Wednesday, 4-30-25
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
- Tennis team Starts Playoffs Today… The Red Devil boys’ tennis team starts their participation in the SCHSL Tennis Tournament today as they host the Landrum Cardinals at 5:00 pm… The SCHSL combines classes 3A, 2A and A into one tournament labeled class 3A… To see that tournament bracket click here… Good luck or Go Big Red to the team and please come out to cheer them on if you can!
- Baseball: Clinton 7– Ninety Six 3… Last night the Red Devil softball team hosted the Ninety Six Wildcats in non-region action…. Good news for Red Devil fans as they took a 7-3 win over the Wildcats…. The Wildcats scored 2 runs in the 1st inning to take an early lead but the Red Devils tied it with 2 runs in the 2nd and took the lead for good with 2 runs in the 3rd inning and then scored 1 run in each of the remaining innings to take the 7-3 win… The Red Devils outhit the Wildcats 10-5… All the Wildcat hits were singles while Clinton had had 5 extra-base hits including a solo homer by Luke Young to leadoff the 5th inning… He also had a triple in the game going 2 for 2 with a walk and 2 RBIs… Camden Finley also had 2 hits for the Red Devils (including a double and an RBI) as did Talon Campbell who went 2 for 3… 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… The Red Devils are scheduled to host the Eau Claire Shamrocks in a doubleheader of varsity action today starting at 5:30 in what I believe are their last region games of the season.
- Up Next in Softball… The Red Devils are scheduled to play Eau Claire today in a doubleheader at home starting at 5:30 pm.
Laurens
- Tennis Team Finishes First in Region…Last week the raider bots tennis team made history by finishing first in the region for the first time in program history… The raiders finished the season 10-0 overall and 9-0 in region play… The team is led by Coach Lynne Todd… Team members include John Parker, Price Turner, Bates Turner, Dylan Brink, Ryland Edwards who all play singles matches… The rest of the team includes Zaine Kellett, Carson Jenkins, Judah Norton, Weston Coggins, Landon Garett, Gibson Partee, Carson Hawkins and Will Brink… Coach Todd is assisted by former Raider and Limestone player Maya Ramirez who is a certified USTA instructor…. Congratulations to the team!
- UP Next… The team will start their participation in the SCHSL Class 4A Tennis Tournament today hosting Pickens at 4:30 on the courts at LDHS… To see the bracket for the Class 4A Tennis Tournament click here…Please come out and cheer on the Raiders!
- Baseball: Laurens 10 – Union 0 (5)… The Raider baseball team hosted the Union County Yellow Jackets last night at Ed Prescott Field and took a 10-0 win in 5 innings… The Raiders simply outhit the Yellow Jackets 10-3 with Bennett Edwards leading the Raiders at the plate going 3 for 3 with 4 RBIs and 2 of the RBIs came on a 2-run homer in the 4th inning… Brayden Patterson was the only other Raider to get more than 1 hit as he went 2 for 2 and walked once… Grayson Ledford picked up the win pitching all but the last out (Rylan Paxton finished the game) giving up the 3 hits while striking out 5 and walking just 1…. By the way, 3 Union pitchers hit 4 Raider batters which aided the Raider scoring… 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… Their schedule on MaxPreps shows them hosting the Greenwood Eagles today at 6:30 pm.
- Up Next in Softball… The Raiders are now scheduled to travel to host the JL Mann Patriots today at 6:00 pm in what I think is their final game of the regular season.
Laurens Academy
- Crusader Baseball Makes SCISA 2-A Tournament… The Laurens Academy Crusaders made the SCISA Class 2A Tournament this season and actually started their participation yesterday… If you would like to see the SCIS Baseball Tournament Brackets for all classifications, click here.
- Monday: Lee Academy 15 – Crusaders 0… The Crusaders started their participation in the SCISA Tournament yesterday in a less than stellar not as the Lee Academy Cavaliers took a 15-0 win over the Crusaders down at Lee Academy in 4 innings… The reason for the one-sided win is simple as the Cavaliers outhit the Crusaders 9-0 and the Crusaders did have some errs in the game so that only 9 of the Cavilers 15 runs were earned… To see the box score of the game click here and to see the scorecard to see how the runs were scored click here.
