Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast… For those of you who listen to WLBG each week night between 6:00 and 8:00 pm you know that we carry Sports Talk each evening… They are now offering a Morning Sportscast each weekday morning done by the same folks… If you would like to listen to that click on the below you would like to listen to… Enjoy
Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… Each week during the high school football season Sports Talk Media Network does a recap of high school football in the South Carolina… It is about 10 minute long… They have made that recap available to WLBG and I will make it available for you to listen to… Click on the week below to hear it… Enjoy!
Note: The location to find the above two features will be moving to the “Between the Lines” section on the WLBG homepage below Mike’s Sports Report… They can be found there now but I’ll keep them in both places until Monday.
Varsity Football Games Around the Area Last Friday… If you would like to see a short recap of what happened in varsity football action last Friday night (9-8-23) and a link to any other information available on those games, click here.
Clinton HS
- Cross Country… Yesterday traveled to Palmetto HS to participate Palmetto Invitational
- Boys Finish Fourth… The Red Devils finished 4th out of 10 teams participating with 67 points just 8 points behind the winner Powdersville HS who finished with 59… Remember the low score wins just like in golf… The Red Devils led by William Reid who finished 1st overall with a time of 17:16:14 and Charlie Cody who finished 2nd overall with a time of 17:27:50… Click here for more information. On how other Red Devils did in the meet and the order of finish for all 10 schools participating.
- Girls… According to the schedule the girls team was scheduled to participate but no results have been posted…. When / if they get posted I will bring them to you.
Laurens HS
- Girls Tennis: Laurens 4 – Greer 3… Back on Monday the Lady Raider Tennis team hosted the Greer Yellow Jackets in region play and its good news for Raider fans as they took a hard-fought 4-3 win over the Jackets… #1 Kelsie Little, #3 Sara Katherine Starling and #5 Keilyn Mendoza won their singles sets which tied the two teams at 3-3… It was then up to the LDHS #1 doubles line of Kelsie Little and Sara Beth Field to decide the outcome of the match… After winning the first set in a tiebreaker 7/6 and coming back from 1-4 in the second set, they sealed the Raider win with a second set win of 7-5… This was the Lady Raiders first Region match of the season… The Lady Raiders travel to Riverside today.
Thornwell
- Volleyball: Thornwell 3- SC School for the Deaf and Blind 0… Yesterday the Thornwell Saints volleyball team traveled up to take on the SC School for the Deaf and Blind Hornets and defeated them 3-0… The set scores were 25-10, 25-6 and 25-9… Nahla Vargas served 14 straight aces in the final set and had 20 for the match… Lindley Beckett followed with 12… Reece Cummings led with four kills and was followed by Beckett and Jessi Pitts with two each… The Saints return home Thursday to face Whitmire in a region match-up at 5:30… The Saints are 5-1 for the season.
Laurens Academy
- Buddy Baker Chosen as Player of the week by TD Club… Laurens Academy senior Buddy Baker has been chosen as the Laurens County Touchdown Club Player of the Week for his performance in the Crusaders come-from-behind 36-34 win over the Oakbrook Prep Knights at Todd Kirk Field last Friday night (9-8-23)… Buddy is a senior offensive running back, linebacker and special teams player for the Crusaders.
- Offensively had 23 carries for 144 yards; 4 passing receptions for 44 yards and two touchdowns… Baker also scored on a two point PAT as well… Defensively, Baker had three total tackles with one tackle for loss and one forced fumble… Most importantly, Baker had the game clinching interception and return of 25 yards with 9 seconds remaining in the game to seal the victory for The Crusaders… Additionally, on special teams Baker kicked two successful onside kicks and had one return in the kicking game for 25 yards.
- Head Coach Jolly Doolittle stated, “Buddy is everything you expect from a senior… He leads, he learns, and he loves… Buddy leads with words and actions… He is disciplined in his approach to health and readiness to play the game, has a high football IQ, and loves his teammates… When the game was on the line Friday night, Buddy did what we knew he would – He Delivered.”
- Buddy will be honored at the TD Club’s next meeting on Thursday, September 21st at the third Touchdown Club meeting of the year… The meeting will be at noon at The Ridge in Laurens. Player of the Week awards this year will presented by Farm Bureau Insurance of Laurens County… The September 21st meeting will feature Newberry College Head Football Coach Todd Knight.
