Monday, 5-5-25

Local Notes…

Local Season Results and playoff brackets… The first thing I am trying to do for you today since I will be out for a while (see above) is provide you with team results (according to MaxPreps) and link to playoff schedules for our local teams if applicable and available…. That way you can use them while I am gone to keep up

Clinton HS… Click on topic heading to see results (if available) and playoff schedule.

Baseball

• Season Wrap
• SCHSL Class 2 Playoff Bracket

Softball

• Season Wrap
• SCHSL Class 2 Playoff Bracket

Boys Tennis

• SCHSL Class Playoff Bracket

Boys Soccer

• SCHSL Class 2 Playoff Bracket

Laurens HS … Click on topic heading to see results (if available) and playoff schedule.

Baseball

• Season Wrap

• SCHSL Class 4 Playoff Bracket

Softball

• Season Wrap

• SCHSLhttps://schsl.org/archives/15564 Class 4 Playoff Bracket

Boys Tennis

• SCHSL Class 4 Playoff Bracket

Boys Soccer

• SCHSL Class 4 Playoff Bracket

Laurens Academy

• Baseball… The Crusaders finished their season last week when they were eliminated from the SCISA Class AA Playoffs

• Softball… I do not know if the Crusaders made the playoffs but the SCISA playoff brackets will be posted up shortly… Click here to find them when they become available.

Thornwell

 Baseball

• SCHSL Class A Playoff Bracket

Softball

• SCHSL Class A Playoff Bracket

Friday, May 2, 2025

 Local Notes

 Clinton HS

• Tennis: Clinton 4 – St. Joseph’s 2 … The Red Devil boys’ tennis team hosted the Knights of St Joseph’s yesterday… I am glad to report that the Red Devils took a 4-2 win over the Knights… All the Red Devil wins came in singles action as Nathan Meade, Edwin Orr, Matthew King and Jacob King all defeated their opponents… For more information on this match click here… The Red Devils will be back in action Monday (5-5-25) at 5:00 pm taking on the winner of the Chapman vs. Southside Christian match that was played yesterday… If Chapman won the match will be held at Chapman… If Southside Christian won, it will be played at Clinton… To see the tournament bracket click here… Later today it should update so you can see where the match will be played.

• Baseball: Clinton 3 – Saluda 1… The Red Devil baseball team hosted the Saluda Tigers last night and they scored 2 runs in the first inning and then went on to take a 3-1 win over the Tigers last night… Both teams also scored single runs in the third inning… Owen Glenn doubled to left field to drive in Camden Finley (who walked) and Luke Young (who singled) to drive in what would prove to be the winning runs in the first inning… Glenn also had an RBI single in the third inning again driving in Luke Young who singled earlier in the inning… The Red Devils outhit the Tigers 6-3 with Glenn and Young being the only two Red Devils to get more than one hit…Camden Finley pitched the first three innings and is credited with the win… Sorry I seem to have a technical problem so that I could not download the box score or score card foe the game.
• Up Next in Baseball… The Shamrocks of Eau Claire did forfeit the two games to the Red Devils they were supposed to play Wednesday… I do believe the Red Devils have finished their regular season and await playoff seeding… See my sports report next Monday (5-5) for more information about that.

• Softball: Whitmire 8 – Red Devils 7… The news is not as good where the Red Devil softball team is concerned as they fell to the Whitmire Wolverines by a score of 8-7 at home last night… The loss was a tough one as the Red Devils led 7-4 going into the top of the sixth inning… There the Wolverines used three walks, a single and a double to score 4 runs and go up 8-7… The Red Devils threatened in the bottom of the sixth inning and had a runner thrown out at the plate for the third out that if scored would have tied the game… They also had a runner on second in the seventh inning but just could not drive in the run… The Red Devils actually outhit the Wolverines 11-3 but three Clinton pitchers walked 8 Wolverines which made a difference in the game… Me-Me-Smith, Sierra Templeton, Alyssa Young and Addie Watkins all had 2 hits each for the Red Devils and both of Smith’s were doubles… 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… The Shamrocks of Eau Claire did forfeit the two games to the Red Devils they were supposed to play Wednesday… I do believe the Red Devils have finished their regular season and await playoff seeding… See my sports report next Monday (5-5) for more information about that.

Laurens

• Tennis: Laurens 5 – Fountain Inn 1… The Raider boys’ tennis team hosted region foe Fountain Inn yesterday in second round action of the SCHSL Playoffs… Good news for Raider fans as they took a 5-1 win over the Fury… JP Field, Price Turner and Bates Turner all too one-sided wins over their opponents in singles action… Dylan Brink also took a win in singles action but it was not as one-sided and Rylan Edwards lost a tough but close match in the final singles match… Carson Jenkins and Gibson Partee took the fifth win for the Raiders as the #2 doubles team.
• UP Next in Tennis… The Raiders advance to the third round to be played next Monday (5-5) at LDHS… Their opponent will be the winner of the Seneca vs. Daniel match also played yesterday… To see the bracket for the Class 4A Tennis Tournament click here and later on today it should update and tell you who their opponent will be.