- Tuesday: Lee Academy 7 – Crusaders 4… The Crusader baseball team was not held hitless last night and actually led 3-0 at the end of the 2nd inning but the Cavaliers eventually took a 7-4 win over the Crusaders thus eliminating them from the playoffs and ending their season… The Cavaliers only outhit the Crusaders 5-4 and all the hits were singles by both teams… No Crusader had over 1 hit but Hack Hardy’s one hit drove in 2 runs… To help understand the scoring you need to know that the Cavaliers had 5 errors in the game while the Crusaders had 6… The two Crusader pitchers hit 3 Cavalier batters and had 4 wild pitches which more often than not contributed to the Cavalier scoring… Great effort last night in front of a nice home crowd… To see the box score of the game click here and to see the scorecard to see how the runs were scored click here
- Softball: Monday: Brashier Middle College 6 – Crusaders 5… The Crusader softball team traveled up to Brashier Middle College Monday to take on the Bengals… Yesterday all I had was the final score of 6-5 with the Bengals taking the win… I now have more information on that game… The Crusaders jumped out to an early 2-0 lead but could not hold it as they trailed 6-3 going into the top of the 7th inning… There the Crusaders refused to quit as they scored 2 runs but just could not complete the comeback… The Crusaders outhit the Bengals 9-7 (according to the Crusader scoring of the game) with Morgan Bolding, Makayla Lindley and Braylee Burke all getting 2 hits each… One of Burke’s hits was a triple… Abby Howard had a double that drove in 3 runs… For more information on this game click here to go the games box score on GameChanger.
- Softball Last Night… I do believe the Crusaders hosted the Greenwood Christian Hawks but at this time I do not have the results of that game.
- Softball Up Next… According to their schedule on MaxPreps, the Crusaders will be hosting the Northside Christian Crusaders out of Lexington at 5:30 tomorrow and it will be Senior Night.
Thornwell
- Up Next in Baseball… Their schedule on MaxPreps show the Saints will be traveling to American Leadership Academy in Lexington to take on the Patriots this today (4-30) with first pitch at 6:00 pm.
- Up Next in Softball … Looking at the Saints schedule on MaxPreps it looks like they do not have any games left on their regular schedule… I do believe they have made the playoffs and I will update you on that later in the week.
- Softball Seniors… Recently the saints honored their 3 senior softball players…. Stats blow are from their MaxPreps site…. Coach Rowe commented they will be missed next year and wishes them nothing but good luck in the future.
- # 11 – Madi Landrith… She is hitting right at 0.500 on the season and has 9 RBIs and has an on base percentage of 0.676.
- #95 – Karleigh Porter… Porter is hitting 0.560 this season with 16 RBIs which leads the team in both categories.
- #5 Rose Yarborough… In limited action, Rose has 2 hits on the season and has driven in 2 runs… Her on base percentage is 0.462.
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 (4-27-25) DI Baseball.com Top 25 poll, the top 5 spots changes… Texas is still #1 (2) followed by LSU (7), Clemson (2), North Carolina (8) and Florida State (4)… Spots 6-10 are occupied by Oregon (13), Oregon State (3), UC Irvine (12) Georgia (10) and Auburn (11)… Coastal Carolina moved up from #21 to #19… To see the entire top 25 in this poll click here.
Softball
- ESPN/USA Softball Poll… In the latest (4-28-25) ESPN/USA Softball Top 25, the top 5 had a little change compared to last week as Oklahoma (4) moved into the #1 spot followed by Tennessee (1), Oregon (5), Texas A&M (2) and Texas (3)… Spots 6-10 are occupied by Arkansas (9), Florida (6), UCLA, Florida State (7) and LSU … South Carolina moved down a spot to #12 and Clemson checked in at #16 this week up from #19… 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
- Austin Cindric Picks Up First Win of the Season… Austin Cindric was just barely able to get the nose of his car in front of Ryan Preece Sunday in the Cup Series race at Talladega winning by just 0.022 seconds… For more information on this race click here and it will carry you to the NASCAR site where they recap the race and have a link to the order of finish for each driver.
- Driver Standings… After this race, the top 5 drivers in the Cup Series Standings are now William Byron, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell … 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… NASCAR action moves to the Texas Motor Speedway this week…To see the NASCAR schedule for this weekend, 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 – Rockies 2… This was the second game of a 3-game series in Colorado… The Braves simply outhit the Rockies 14-6 and none of the Braves hits were homers.
- 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 6 – Tourist 4… In the first game of a 6-game series with the Ashville Tourist in Greenville last night, the Drive took a6-4 win… Click on the score at the start for details.
- 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 .