NEWS BRIEFS: RiverDogs head to championship playoffs

RiverDogs photo.

Staff reports  |  The Charleston RiverDogs, minor league baseball’s dominating team (77-31) with 11 more wins than any other Low-A team this season, is headed to the season playoffs, team officials announced Sunday.

The team, which is the first from Charleston to play for a championship since 1988, clinched the playoff berth after a 7-6 Sunday win over the Columbia Fireflies that went 10 innings. The team also has a 10-game winning streak.

The RiverDogs has its final regular season home stretch for six games against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans starting Tuesday.  The regular season ends Sept. 19 with the playoffs starting Sept. 24 in Charleston. More.

In other recent news: 

State Supreme Court throws out school mask mandate.  South Carolina’s highest court on Thursday tossed out a school mask mandate in the state’s capital city, saying it contradicts a state budget measure aimed at preventing face covering requirements.  According to the Associated Press, the court ruled unanimously that “the Columbia ordinance is written so that the burden of enforcing the mask rule falls on school employees, ‘all of whom have an obvious connection to state-appropriated funds.’”

Chamber recognizes 10 local companies.  The Charleston Metro Chamber is recognizing 10 member businesses that made the annual Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.  Chamber members represented include:  Claimlogiq – No. 726; Floyd Lee Locums – No. 925; Catch Talent – No. 959; Preferred Home Services – No. 2,044; PhishLabs – No. 2,857; Matt O’Neill Real Estate – No. 3,113; UNITS Franchising Group – No. 3,293; Crescent Homes – No. 3,782; Cantey Tech Consulting – No. 3,855; and The Cassina Group – No. 4,533.

Charleston remembers former S.C. Rep. Lucille Whipper.  Whipper, a longtime community advocate, died Aug. 27. She pushed for social and economic change.

Battle over spit near Kiawah is over.  In a big win for the conservation community, a dispute over whether Kiawah Development Partners can build on a sand spit appears to be over after the state’s Supreme Court sided with environmentalists who argued against building in the ecologically sensitive area and then refused to revisit the case on Wednesday.