Tuesday, 4-15-25
Please see an important note and question about the future of this report in the This and That Section at the bottom of this report.
Local Notes
Clinton vs Laurens… Last night the Clinton varsity baseball team traveled to Laurens HS to take on the Raiders in the first game of a two-game series with the Raiders for the “County Championship”.
- Raiders 5 – Red Devils 0… The first 4 innings saw both teams threaten to score but did not before the Raiders scored 1 run in the 5th inning when Coleman Coker led eh inning off with a solo homer… The 6th inning saw the Raiders break the game open as they scored 4 runs in the inning on an error, 3 singles, a sacrifice fly and a double… The Red Devils never quit as they loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the 7th inning only to have relief pitcher Connor Rice strike out the next batter and then the next 2 Red Devils popped up to the infield and the Raiders started their celebration… The Raiders only outhit the Red Devils 6-4 with Zay Pulley being the only Raiders with more than 1 hit as he went 2 for 3 scoring 1 run… Jireh Brown had only 1 hit and it was a double that drove in 2 runs… For the Red Devils, Owen Glen went 2 for 3 with a double… Grayson Ledford picked up the win going 6 innings giving up 4 hits while striking out 8 and walking just 2… Connor Rice finished the game for the Raiders… The Red Devils Jayden Glen took the loss going the distance striking out 4 and walking 2… Only 2 of the 5 runs he gave u were earned as the Red Devils had 3 errors in the game… To see the box score of the game click here and to see the scorecard to see how the runs were scored click here
- Up Next… The Raiders will travel to Clinton tonight for game 2 of the 2-game series with first pitch scheduled fo5 7:30
Clinton HS
- Baseball… See above
- Up Next in Softball… According to their schedule, the Red Devils will not be in action until Tuesday, 4-22 when they host the Eau Claire Shamrocks at 5:30 pm
Laurens
- Baseball… See above.
- Up Next in Softball… The Raiders are now scheduled to Woodruff Monday, 4-21-25 for a 6:00 pm game with the Wolverines.
Laurens Academy
- Up Next in Baseball...The Crusader baseball master schedule on their website says they will be hosting Greenwood Christian on Tuesday, 4-22-25 at 6:00 pm
- Softball… The Crusaders home game with Richard Winn that was supposed to be played last Friday was postponed and no makeup date has been announced.
- Up Next in Softball… As best I can tell, the traveling to Greenwood Christian on Thursday, 4-24-25 for a 5:00 pm game with the Hawks.
Thornwell
- Baseball: Dixie 20 – Saints 1 (3)… The Saints baseball team hosted the Dixie Green Hornets in region action last night and it just was not a good night for the Saints as Dixie took a 20-2 win in 3 innings… The reason for the one-sided win is simple… First the Hornets outhit the Saints 11-1and secondly the Saints had 8 errors so that only 6 of the Hornets 20 runs were earned… Tru’Mari Kinard-Shelton had a single for the Saints…To see the box score of the game click here and to see the scorecard to see how the runs were scored click here.
- Up Next in Baseball… According to their schedule on MaxPreps, the Saints will be in action today (4-15) when they travel to Dixie for a rematch with the Green Hornets in region action at 7:00 pm.
- Up Next in Softball … Looking at the Saints schedule on MaxPreps it looks like they will be hosting McCormick today (4-15) at 5:00 pm.
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: Click on each of the following to see their schedule on the LA website: Softball and Baseball … To see the MaxPreps schedule and results for the teams click on one of the following you are interested in: Softball…. Baseball
- Thornwell: To see the Thornwell schedules and results click on their MaxPreps pages click on one of the following you are interested in:: Baseball… Softball
- 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 Polls… In the polls below the number in parenthesis (?) indicates their rank in the last poll if it is different from the present one… If there is a score given for game(s) click on it to see details on the game(s).
