By MONTE DUTTON
Of course, I pondered the Masters when I should have been finishing my taxes. No sweat. Still got a day.
I was happy Scottie Scheffler won. He seems like an agreeable lug. I enjoyed watching Ludvig Aberg. Don’t ever change, kid.
Golf needs someone to be the best for more than a year or two. Undoubtedly, they’re going to claim it’s just so competitive that no one will ever dominate again.
That’s what “they” said when Tiger Woods came along.
Scheffler has now reached the level of celebrity where, any day now, I’m going to open my web homepage and find that he recently set off a furor by telling a joke about vegans.
Meanwhile, back at the Ponderosa, how about the Blue Boys?
Presbyterian almost put Eagles back on the endangered-species list with a three-game sweep of Winthrop that extended the rampaging Blue Hose’ Big South streak to six.
PC outscored the Eagles by a combined margin of 37-7.
Consecutive series sweeps over Radford and Winthrop have hoisted Presbyterian (19-17, 10-2) into a first-place tie with USC Upstate.
It’s early yet. The Blue Hose have remaining three-game series at High Point (April 19-21), home against USC Upstate (April 26-28), at Charleston Southern (May 3-5) and home with UNC Asheville (May 16-18). Only the top four teams qualify for the Big South tournament, which is in High Point, N.C., on May 23-25. The Blue Hose have yet to play three of those teams.
However, the current standings are sharply separated between the top four and the rest. PC and USC Upstate are 10-2, High Point and Charleston Southern are 8-4, and no one else is better than 4-8.
The Blue Hose had to come off the deck to win, 4-3, on Sunday.
Winthrop (13-20, 4-8) pushed two runs across the plate in the top of the third inning, and Presbyterian didn’t get started until the sixth.
Noah Lebron led off with a walk, followed by Jack Gorman’s single. Jake Randolph double to center, scoring Lebron, and Jackson Hugus crushed a double down the right-field line to drive in Gorman and Randolph. PC led, 3-2.
Then, in the Winthrop seventh, Charlie Evans’ solo homer tied the game.
What proved to be the game-winner began with Jay Wetherington’s triple to right and ended with Brody Fahr’s sacrifice fly.
Fenix DiGiacomo’s performance on the mound was worthy of a decision. The junior from Spotsylvania, Va., allowed only two hits and two unearned runs in 5-2/3 innings, matching three walks with three strikeouts. The third pitcher who followed him, Sean Hollister (W, 1-1) closed out the Eagles with 2-1/3 innings of one-hit, three-strikeout relief.
The middle of three Eagles hurlers, Caleb Jones (1-1) took the loss.
PC doubled the Winthrop hit total with eight. Wetherington, Randolph and Hugus each got two of them.
Shortstop Harrison Wilson managed two of Winthrop’s four safeties.
The Blue Hose visit Wofford for a 6 p.m. Tuesday game in Spartanburg.
Take a look at the box here.
While baseball rose, so too did softball fall.
USC Upstate (22-15, 10-2) finished off a three-game sweep with a 2-1 victory Presbyterian (14-29, 4-8) lost its fifth straight.
First baseman Cassie Norris led the Spartans with a single and double in three at-bats. Upstate had six hits to the Blue Hose’ three.
Kaitlyn Tucker, Grice Logan and Clinton’s Maddi Wood rapped the PC singles.
PC’s only run scored in the bottom of the first inning. Upstate tied it in the third and won it in the fourth with single runs.
The pitching, obviously, was superb on both sides. Alyssa Kelly (W, 3-2) gave up only an unearned run and didn’t yield a base on balls. Jenna Greene (L, 7-12) walked one and struck out four.
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