a contribution by check or cash, my mailing address is: Monte Dutton, P.O. 221, Clinton, S.C.  29325 (hutdut@outlook.com).

It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I write.

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.