Category Archives: Sports
Daniel can’t capitalize against Wren at home
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
CENTRAL — Facing Wren in a crucial Western 3A matchup on Friday night, the Daniel High School baseball team struggled to muster run support throughout the night and headed to the seventh inning down 6-0.
There, Brodey Conn managed to finally put the Lions on the board with a two-out double, but it proved to be too little, too late as mistakes and missed opportunities resulted in a 6-2 loss.
“It’s tough to win ballgames when you’re playing a team like Wren that’s always going to be
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Green Wave fall against Science Hill
EASLEY — After a late-inning loss to Laurens last week, the Easley Green Wave looked to rebound against the Science Hill (Tenn.) Hilltoppers on Saturday.
However, the Green Wave were unable to get back on track against their out-of-state opponent in a 4-0 loss.
Turning to Kaleb Owens on the mound, the Green Wave saw the sophomore deliver, giving up just one hit in the
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Thornall’s arm, bat help lead Flame to third straight win against Liberty
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Coming off two straight region wins, the Pickens Blue Flame softball team hosted county foe Liberty on Monday and kept the momentum going in a 7-2 win.
The Blue Flame win was made possible by a strong day from freshman Kylie Thornall, both in the circle and in the batter’s box.
“She played awesome,” Pickens head coach Lizzie Fela said. “She’s just a freshman, so her coming in
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Daniel sweeps Pickens County meet
LIBERTY — For the second consecutive season, Daniel High School boys’ and girls’ teams swept the Pickens County Track Championship.
In the boys’ events, the Lions were led by a standout day from Jaylen Brown-Wallace. Brown-Wallace finished first in both the long and triple jumps and took third in the high jump to earn boys’ field MVP honors.
Brown-Wallace wasn’t the only multi-event winner for the Daniel boys, with Jeffery Davis winning both the 100 and 200 meter dashes alongside the 4×400 meter relay. Gabe Smith and James Taylor
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Pickens team wins Palmetto Region championship
PICKENS — The Pickens Carolina One 18 Elite volleyball team won the USAVolleyball Palmetto Region 2022 Championship on Sunday at the Rock Hill Sports and Event Center.
The Pickens Carolina One club volleyball team, which goes by the name “Pride,” won seven matches during the March 25-27 tournament. In the championship final, Pride defeated the Sumter Juniors Volleyball Club in two sets, 25-16, 25-17. The Pickens team did not drop a set during the Rock Hill tournament.
With the win comes a bid for Pride to play in the USAVolleyball Girls 18s Junior National Championship April 22-24 in Phoenix, Ariz.
“This group of young women continues to amaze and impress me,” Pride coach Nikki Anthony said. “They were fierce competitors on the court and a class act off the court this weekend. This team handedly won the Palmetto Region Tournament, as no team scored more than 17 points against us all weekend. The work they have put in all season prepared them for this final Palmetto Region Tournament, and all players contributed in the championship match.”
Pride also recently captured the tournament championship at the Shamrock Scuffle March 12-13 in Suwannee, Ga.
Pride features 11 upper-level players from five area high schools: Pickens, Belton-Honea Path, Easley, Walhalla and Wren. Players from Pickens High are Calie Covey, Alaina Craigo, Lauren Dow, Macie Gentry, Caroline Lucas and Emma Van Daele. Emmie Williams plays at Belton-Honea Path High, and Polly McCollum comes from Easley High. Payton Burkett is from Walhalla High, and Karson Haley and Ashley Stein play for Wren High.
Carolina One Volleyball is a locally owned nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting volleyball in Upstate South Carolina. Carolina One is now in its 15th season and is the longest-running volleyball club in the state of South Carolina.
Blue Flame take region series over Westside
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — A dominant day on the mound gave the Pickens Blue Flame their first region series win on the season on Friday as they took down Westside, 5-0.
Senior pitcher and Coker University commit Ryan Ford got the start for the Blue Flame and took down the Rams with ease, surrendering just two hits and adding eight strikeouts in five innings.
Even when Ford was taken out of the game after hurling a gem, the Blue Flame didn’t miss a step as Aidan Stewart closed out the rest of the game without surrendering a hit to the Rams.
Stewart proved to be too hard to handle for the Rams all week, with a win on Monday and the savc
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on Friday.
While getting a great day on the mound was essential to the Blue Flame effort, the win was made possible by the Pickens bats getting hot early.
C.J. Martin led the Flame off with a walk, and an error by the Rams shortstop allowed Kase Lewis to reach first base. With those two on base, Cooper O’Sullivan wasted no time bringing them home on a double to give Pickens a 2-0 lead.
Westside pitcher Elijah Grant settled down from there, striking out three straight Blue Flame batters to escape the inning.
A quick three-up, three-down inning by Ford put the Blue Flame right back in the batter’s box, and once again they were able to get on the scoreboard.
Tanner Tinsley picked up his first hit of the night and was quickly moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Brody Miller. Then, a Westside error not only allowed Tinsley to score, but also gave Martin a trip home as he rounded the bases in his second at-bat to bump the Pickens lead to 4-0.
Both offenses stalled out the rest of the way, with the lone exception coming in the sixth inning as Tinsley came to bat for the third time. For the second time on the night, Tinsley was able to get ahold of one of Grant’s pitches, picking up a hit and allowing eighth-grader Ayden Beeco to come home and score to give the Blue Flame the 5-0 advantage.
