By MONTE DUTTON
At this stage of my career, the best part of the annual Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame is that the audience mainly consists of people my age and older.
They knew my parents. They ate at the Wrangler. They bought watermelons at my grandfather’s store. Those family businesses have been gone, as is the currently popular cliché, for a minute.
I never met Jean Hammond Whitfield before Thursday night at the Laurens County Museum, but she learned to bowl the same place I did, Palmetto Lanes. She got the hang of it quite a bit better. For me, it was the natural hangout for students at Bell Street Middle School across the street. I was better at the arcade games.
I grew up across the road from Robert Wilder, whom I always knew as Mister. He was a stern, quiet man who didn’t have much to say because there was no need. He was the principal at Clinton High School when my parents went there. The main words they remembered were, “Well, that’s not the way we’re gonna do it.”
Most of time I saw Mr. Wilder, it involved a horse or a cow from our farm getting out and me and my brother heading over to bring it back. He was a nice fellow. He just didn’t have much to say. Most who knew him remember him well.
Right before I left to join the NASCAR gypsies, Charles Peterson was drafted in the first round by the Pittsburgh Pirates. As soon as I returned, another Raider, Thomas Jones, was drafted third by the Miami Marlins. The last time I talked to Charles, he was scouting Jones for the Saint Louis Cardinals. I had no idea it was the last time. COVID claimed him.
Anthony Downs was not only great at LDHS. He was great at Appalachian State, quite often at Furman’s expense. Incredibly, in spite of my degrees from CHS and Furman, I discovered he’s a great guy.
I bump into Walter Todd from time to time, usually when I’m taking photos of him playing golf. Golf in this county might as well be named Todd. I like talking golf with Walter, which is not too different from me talking comedy with Jerry Seinfeld. Then again, that’s what sportswriting is. We all know enough to be dangerous. The good news is that the people who read us know even less. We’re intermediaries. The good ones realize this. Occasionally, I do.
Mr. Wilder was represented by his grandson, Peterson by his mother and daughter. Downs, Todd and Whitfield, being very much alive, spoke for themselves.
Many of those already enshrined were there. I wrote about Shell Dula’s teams at three schools. I knew Buddy Jennings first when he coached under Dick Sheridan at Furman. Ann Parks was the girls’ basketball coach when I was at Clinton High. Not only does everyone in Clinton know Truman Owens. Everyone in Clinton knows Truman well.
I played for Keith Richardson.
And my late mother loved Lee’s Barbecue.
I’ve always been a fundamentalist where halls of fame are concerned. People get all agitated arguing over who’s a hall of famer and who’s not, who should be and who shouldn’t, and I think the main requirement for being in a hall of fame is that a person has to be famous.
Round two is tougher than round one.
Duh.
Clinton (10-1) advanced on Thursday with a 4-3 victory over Walhalla in the second match of the Class 3A boys’ tennis playoffs.
Next the Red Devils take on Wren in Piedmont on Monday at 5 p.m.
Clinton 4, Walhalla 3
# 1 Singles, Nathan Meade defeated Xander Williams 6 – 0, 6 – 2; # 2 Singles, Edwin Orr defeated Jacob Williams 6 – 1, 6 – 0; #3 Singles,Matthew King lost to Jonathan Stewart 6 – 1, 6 – 2; # 4 Singles, Jacob King defeated Luke Vosburgh 6 – 2, 6 – 1; # 5 Singles, Malakye Brewer lost to David Stewart 6 – 0, 6 – 4
# 1 Doubles, N. Meade & E. Orr (CHS) defeated X. Williams & J. Williams, (WHS) 6 – 4, 6 – 1; # 2 Doubles, Brady Mason & Ethan Wargo lost to Eric Crouse & Louie Yannizzi 6 – 0, 6 – 3.
Thornwell won its second in a row, defeating Calhoun Falls, 8-5, on the Flashes’ home field.
Winning pitcher Sam Robertson labored on the mound but sparkled with a bat in his hands. He was 4/4 with two doubles, two runs scored and three batted in for the Saints (7-14).
Shortstop Griffen Raines was 3/4 with three runs and an RBI. Parker Workman doubled and drove in three runs.
On the hill, Robertson allowed 13 hits, threw 107 pitches Two of the five runs charged him were unearned. He walked two and fanned eight.
Laurens’ tennis season ended with a 5-1 road loss to South Aiken.
Gibson Partee was the lone winner for the Raiders (7-11).
Laurens Academy couldn’t hold the lead in Thursday evening’s game at home against King Academy.
After the Crusaders (5-10) scored two runs in the first inning and led 3-1 after three, the Knights (3-3) scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings to edge LA, 4-3.
A seventh-inning error, one of LA’s five, allowed the go-ahead run to score.
Catcher Caleb Hardy led the Crusaders with two hits, one a double, in three at-bats with two runs scored. Evan Asalone was 2/4.
Left fielder Nathan Bell doubled and drove in two runs.
Casen Buzhardt collected two of King’s three hits. He had the only RBI.
Neither starting pitcher, Asalone (L) or King’s Elijah Hutto 
allowed an earned run. Asalone gave up two hits and three walks, striking out nine in 6-2/3 innings. Hutto went six, allowing four hits with a walk and seven strikeouts. Dallas Hill earned a save.
The stakes went up in the Region 4-3A baseball race when Woodruff upended Union County, 5-1, on Thursday night.
Clinton (12-10, 5-2) takes on Union County (12-8, 5-2) at 6 p.m. on Friday at CHS. A win gives the Red Devils the championship, but a loss drops Clinton to third place behind Union County and Woodruff (10-13, 5-3).
The Wolverines own the tie breaker because of two wins over the Red Devils.
The playoffs open next Tuesday.
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