Baseball
- DIBaseball.com Top 25… In the latest (4-13-25) DI Baseball.com Top 25 poll, the top 5 spots had a good bit of change… Texas is now #1 (2) followed by Arkansas (2), Clemson (4), Tennessee (5) and Georgia (7)… Spots 6-10 are occupied by Oregon State (8), Florida State (9), Auburn (11), LSU (3) and UCLA… Coastal Carolina once again checked in at #21… To see the entire top 25 in this poll click here.
Softball
- ESPN/USA Softball Poll… In the latest (4-6-25) ESPN/USA Softball Top 25, the top 5 had a little change compared to last week as Texas is still #1 followed by Oklahoma (3), Texas A&M (4), Oregon (5 and Tennessee (6)… Spots 6-10 are occupied by LSU (6), UCLA (8), Florida (2), Florida State (10) and Arkansas (13)… South Carolina dropped for #10 to # 11 and Clemson checked in at #21 up from #25… To see the entirety of this poll click here.
Pro Sports: For more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores at the start of the section.
NASCAR
- Kyle Larson Dominates at Bristol… In case you missed it Sunday, Kyle Larson won both the Cup Series Race and the Xfinity Race on Saturday at Bristol on Saturday… He led 411 of the 500 laps on Sunday… For more on this race including a link to the final finishing order for all drivers click here.
- Driver Standings… After this race, the top 5 drivers in the Cup Series Standings are now William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliot … If you click here you will go the NASCAR posting that has the Cups Series standings from top to bottom… Once you get there you can click on tabs at the top of the page to see the driver standings in the Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series.
- Weekend Schedule… The Cup Series will have the week off up at Rockingham this weekend…To see the NASCAR schedule for this weekend up in Rockingham, click here.
- Master Schedule… If you click here it will carry you to the NASCAR website where the season schedule is posted and you can look at the Cup Series. Xfinity Series or the Craftsman Truck Series by clicking on their icon at the top of the list… In addition to the date and location, it will also give you race times and TV viewing options.
Braves…. Click on the score to go to the Braves website for a recap of the game.
- Braves 8 – Blue Jays 4… The Braves started a 3-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays last night in Toronto taking an 8-4 win with Austin Riley homering twice.
- Regular Season Schedule… To see the Braves regular season schedule click here… Once you get there you can go backwards to see completed games in previous month(s) or ahead for future dates.
- Scores… To see the MLB scores by date and see the schedule for future days, click here.
- Standings… To see the standings for all the MLB teams by divisions, click here.
Greenville Drive… Click on the scores below at the start of the section for more details on the game(s).
- Drive Off Last Night… The Drive will be starting a 6-game series with the Winston Salem Dash tonight (4-15) at Flour Field.
- Schedule… To see the Drive schedule click here.
- Standings… If you would like to see the standings in the South Atlantic League, click here to go to the website where that is available… Once you get there, there are drop-down menus and filters so that you can see the standing in other leagues and levels of minor league baseball.
This & That:
As most of you know by now, WLBG will be signed off the air about 3:15 pm on Monday, 3-31-2025.
That was a bittersweet moment for me as I have strived to bring you local sports to the best of my ability and throw in some college and pro sports also.
As I understand it, the WLBG website will NOT be taken down immediately.
If that is the case I may still be able to continue to post these sports reports on the website for some time to come if there if you the Laurens County sports fans want me to but don’t look for the sports report until 8:00 am weekdays or perhaps a little later (I’ll be sleeping later and not getting up at 3:00 am like I have been doing).
Obviously I will not be getting paid to do it, but I will try to continue to the end of the high school sports this season if the demand is there. This will also help me to decide if in the future I might try to develop my own website if I can obtain the sponsorship to bring you what you want.
If you don’t mind, please email me at sports@wlbg.com and let me know you would like to see it continue.
That is the only way I have to judge this.
If you have not already done so, please continue to let me know you read the sports reports.
If I don’t seem to generate much interest in this that is fine, I just won’t do it.
In any event I have enjoyed (for the most part) my almost 15 years doing this and meeting some great coaches, players, administrators and you the fans.
Take care and you will still be able to catch me at some athletic contest.
Go Red Devils, Raiders, Crusaders and Saints!
If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to report scores, please contact me via email at: sports@wlbg.com .
