Sports Report for Friday, 5-10-2024

Local Notes

Laurens HS

  • Up Next for the Raiders Baseball Team… The Raiders do not play again until tomorrow  when who they host a team that is still to be determined because the Greenwood at Catawba Ridge game last night at Catawba Ridge was postponed due to weather… They are now scheduled to play tomorrow night at 6:00 and I’ll try to let you know who that is tomorrow morning in a posting here on WLBG.com and on X (Twitter) …  The winner of that game will travel to Laurens tomorrow and have to beat the Raiders twice to advance while the Raiders only have to win one game… The “if needed” game will be Monday at 6:30…To see the Class AAAA Baseball Bracket click here.
  • Porter Fills Out Coaching Staff… New Raider head football coach Greg Porter has finalized his coaching staff for the upcoming football season starting August 23rd when the Raiders host one of his former team the Hillcrest Rams…
    • On offense Adams Dean will be returning to the Raider where he served as an assistant under Coach Chris Line and will be the offensive coordinator a position he most recently held in Greenwood…Coaches returning from last year for the Raiders include Jawon Stephens will coach the offensive line, Aaron Pridemore the slot receivers, Kionte Boyd outside linebackers and Brian Strickland the running backs.
    • On defense Coach Porter himself will serve as the defensive coordinator… Two coaches on the defensive side of the ball came with him from Greenville and they include Roderick Harris who will coach the defensive line and Patrick Stoddard who will help with the defensive line especially the defensive ends… Allen Patterson will coach the linebackers and Marcus Cooke the defensive back… Both return from last year’s coaching staff… Baseball Coach Tri Patterson is also returning to help with defensive back after stepping away for football for a couple of years.
    • Also on the coaching staff will be two other coaches from last year’s staff… Josef Lorenz will continue to handle kickers and punters while Jamie Childress will help with operation and be the flex coach.

Laurens Academy

  • SCISA Softball Bracket Released… The Crusader softball team now knows the where and when they will start their participation in the SCISA Class A softball Tournament… They will be traveling down to Sumter for a 5:00 pm game today at Patriot Park… They will play the winner of the Jefferson Davis vs. Wardlaw game that starts at 3:00 pm… They have played Wardlaw twice this year already and defeated decisively them both times… They have not played Jeff Davis…  Should they win they will return to action on Saturday at Patriot Park for a 9:00 am game…. Should they lose they will have another game at 7:00 pm and if they win that game hey will head back down for a 9:00 am game Saturday morning plus possibly 2 more games if they continue to win in the losers’ bracket Saturday… To see the entire Class A SCISA Bracket plus some other notes about the tournament including admission price, click here… Good Luck to the Crusaders!

Broadcast Notes… We plan on brining you the following contest here on Real Radio WLBG:

  • Saturday, baseball… The Raiders will host a team yet to be determined by a pair of games this week… First pitch is scheduled for 6:00.

Local Sports Schedules: 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 and middle school baseball schedule click here… To see the varsity & middle school softball schedule click here.
  • Thornwell:  To see the Thornwell varsity baseball schedule and results click here.… To see the Saints softball schedule and results click here.
  • PC Sports Calendar… To see the PC athletics sports calendar, click here.



College Sports: For any game mentioned below, click on the score for more details if available.

 College Baseball

  • D-1 Rankings… The latest college baseball rankings according to D1BASEBALL.COM TOP 25 came out on 5-4-24… The top 5 are (previous spot in parenthesis): Tennessee (3), (1), Clemson (4), Texas A&M (1), Kentucky (8) and Arkansas (2)…  South Carolina checked in at #13 (15)… If you wish to see the entire top 25 according to the poll click here.
  • ScoresIf you click here, it will carry you to a posting linked to the NCAA website where you can find the latest scores, past scores and future contest in D1 baseball… When you get there, it will list scores and contest by top 25 and if you scroll down, it will also list them by conferences… Enjoy!