With the win over Westside, the Blue Flame turned their sights to region foe Walhalla. In game 1 of the series on Monday night, the Blue Flame fell 7-3 to drop to 4-2 on the season.
Pickens 5, Westside 0
WHS 000 000 0 0 2 4
PHS 220 001 X 5 5 0
WP: Ford 5 IP, 2H, 3BB, 8K
LP: Grant 6 IP, 5H, 5R, 2BB, 8K
PHS: O’Sullivan 3-3, 2 RBI, 2B; Tinsley 2-3, RBI, R.
WHS: Clark 1-3, 2B; Brownell 1-2, BB.
Lions survive Liberty on windy afternoon
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
CENTRAL — With winds reaching nearly 20 mph during Saturday afternoon’s Daniel-Liberty baseball game, nothing was made easy for either team.
Multiple times, time was called as infield dirt was scattered through the air and errors and wild pitches added up as wind altered the path of the baseball.
Despite the conditions, Daniel was able to withstand a late Liberty comeback for a 7-6 win behind a complete game from Luke McIntosh.
“We were in a bind,” Daniel head coach David Weathers said. “We didn’t have a ton of pitching left after the two games with Seneca, so Luke McIntosh came
out and competed his tail off and gave us a chance to win.”
While posting modest numbers on the mound, McIntosh excelled at controlling the damage for the Lions from atop the mound on a day where mistakes came in
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Green Wave outlast TR on diamond
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — After a controversial balk call in the fifth inning of Easley’s Monday night matchup with Travelers Rest allowed the Devildogs to pull within one run, Green Wave head coach Gill Payne challenged his team to fight to the finish.
The Green Wave did just that, working through two late-inning jams to get back on track in region play and win 4-3 to hand Travelers Rest its first region loss.
“I believe our guys got up and said ‘Enough is enough.’” Payne said. “They’re young and they make a lot of young mistakes, but they don’t give up.”
That lack of quit showed up twice in late innings, as starter Kaleb Owens delivered the Green Wave
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Blue Flame win streak continues against Rams
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — After not managing a single hit through three innings, Pickens High School head baseball coach Matt Smith advised his team to be patient in the batter’s box against Region I-4A foe Westside on Monday night.
“We had to make them come to us and get a little bit wild,” Smith said. “When we get guys on base, we put pressure on the defense.”
That approach immediately paid off for the Blue Flame, picking up their first run on an RBI triple by Reid Smith in the fourth, and the pressure seemed to mount in the fifth when the Blue Flame stranded runners at second and third.
From there, it was a downward spiral for the Westside pitching staff as Pickens was able to score four more runs in the sixth on an error, a passed ball and two walks in a 5-2 win.
“That’s the way the last couple of games have gone for us, dogfights until the fourth or fifth,” Smith said. “We just find ways and our guys just keep battling. Some games that we may have lost in years past, we’re finding ways to win those games now.”
Despite the lack of offense early on, the Blue Flame were able to stay in the game behind the arm of left-handed junior Aidan Stewart, but the game did not start in the junior hurler’s favor.
A leadoff four-pitch walk gave the Rams a runner early, and two batters later, Westside’s Noah Robinson drove home the run on single shot between shortstop and third. According to Smith, he was prepared to start warming up his bullpen, but Stewart had other plans.
“I knew I had to work my fastball more and more and get my curveball going,” Stewart said.
Stewart was electric the rest of the way and finished the night pitching 5 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts, two hits and the lone walk on the leadoff batter.
“He’s been lights out for the last three or four outings,” Smith said. “He’s won two games in a row for us and then came out and started the first region game tonight. Wasn’t pretty to start, but as soon as he settled in, he was almost unhittable. You can’t say enough about that kid.”
When Stewart was done on the mound, Blue Flame senior Ryan Ford took over, delivering four strikeouts and the save despite some late hiccups to cap off the 5-2 Pickens win.
The win gave the Blue Flame their third straight win to start the regular season, and more importantly a 1-0 start in region play.
Pickens 5, Westside 2
WHS 100 000 1 2 2 1
PHS 000 104 X 5 3 1
WP: Stewart 5.2 IP, 2H, 2R, BB, 7K
LP: Barbee 5 IP, 3H, 4R, 4BB, 5K
PHS: Smith 1-3, 2 RBI, 3B; Martin 0-1, 3BB, R.
WHS: Robinson 1-2, RBI, R; Telley 1-3.
Pickens’ Lucas inks with Francis Marion
PICKENS — Coming off successful seasons in basketball, swimming and volleyball, Pickens High School senior Caroline Lucas signed with Francis Marion 
University on Friday to continue her academic and athletic career in volleyball.
Lucas is best known for her play with the Blue Flame volleyball team, twice earning all-state honors and helping to lead Pickens to its first state championship since 2014 this fall.
In addition to her play on the volleyball court, Lucas stayed busy this fall, competing on the inaugural Pickens swim team.
Following her successful fall, Lucas moved to the basketball court, providing a strong presence in the post as she helped to lead the Blue Flame girls to their first playoff win since 2010.
Lucas will finish her career at Pickens this spring competing with the Blue Flame track and field team in the hurdles, javelin and high jump.