Middle Football Schedule for Thursday 9-14-23… All games start at 5:00 pm unless otherwise noted.
- Christ Church at Sanders at LMS football field
- Whitmire at Gray Court-Owings at GCO field.
- Hickory Tavern at Ware Shoals starts at 5:30
- Laurens MS at Thornwell starts at 5:30.
S.C. Prep Football Media Poll… Here are the rankings for the S.C. Prep Football Media Poll released Monday, Sept. 11. First-place votes and the team’s record are in parentheses…. Last week’s topped rank Dillon in Class 3A lost as did Abbeville in Class 2A so there are new #1 in each of those polls.
- CLASS 5A: 1. Summerville (17) (3-0) 2. Gaffney (3) (3-1) 3. Lexington (4-0) 4. Hillcrest (4-0) 5. Byrnes (3-1) 6. Sumter (3-1) 7. TL Hanna (3-1) 8. Spartanburg (2-2) and 9. (tie) Fort Dorchester (1-1) 9. (tie) JL Mann (4-0)… Others receiving votes: White Knoll, Boiling Springs, Ashley Ridge, Dutch Fork, Rock Hill and Cane Bay
- CLASS 4A: 1. South Florence (10) (4-0) 2. Hartsville (8) (4-0) 3. Northwestern (1) (2-1) 4. South Pointe (1) (3-1) 5. James Island (4-0) 6. Irmo (3-0) 7. West Florence (3-1) 8. Westside (2-1) 9. AC Flora (2-1) and 10. Midland Valley (4-0)… Others receiving votes: Greenville, Greenwood, Lucy Beckham, North Augusta, Ridge View and Airport.
- CLASS 3A: 1. Daniel (10) (3-0) 2. Clinton (7) (4-0) 3. Dillon (1) (2-1) 4. Belton Honea Path (2) (3-0) 5. Gilbert (3-0) 6. Crestwood (3-1) 7. Chester (3-1) 8. Chapman (3-1) 9. Broome (3-1) and 10. Manning (4-0)… Others receiving votes: Camden, Philip Simmons, Brookland-Cayce, Powdersville, Loris and Crescent
- CLASS 2A: 1. Gray Collegiate (16) (4-0) 2. Oceanside Collegiate (1) (3-1) 3. Abbeville (3) 4. Marion (4-0) 5. Hampton County (4-0) 6. Saluda (3-0) 7. Fairfield Central (3-1) 9. Silver Bluff (2-1) 9. (tie) Strom Thurmond (2-1) and 10. Woodland (2-0)… Others receiving votes: Andrews, Ninety-Six and Chesnee
- CLASS A: 1. Lewisville (17) (3-1) 2. St. Joseph’s (3) (4-0) 3. Calhoun County (4-0) 4. Christ Church (2-2) 5. Whale Branch (2-0) 6. Bamberg-Ehrhardt (3-1) 7. Denmark-Olar (3-1) 8. Latta (3-1) and 9. Hunter-Kinard Tyler (3-0) 9. (tie) Wagener-Salley (3-0)… Others receiving votes: Lake View, Southside Christian, Johnsonville, Blackville-Hilda, Whitmire, Branchville
High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings
- Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.
Broadcast Schedule: Below is a list of dates, times and teams that we plan on broadcasting live on Real Radio WLBG… And as usual you can hear it live on 860AM, 104.1 FM and the internet at www.wlbg.com… If it is a varsity football game, coverage will begin about 6:05 pm with the Friday Night Insiders program.
- Friday, 9-15-23: Laurens varsity football at Union County at 7:30
Local Sports Schedule: All schedules subject to change right up to game time.
- School District 55: To see the sports schedule for this week at LDHS, click here.
- School District 56: To see the sports schedule for this week at CHS and CMS, click here
- Laurens Academy: To see the varsity football schedule click here… To see the varsity & middle school volleyball schedules click here… To see the middle school football schedule click here.
- Thornwell: To see the Thornwell football schedule click here… To see the volleyball schedule click here… To see the cross country schedule click here.
- PC Sports Calendar… To see the PC athletics sports calendar, click here.