College Softball

  • ACC Softball Tournament UnderwayThe ACC Softball Tournament is underway up in Durham, NC and will conclude with the championship game on Saturday…. To go to the ACC website where information about the tournament is located, click here… I will go ahead and tell you that Clemson played their first game in the tournament yesterday and took an 8-1 win over Virginia to advance to the semi-finals today against the #1 seeded Duke Blue Devils today at 1:00 pm… To see a recap and stats on the win against Virginia, click here.
  • SEC Softball Tournament UnderwayLikewise the SEC Softball Tournament is also underway out in Auburn, Alabama and the championship game there will take place on Saturday also… To go to the SEC website where information about the tournament is located, click here… The Gamecocks played yesterday and took and 8-4 win over Mississippi State… They will now play #9 seeded Texas A&M today at 12:30 pm…To see details of the Gamecocks win over Mississippi State click here.
  • D-1 RankingsThe latest college softball rankings put out by ESPN and USA Softball came out 5-5-24… The top 5 are (previous spot in parenthesis): Texas (1), Oklahoma State (4), Tennessee (3) Oklahoma (2) and Duke (5) … The Clemson Tigers moved up a spot from #212 to #21…South Carolina is still out of the top 25… If you wish to see the entire top 25 according to the poll click here
  • Scores… Similar to baseball above, if you click here, it will carry you to a posting linked to the NCAA website where you can find the latest scores, past scores and future contest in D1 baseball… When you get there, it will list scores and contest by top 25 and if you scroll down, it will also list them by conferences… Enjoy!



Pro SportsFor more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores. 

 Atlanta Braves For more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores.

  • Season Schedule… The Braves were off last night and will travel to New York to start a weekend series with the Mets tonight… If you would like to see the Braves, click hereIt should also show where the game will be televised if it is televised.
  • Other MLB Scores & Schedules… If you would like to see other scores around MLB last night or in the recent past plus the schedule of upcoming games, click here.
  • Standings… To see the MLB Standings click here… Once you get there you will see the standing by league (American or National) and also by division.

Greenville DriveFor more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores.

  • Hickory 4 – Drive 2The Greenville Drive played a doubleheader at Flour Field yesterday as they finished the suspended game from Wednesday night…. When the game was suspended on Wednesday the Drive led the Hickory Crawdads 2-1… After the game restarted, the Drive were not able to score another run as the Crawdads came back to take a 4-2 win… They simply outhit the Drive 9-6.
  • Drive 5 – Hickory 2The Drive rebounded in the second game to take a 5-2 win over the Crawdads… The Crawdads actually outhit the Drive 7-2 but 2 of the Drive’s hits were homers… Kristian Campbell (5) had a solo homer in the 1st inning and Caden Rose (3) had a 2-run homer as part of a 4 run 2nd inning for the Drive.
  • ScheduleIf you wish to see the Greenville Drive schedule and results of completed games, click here.
  • Standings… To see the standings for the South Atlantic League (SAL) click here.

NBA

  • Scores… To see the latest scores in the NBA and games up next, click here
  • Standings To see the current standing and records in each of the NBA Conferences click here.

NASCAR

  • Kyle Larson Inched Out Chris Buescher at Kansas SundayKyle Larson won the Cup Series race out in Kansas Sunday in overtime… The race restarted for a 2 lap finish and Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher battled down the front stretch headed to the finish line and bumped each other at least 2 times but Larson edged him out by an inch (0.001 seconds) to take the closet win in NASCAR history…   Click here to go to the NASCAR website where there is much more about this including the final race results.
  • Standings… Kyle Larson still leads the Driver Standings in the Cup Series while Martin Truex Jr. remains second… Chase Elliot retained his 3rd place spot and Denny Hamlin 4th.…To see the driver standings for the Cup Series click here… Once you get there you can also click on links to see the standings in Xfinity and Truck Series using tabs in the upper right corner of the posting.
  • Schedule This WeekThis week NASCAR holds it’s racing this week is down in Darlington for the Mother’s Day Weekend…. To see the schedule for practices and races click here.
  • NASCAR on TV this Week… NASCAR has several things being televised this week including race practices and qualifying, the race itself and assorted other things… To see the TV schedule for each day of the week click here.



This & That:

 Ticketing Information for Playoff Games and Matches…  A quick reminder that only South Carolina High School: League passes will be accepted for admission for all post-season contests…. No school or season passes will be accepted….  No exceptions… Further in most all cases admission will be $8.00 and everyone must have a ticket… All these are SCHSL rules.

 

 

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.