DUE WEST, S.C. –  This story, which highlights Erskine Baseball Co-Head Coach Jimmy Prince and alumnus Ryan Sutton, was written by Cort Street for the Index-Journal, and erskinesports.com has been granted permission by the Index-Journal to publish the story as well.

Grier Field, the home of Erskine baseball, leaps from the countryside of Due West — its tall pines lining the outfield, a brick wall framing the scene, giving it all a sort of rustic charm.

The setting has become something more — an artifact of baseball tradition — not because of the field itself but largely because of what remains just behind it, where a small town crowd still gathers to be inspired again.

Two men crossed paths at very different points in life on that field — one still unsure of the path he would take, and one having already found it.

For Ryan Sutton, it was through baseball that he discovered the magic of Due West.

For Jimmy Prince, it was Due West that led him to rediscover baseball.

Raised in the Charlotte area, Sutton identified his passion for baseball early in life and starred in high school. Ranked as the No. 15 pitcher in North Carolina by his senior year, Sutton chose to continue his baseball journey at Campbell University.

A torn labrum and rotator cuff early in his college career, however, forced him to reconsider his future. Seeking out a fresh start, he committed to Erskine College, despite knowing little about the area at the time.

It was there he met Prince, who was an assistant at the time, and Sutton would quickly develop a bond with Prince as he transitioned to a student-assistant coach role.

"I learned a lot from him," Sutton said. "It was a good chance for me to see how someone who grew up in a small town like Due West operated, and especially how he went from the high school ranks and moved up to coaching in arguably one of the best baseball conferences in Division II across the United States."

Prince indeed was no stranger to the culture of Due West, having grown up in the area and graduated from Dixie High School in 1995.

Prince went on to have a successful college baseball career at North Greenville, where he was a Mid-South Conference honorable-mention pitcher and a second-team all-conference shortstop.

But after North Greenville, Prince moved to Anderson with his wife and, for the first time in as long as he could remember, stepped away from the game of baseball.

It took that time away for Prince to realize how important it was to him.

"I just missed the game of baseball," he said. "I missed being around it, competing, and I wanted to give back and serve others."

Prince got his first opportunity to return in a volunteer role at Dixie as a pitching coach, then quickly moved into the role of assistant coach. After four years, he took over as coach of the Dixie baseball team, a position he held for nine seasons.

"It was awesome to come back home to be a coach where I played at," he said. "And all the love and effort my coaches had poured into me, Coach (Jim) Rich, just the way he treated me and pushed me to be a better person. … I wanted to give back to the players what my coaches had instilled in me."

During Prince's time at Dixie, the Hornets won the region championship four times and the district championship twice. He was named Region Coach of the Year three times, a North-South All Star coach and the South Carolina Class 1A Coach of the Year in 2019.

One summer, after being given the opportunity to coach in the Coastal Plains League — a wood-bat, summer collegiate baseball league – Prince was discovered by then-Erskine coach Mark Crocco and offered a position with the Fleet.

Before the 2026 season, five years after he joined Erskine, Prince was promoted to the position of co-head coach of the program alongside Scotty Bateman.

"It was always a dream to coach college baseball, and with it being right here at home, it was no-brainer," Prince said. "I live in the house I grew up in, right here in the town I grew up in."

Erskine Athletic Director Mark Peeler, who has been on staff at the college for 27 years, understood the importance of what Prince brought to the baseball program.

"He coached at Dixie for a lot of years, and he coached my son in baseball there," Peeler said. "So I saw firsthand the kind of coach Jimmy was. He's worked really hard at every position he's held with the baseball team. To get to get where he is right now — he's earned that. It's pretty cool to have someone with that much history and loyalty to Erskine as a part of the baseball program."

Through his time with the team, Prince has seen players come to hold the same appreciation for his hometown as he has.

"A lot of players who come from Florida and other places, when they first get here, it's like a culture shock for a little bit," Prince said. "And once they're here for a while, I ask them what they like about it. And it's always that there's no distractions because it's a quiet town, so they just get to work on their academics, they get to work on their craft of baseball."

Prince's local ties have also given him a greater appreciation for the importance of local recruiting.

"I think a lot of times people overlook the talent in South Carolina," Prince said. "We want to bring that local talent in, because it means more to somebody that's grown up here if we're not winning — they're going to be more invested. And when those guys commit to us, it tells other people that it's a good place to go."

After two years working as a student assistant and graduating from Erskine, it was not long before Sutton was offered a familiar position to his mentor — the coach of the Dixie baseball team.

Sutton still stays in touch with Prince, even at his new position.

"He'll come check out our Dixie games, I'll go watch the Erskine games," Sutton said. "Having him as a resource on hand is extremely valuable, being a young coach. Whenever I have a question about something or need some advice, Jimmy is always the first person I go to."

In just three years with Sutton at the helm, Dixie has won three district titles and played for the Upper State championship, falling just one game short of the state final.

Prince isn't the least bit surprised by the team's instant success.

"He's a hard worker, and he loves his players," Prince said of Sutton. "Anytime that players can see that you care about them, they're going to play a little bit harder for you. And Coach Sutton is one of those that just pours his heart into coaching."

Sutton, meanwhile, has been busy discovering the magic of a small town, one that led him to discover a new passion after a career-altering injury.

"We have more parents, teachers, administration and fans that are at some of these games at Dixie High School than I've ever seen growing up in Charlotte," Sutton said. "It's obviously a very tight knit community. It's a very family-oriented community. I know a lot of kids whose parents and grandparents still live in the area. And that's such a special thing, to coach kids whose parents have also gone to Dixie High School and stayed in the area."

It's that very community that sets Erskine apart, in the eyes of Peeler.

"We just have good people here, and we want to make sure these kids get the kind of experience from people that care about Due West," Peeler said. "When kids get here, they know they're welcome and they're in a smaller community where they are going to be somebody."

On a wet, rainy day, you might see the Dixie High School baseball team working just to the side of Grier Field in the covered batting cages, not having to take a day off as a result of a community that sees itself as one.

On rare occasions, when Erskine's home field is too wet for practice, you may see the college team take the short trip down to Dixie's James D. Rich Field. On those days, the Dixie team, alongside Sutton, will most definitely gather to watch the team practice — a college baseball team "that does things right," in the words of Sutton.

It's a testament to the strong community of a small town, but especially to the connection of two men — Sutton, who found Due West through his baseball journey, and Prince, whose passion for Due West led him back to baseball and, ultimately, to the position he had only dreamed was possible.

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