COLUMBIA — Clarke Schmidt’s original plan for this past summer involved pitching in the Coastal Plain League, and putting himself in position to contend for a weekend starter’s spot with the South Carolina baseball team. But very suddenly, baseball didn’t seem to matter as much anymore.
Everything changed in early June, when Schmidt’s older brother Clate, a pitcher at Clemson, was diagnosed with nodular sclerosis lymphoma. The blood cancer led to rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Clarke was right next to him through all of it.
“When you’re a 19-year-old kid, you don’t expect your best friend and your brother to find out he has cancer.