College Sports:
- FBS AP Rankings… The latest AP Ranking (9-5-23) for the FBS Division still has Georgia at #1 and Michigan #2… Alabama moves up a spot to # 3 and Florida State goers from #8 to #4… Ohio State rounds out the top 5… Clemson drops from #9 all the way to #25… To see the entire top 25 click here.
- FCS Coaches Poll… The latest FCS Coaches Poll (9-5-23) for college football has South Dakota State and North Dakota State listed as 1 & 2 in that order… The only team from South Carolina in the top 25 is Furman who is still listed at #6… To see the entire top 25 in the Coaches Poll click here.
Pro Sports: For more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores.
Atlanta Braves… The Braves started a 4-game series in 3 days yesterday making up a rained out game from earlier in the season as they played a doubleheader with the Phillies
- Braves 7 – Phillie 6 (10)… The Braves defeated the Phillies in Philadelphia last night by a score of 7-6 but it took them 10 innings to do it… The Braves led 6-1 after 5 innings after putting 5 runs on the scoreboard in the 5th inning… The Phillies battled back scoring a run in the bottom of the 9th inning to send the game into extra innings… In the top of the 10th inning, Eddie Rosario had an RBI single to drive in what would prove to be the game’s winning run… Six Atlanta pitchers gave up 12 hits 4 of which were homers while 5 Phillies pitchers gave up 10 hits 3 of which were homers… In the top of the 4th inning Matt Olson hit his 51st homer of the season while in the top of the 5th inning Ronald Acuna Jr (37) had a 2-run homer and Marcell Ozuna (34) stroked a 3-run homer.
- Braves Schedule… If you would like to see the Braves schedule and results after the games are finished, click here… Where the games can be seen on TV as well as start times and other information is available there also.
- MLB Standings… If you would like to check on the standings for both the American and National Leagues, click here.
Greenville Drive.
- Drive 3 – Crawdads 2… As you may recall the Greenville Drive finished in first place in the first half of the Southern Division of SAL league this season with a 36-30 record which gave them an automatic ticket in to the playoffs against the winner of the Southern Division’s second half winner which was the Hickory Crawdads… Last night they played the first game in a best of 3 division series up in Hickory and its good news for Drive fans as the Drive took a 3-2 win… They did it by simply outhitting the Crawdads 6-3 and one of the Drives hits was a solo homer by Allan Castro his fourth of the season for the Drive
- Drive Schedule… The Drive will return home to play the Crawdads in game 2 of the Division series Thursday night and the “if needed” game will be Friday night at Flour Field… To see the Drive’s schedule, click here.
- Standings… To see the standings for the South Atlantic League both the North and South Divisions, click here.
NASCAR
Tyler Reddick Wins at Kansas Speedway Last Sunday… In the second playoff Cup Series Race out at Kansas last Sunday, Tyler Reddick won in overtime to punch his ticket into the Round of 12… His car is co-owned by Denny Hamlin who finished second just 0.327 seconds behind Reddick…Click here for more information on the race.
Playoff Standings… Kyle Larson and Reddick are now atop the leader board in the Chase for the Cup and the 16 drivers that are in there will be cut down to 12 after this Sunday’s race at Bristol… To see the complete standings for the playoffs, click here.
NASCAR on TV This Week… NASCAR will be headed to the Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend for the next Cup Series Playoff Race on Saturday at 7:30 pm… There will be TV viewing this week of past races, practices, qualifying and other items on TV… To see the TV schedule, click here.
Schedule… To see the NASCAR season schedule and results for completed races click here… Once there you can filter by the month and the series that you want to check on.
This & That:
- Laurens County TD Next Meeting September 21st … The Laurens County Touchdown Club kicked off the 2023 season on Thursday, August 24th… The club meets bi-weekly at The Ridge (City of Laurens Parks and Recreation headquarters) at noon for a lunch… Each week the high school coaches will talk about their recent games and upcoming opponents… After the first meeting, there will also be quest speakers… To see a list of who those speakers are scheduled to be for each meeting click here… The TD Club will close out its season on Wednesday, December 6th with its Post Season Awards Banquet… For more information on how to join the club or become a sponsor click here… See you there!
If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to report scores, please contact me via email at: sports@wlbg.com or text me at 864-981-3470.
