Thursday, 4-17-25
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 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
- Golf: Clinton 163 – Laurens 174… Doing some catching up with both the Red Devil and Raider golf teams, they faced off against each other late last week out at Lakeside CC… When the last put went into the cup, the Red Devils had taken a 163 – 174 win over the Raiders… The Red Devils were led my Luke McMurray who shot a 36 and was the match medalist… Michael Hamby led the Raiders with a 40… To see how the other Red Devils and Raiders did in the match, click here.
- Tennis: Clinton 6 – Columbia 0… Also doing some catching up with the Red Devil boys’ tennis team, last Thursday they traveled down to Columbia HS to take on the Capitals… They defeated the Capitals 6-0 with Nathan Meade, Edwin Orr, Matthew King, Jacob King and Jacob Meyerholtz all taking 6-0 wins in singles action… The #2 doubles team composed of Cooper Stinson and Malakye Brewer also defeated their opponents… The Red Devils are now 6-0 overall and 4-0 in region play and will be back in action Tuesday, 4-22-25 when they travel to Blue Ridge to take on the Tigers in non-region action.
Laurens
- Hillcrest 11 – Laurens 2… NOTE: all the following information comes from the Hillcrest scoring of the game…. If the Raider scoring of the game becomes available I will then be able to bring you the box score and the scorebook… The Raiders had a tough night last night as the Rams outhit them 7-4 and took an 11-2 win over the Raiders… The Rams led 5-1 going into the 4th inning where they broke the game open scoring 5 runs and then both teams added a run in the 5th inning to make the final 11-2 Rams… The Raiders did have 4 errors (the Rams had 2) so that only 8 of the Rams 11 runs were earned…. Both team issued 9 walks which also helped runs to score… For the Raiders, Logan Martin was the only Raider with more than 1 hit as he went 2 for 4 (all singles) and drove in a run.
- Up Next in Baseball… On MaxPreps it says that the Raiders will travel be hosting the Southside Tigers Monday 4-21-25 at 6:30 pm in region action.
- Up Next in Softball… The Raiders are now scheduled to Woodruff Monday, 4-21-25 for a 6:00 pm game with the Wolverines.
- Golf: Raiders 174 – Rams 216… The Raider golf team also played the Westside Rams in region action last week out at Lakeside CC and the news is good for Raider fans as they won 174-216… Ashton Wilson and Landon James both shot a 42 in the match to lead the Raiders… For more information on this match, click here.
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
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- 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
- 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
- Up Next in Softball … Looking at the Saints schedule on MaxPreps it looks like they will be hosting Ware Shoals today (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 3 – Braves 1… In the final game of the 3-game series in Toronto yesterday, the Braves fell to the Blue Jays 3-1…. Spencer Strider took to the mound for the Braves for the first time since his season ending surgery last year and went 5 innings giving up 2 earned runs on 5 hits while striking out 5 and walking just 1…. The Braves will be off tonight.
- 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).
- Dash 5 – Drive 2… The Drive lost the second game of a 6-game series with the Winston Salem Dash last night at Flour Field with a 5-2.
- 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 .