A Player You Should Know...

Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Private Benjamin Gifford (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on April 6, 1865, at Sailors Creek, Virginia. His citation reads:

Capture of flag.

Private David L. Gifford (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on May 24, 1864, at Ashepoo River, South Carolina. His citation reads:

Volunteered as a member of a boat crew which went to the rescue of a large number of Union soldiers on board the stranded steamer Boston and with great gallantry assisted in conveying them to shore, being exposed during the entire time to a heavy fire from a Confederate battery.

Landsman Frank S. Gile (US Navy) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on November 16, 1863, on board the US Lehigh. His citation reads:

On board the U.S.S. Lehigh, Charleston Harbor, 16 November 1863, during the hazardous task of freeing the Lehigh, which had been grounded, and was under heavy enemy fire from Fort Moultrie. After several previous attempts had been made, Gile succeeded in passing in a small boat from the Lehigh to the Nahant with a line bent on a hawser. This courageous action while under severe enemy fire enabled the Lehigh to be freed from her helpless position.


The I’m just sayin… Know Your South Carolina Athlete

The athlete we are going to spotlight today is my good friend (my words, not his) Donald Morillo. I’m not 100% sure about this, but I am about 99% sure that Donald is the only baseball player to play on local teams in high school (James Island), college (The Citadel) AND minor league (The Riverdogs). Anyway, Donald Morillo was named the 1995 Southern Conference Tournament’s most valuable player and helped lead the Bulldogs to a pair of NCAA Regional appearances (’94 at Clemson and ’95 at Knoxville, Tenn.). The league’s top reliever with 13 saves in ’95, Morillo also paced the SoCon that season with 32 appearances and a 1.60 ERA. He was an All-Atlantic Region pitcher as selected by the ABCA and also earned NCBWA All-America honorable mention recognition. Upon graduation, Morillo held the school record for most appearances in a season (35), most career appearances (98) and most saves in a season (13). For his career, the relief pitcher/outfielder/designated hitter posted a 14-9 record and 2.73 ERA with 202 strikeouts in 214.2 innings while batting .327 with 14 home runs. He signed with the Texas Rangers as a free agent and played for the Charleston RiverDogs. He has been inducted into the Citadel Hall of Fame and the Charleston Baseball Hall of Fame.

The only bad thing I can say about Donald is that he seems to have an inflated sense of how good of a baseball player Sonny was back in the day. Seriously, I sat with him at a banquet a couple of years ago and he talked about Sonny like he was Ozzie Freakin’ Smith. It was all I could do not to grab him by his shirt and start yelling, “My God man, you’re a flippin’ Hall of Famer! Get a hold of yourself!” I joke because I love him (and Sonny’s ok, too). Besides, it’s nice hearing great players say great things about Sonny… because Coach Hatley said I was better than him (in so many words), so suck it Sonny. All kidding aside, Donald Morillo was a great baseball player (for my money, one of the best from this area) and I am happy to have him on here as our SC Athlete you should know.

FYI… A lot of the info about Donald came from The Citadel…