• Up Next in Baseball… The Raiders have closed out their regular season and await playoff seeding… I’ll have more about that on my sports report for Monday (5-5).

• Up Next in Softball… The Raiders have closed out their regular season and await playoff seeding… I’ll have more about that on my sports report for Monday (5-5)

Laurens Academy. 

• Softball… The Crusaders were scheduled to host the Northside Christian Crusaders last night and I do believe they did… However, no one sent me the results… If I get them I’ll have them on my sports report Monday
• Up Next… According to their schedule on MaxPreps, the Crusaders have finished their regular season and await SCISA seeding for the playoffs next week… If SCISA releases that information by late Sunday I’ll have it on my sports report at wlbg.com Monday.

Thornwell

• Up Next in Baseball… Their schedule on MaxPreps show the Saints will be traveling to Greenville today to take on the Southside HS Tigers 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 or Monday.

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

• 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.

• The Braves were off last night and return to Atlanta to start a series with the Dodgers 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).

• Drive Results… To see how the Drive have done recently and to see what is in store for them 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:

Please see note at the start of this report about future reports.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to report scores, please contact me via email at: sports@wlbg.com .

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: Clinton 6 – Landrum 0… Boy did I make a mistake… Yesterday I had in my sports report the tennis team would start playoff action yesterday when in actuality they started on Tuesday with a 6-0 win over the Landrum Cardinals at home on the at CMS courts… Nathan Meade. Matthew King, Jacob King, Cooper Stinson and Jake Meyerholtz all took convincing wins in singles action… The #2 doubles team composed of Malakye Brewer and Ethan Wargo also handily defeated their opponents on the courts… For more details on this match click here… The Red Devils will be back in action today (5-1-25) hosting St Joseph’s which defeated Broome 6-0 on Tuesday… Start time is 5:00 pm.… To see that tournament bracket click here… Good luck or Go Big Red!

• Up Next in Baseball… According to information I had, the Red Devil baseball team was scheduled to host the Eau Claire Shamrocks yesterday and if they did, I cannot find any result on those games… If I get them later I will pass them on to you….According to their schedule on MaxPreps the Red Devils will be closing out their regular season tonight hosting the Saluda Tigers at 6:00 pm

• Up Next in Softball… According to information I had, the Red Devil softball team was scheduled to host the Eau Claire Shamrocks yesterday and if they did, I cannot find any result on those games… If I get them later I will pass them on to you….According to their schedule on MaxPreps the Red Devils will be closing out their regular season tonight hosting the Saluda Tigers 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!
• Tennis: Laurens 5 – Pickens 0… Once again I made a mistake and said that the Raider boys’ tennis team would start their participation in the Class 4A Tennis Tournament yesterday when they actually started it on Tuesday… Well that admission made, good news for Raider Fans as they took a 5-0 win over Pickens on Tuesday… The only matches that were played were singles matches and the Raiders won them by one-sided scores… John Parker, Price Turner, Bates Turner, Dylan Brink and Ryland Edwards all defeated their opponents.
• UP Next… The team now takes on region foe Fountain in at home today (5-1) in second round action… The start time is shortly after 4:30… Go Raiders… To see the bracket for the Class 4A Tennis Tournament click here…Please come out and cheer on the Raiders!

• Baseball: Laurens 8 – Greenwood 6… I had two different schedules for the Laurens-Greenwood baseball game yesterday one showing the Raiders playing at home and the other showing them at Greenwood…. On yesterday’s sports report I went with the home game when in fact they did travel to Greenwood last night… What really matters is that the Raiders took an 8-6 win at Greenwood over the Eagles last night… The Raiders jumped out to an early 4-0 lead scoring 4 runs in the 1^st inning… The first of those runs was scored on a solo homer by Zay Pulley… The Eagles tied the game scoring 2 runs in the 2^nd and 3^rd innings… The Raiders scored 2 runs in the 5^th and 6^th innings and then held on as the Eagles scored their final 2 runs in the 6^th inning… The Raiders outhit the Eagles 11-5 and both teams had a few miscues that aided the other team in scoring… Coleman Coker went 3 for 4 for the Raiders and scored 2 runs… Jireh Brown and Avery Madden both had 2 hits or the driving in runs and each of them had a double among their hits… 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 Raiders were scheduled to close out their regular season at home tonight hosting the Hillcrest Rams… However, Hillcrest has decided bit to play that game…The JV team will still play tonight at 5:30.

