By MONTE DUTTON
It’s all the same.
Sports. News. Weather. Music. Talk. Talk. Talk. Everything’s a talk show. Everybody’s got a podcast.
So why am I writing this?
So much seems micro, and so little seems macro.
So much minutiae. So much of the obvious. Superstar curses teammate in tunnel leaving court! Ex-Colorado player no longer likes Colorado! Imagine that.
Old people get this way, even ones who vowed they never would. One has to admit, though, it’s out of control.
One candidate for president is 81. Another is 77. Another is 70 and has a dead worm in his brain.
Neither Lebron James, Kevin Durant nor Stephen Curry reached the second round of the NBA playoffs.
No Ford has won a NASCAR Cup race. One lost on Sunday by an inch.
Pharmaceutical companies spend millions telling us to tell our doctors what to give us.
I continue to believe that having a computer in your watch is overkill.
The sports that are doing everything they possibly can to convince fans to gamble are in charge of policing the corruption that invariably follows.
If you want to earn a good living, raise a family and run a business doing something you like, learn a trade. If you want greater awareness of the world around you, go to college.
This has always been true.
The game in Fort Mill, matching Catawba Ridge (24-4) against Greenwood (18-11), determines which Class 4A baseball team plays Laurens (23-6) on Friday at 6:30 p.m. for a berth in the Upstate finals.
That game has been scheduled for Thursday, not Wednesday, according to both teams’ Gamechanger accounts.
The weather forecast is not the best.
The Raiders have faced both. Laurens has beaten Greenwood three times: 4-2, 5-3 and 1-0. The Copperheads defeated Laurens, 9-5, on March 3 in Georgetown. The Raiders returned the favor, 4-3, on May 3 for its third straight playoff victory.
Last season, it was Catawba Ridge, en route to the state title, that defeated Laurens, 4-0 and 4-2, in the Upstate finals.
To advance, either the Eagles or the Copperheads must defeat Laurens twice.
PC freshman Kasey Wolfe made both the All-Big South second and freshman softball teams.
Kaitlyn Tucker, who has a 3.91 grade-point average with a biology major and chemistry minor, made the all-academic team.
Wolfe batted. 257 with 11 extra-base hits, and posted a 3.55 earned run average in the circle.
Player of the Year
Lexie Roberts (OF), Radford
Pitcher of the Year
Nealy Lamb (P), Charleston Southern
Newcomer of the Year
Megan Powell (UTL), Winthrop
Freshman of the Year
Nealy Lamb (P), Charleston Southern
Coach of the Year
Chris Hawkins, USC Upstate
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Annah Junge (P, Gr.), Charleston Southern
It took two days to get the game in, but Laurens Academy won the SCISA Region 4-A softball championship with an 11-0 victory over Wardlaw.
The central force was Olivia Huck, in the circle and at the plate.
Huck was 3/4 with five runs batted in. She doubled and homered.
In the circle, Huck yielded two hits and two walks, and struck out 11.
Brianna McNeill took the loss. Taylor Hill and Brya McCormick had the Patriots’ hits.
The Crusaders had only five hits – Emily Suttles and Madisyn Graham had the other two – and benefited from six walks and seven Wardlaw errors.
Blake Lyons shot 90 and Pearson Goss 97 in the Upstate 4A golf tournament for Laurens. Lyons was 62nd out of 81 participants.
At least one story has been posted in 119 out of the past 120 days.
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