Former Lakeside High School catcher Clayton Miller was a late bloomer. He did not play a key role for the Panthers until his senior season, but he parlayed his move to catcher, along with a huge final prep season at the plate, into a scholarship to Armstrong Atlantic State in Savannah.

Miller continued to work hard after his senior campaign was over, and the hard work paid off.

Last season, he was a pleasant surprise for the coaching staff at Armstrong. Miller not only cracked the starting lineup, but he also hit .301, had 12 doubles and 19 RBI.

It is hard to believe baseball season is already here, but for college teams around the country it is. That includes the USC Aiken Pacers, a team that features several Columbia County natives on the roster.

USC Aiken is off to a 4-0 start as is the local contingent.

Last weekend, the Pacers swept Lincoln Memorial in a three-game series and moved in to the national Top 30. The Pacers opened the season with a 15-3 pasting of Lincoln Memorial.

Today is college football’s National Signing Day. In our era of 24-hour news cycles, sports talk radio and the World Wide Web, Signing Day has become almost as big as the actual games themselves.

In big-time college football there is a feeding frenzy among the powerhouse schools to secure the nation’s top high school talent. In today’s college football, a couple of poor recruiting classes could cost a coach his job.

Among the big programs today, recruiting is as cutthroat as it gets. Recruiters will do almost anything to get the signature of the country’s premier talent.

I recently previewed the large group of Columbia County baseball players who will be playing for Augusta State and USC Aiken, but those are not the only schools that will feature players from this county. The biggest Columbia County impact might be felt at Francis Marion.

The Patriots are ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation in virtually every preseason Division II poll. Last season, they went 41-16 and came within a run of making the DII World Series. A pair of freshmen from Columbia County were keys to that success.