Wednesday, 4-16-25
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 Raider varsity baseball team traveled to Clinton HS to take on the Red Devils in the second game of their two-game series with the Red Devils for the “County Championship” …. As a reminder the Raiders won the first game 5-0 on Monday night (4-14)
- Raiders 7 – Red Devils 1… The Raiders laid claim to the “County Championship” last night by taking a 7-1 win over the Red Devils… They scored 4 runs in the in the2nd inning , 2 in the 4th and 1 in the 5th while Ben Willis and the Raiders held the Red Devils to a single run in the 4th inning… Willis gave up the 1 earned run on 8 hits while striking out 9 and walking 3… The Raiders only outhit the Red Devils 10-8 with all the Raider hits being singles… At times the Red Devils proved to be their own worst enemy as only 4 of the Raider runs were earned due to 4 Red Devils errors… Jireh Brown led the Raiders at the plate going 4 for 4 and scoring 3 runs while Zay Pulley and Brayden Patterson both had 2 hits and RBIs for the Raiders… For the Red Devils, Luke Young was the only one with more than one hit as he went 2 for 3 with a walk… To see the box score of the game click here and to see the scorecard to see how the runs were scored click here.
Clinton HS
- Up Next in Baseball… The Red Devils will be hosting the Eau Claire Shamrocks on Tuesday, 4-22-25 at 7:30.
- 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
- Up Next in Baseball… On MaxPreps it says that the Raiders will travel up to Hillcrest tonight for a 7:30 contest with the Rams but the Raider athletic website does not list the game, but it does list a JV game at Hillcrest at 5:30 so I am just not sure.
- 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
- 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 16 – Saints 1 (3)… The Saints baseball team traveled to Dixie HS to take on the Green Hornets in region action last night and for the second time in as many days, it just was not a good night for the Saints as Dixie took a 16-1 win in 3 innings… Again, the reason for the one-sided win is simple… First the Hornets outhit the Saints 10-1and secondly the Saints had 5 errors so that only 6 of the Hornets 16 runs were earned… As it was on Monday, Tru’Mari Kinard-Shelton had a single for the Saints and the Saints only run in the 2nd inning came as the result of 2 walks, a hit batter and a balk…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 back in action when they when they take on the Calhoun Falls Charter School Blue Flashes at 5:00 pm
- Softball: Saints 22 – McCormick 2 (3)… The news is better where the Saints softball team is concerned as they took a 22-2 win over the McCormick Chiefs yesterday at home in 3 innings…The Chiefs scored their only 2 runs in the top of the 1st inning but the Saints answered that with 12 runs in the bottom of the inning and added 10 more in the 2nd inning as they cruised to the win… The Saints only outhit the Chiefs 9-2 but the Chiefs aided the Saints in a couple of different ways… First they had 4 errors and two Chief pitchers walked 21 batters while striking out nine… Adrienne Anderson went 3 for 3 for the Saints and drove in 6 runs… One of her hits was an inside the park 3 run homer in the bottom of the 2nd inning…Karleigh Porter also had 2 hits for the Saints and 2 walks that brought in 4 runs… 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 Softball … Looking at the Saints schedule on MaxPreps it looks like they will be hosting Ware Shoals tomorrow (4-17) at 4:00 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 (4-14-25) ESPN/USA Softball Top 25, the top 5 had a little change compared to last week as Texas A&M moved up from #3 to #1 followed Tennessee (5), Texas (1), Oklahoma (2) and UCLA (7)… Spots 6-10 are occupied by Oregon (4), Florida (8), Florida State (9), LSU (6) and Arkansas … South Carolina dropped for #11 to # 12 and Clemson checked in at #19 up from #21… 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.
- Blue Jays 6 – Braves 3… Despite Austin Riley (5), Matt Olson (2) and Ozzie Albies (4) each having a solo homer in the game last night, the Braves still lost to the Blue Jays in Toronto 6-3.
- 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 9 – Dash 3… The Drive started a 6-game series with the Winston Salem Dash last night at Flour Field with a 9-3 win over the Dash.
- 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 .