• Softball: Raiders 26 – JL Mann 2 (4)… The Raider softball team hosted the JL Mann Patriots last night in their last game of the regular season… The Raiders pretty much had their way with the Patriots as they cruised to a 26-2 win in 4 innings… The Raiders outhit the Patriots 14-3 but as you might expect looking at the score the Patriots had a few errors and a couple of wild pitches and hit batters that aided the Raider scoring… Carly Edwards led the Raider offense going 4 for 5 with a double, a triple and drove in 7 runs… Summer Nations went 3 for 4and also picked up the win pitching all but the last inning… Three other Raiders had 2 hits each and one of those three was Addison Trevino who had a homer and a double driving in 3 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… The Raiders have now finished their regular season and will make the playoffs and I’ll have more about that tomorrow or Monday

• Eight Sign at LDHS… Yesterday afternoon in the main gym at LDHS, 8 student-athletes signed letter of intent to continue their education and athletic careers at various institutions of higher learning… Please check back tomorrow for more details on this.

Laurens Academy

• Softball: Tuesday: Greenwood Christian 20 – Crusaders 19… The Crusader softball team hosted the Greenwood Christian Hawks Tuesday night and they fell 20-19 to the Hawks as the Hawks scored 3 runs in the top of the 7^th inning and then held the Crusaders scoreless in the bottom of the inning to take a come-from-behind 20-19 win over the Crusaders…The Hawks had taken an early lead but the Crusader scored 6 runs in the 6^th inning to take the lead only to have the Hawks get the winning runs in the 7^th inning… Sophia Harvey went 5 for 6 and drove in 5 runs to lead the Crusader offense… Several other players had multiple hits for the Crusader and if you want to see more information on this game click here to go the games box score on GameChanger.
• Up Next… According to their schedule on MaxPreps, the Crusaders will be hosting the Northside Christian Crusaders out of Lexington at 5:30 tonight and it will be Senior Night.

Thornwell

• Baseball: American Leadership Academy 14 – Saints 0… The Saints baseball team traveled down to the Lexington area yesterday to take on the Patriots of American Leadership Academy… The Saints offense was almost nonexistent as they managed only one hit by Griffen Raines while the Patriots had nine hits and took advantage of 3 Saint errors to take a 14-0 win over 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.
• Baseball up Next in Baseball… Their schedule on MaxPreps show the Saints will be traveling to Greenville tomorrow to take on the Southside HS Tigers 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 or Monday.

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.

• Rockies 2 – Braves 1… This was the third game of a 3-game series in Colorado with the Braves winning the series 2-1… The Braves are off tonight and return to Atlanta to start a series with the Dodgers tomorrow night.
• 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).

• Tourist 4 – Drive 3… In the second game of a 6-game series with the Ashville Tourist in Greenville last night, the Tourist took a 4-3 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 .

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 1^st inning to take an early lead but the Red Devils tied it with 2 runs in the 2^nd and took the lead for good with 2 runs in the 3^rd 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 5^th 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 4^th 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 2^nd 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 7^th 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 .

 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

• Clinton 14 – Saluda 3… The Red Devil baseball team traveled to Saluda yesterday to take on the Tigers…. The score Clinton led 5-3 going into the top of the 7^th inning where they put 9 runs on the scoreboard and then held the Tigers scoreless in the bottom of the inning to take a 14-3 win over the Tigers…. The Red Devils simply outhit the Tigers 13-4 and 6 of the Red Devil hits were doubles while all the Tiger hits were singles… Brett Young led the Red Devil offense as he went 3 for 4 with all his hits being doubles … Talon Campbell and Tanner Finley were the only other Red Devils with more than 1 hit as they both had 2 hits…. 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 Ninety Six Wildcats as part of a JV – Varsity doubleheader starting at 5:00 pm today.

• Softball: Clinton 10 – Whitmire 8… The news is also good where the Red Devil softball team is concerned as they took the short ride over to Whitmire to take on the Wolverines and came home with a hard-fought 10-8 win… The Red Devils jumped out in front early scoring 4 runs in the 1^st inning and led 7-2 going into the bottom of the 5^th inning where the Wolverines scored 4 runs to cut the Red Devils lead to 1 (7-6)… Both teams scored a run in the 6^th inning and the Red Devils outscored the Wolverines 2-1 in the 7^th inning to make the final 10-8 Clinton… The Red Devils did outhit the Wolverines 13-6 but both teams had some errors so that only 2 of the Wolverine runs were earned and only 4 of the Red Devil Runs were earned… Halleigh Luke led the Red Devils at the plate going 4 for 5 with a two doubles and a triple from her leadoff spot in the lineup… Me-Me Smith went 3 for 5 with a double and an RBI… Kamryn Campbell and Taylor Davis also had 2 hits and Addie Watkins only had 1 hit but it was a solo homer… Me-Me Smith took the complete game win striking out 8 and walking only 2… 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… The Red Devils are scheduled to play Eau Claire Wednesday in a doubleheader at home starting at 5:30 pm.

Laurens

• Up Next in Baseball… Their schedule on MaxPreps shows them hosting the Union County Yellow Jackets today (4-29) at 6:30 pm

• Softball: Laurens 18 – Emerald 3 (3)… The Raider softball team traveled down to Emerald HS yesterday to take on the Vikings in region action… The Raiders offense had 14 hits which punched a bunch of holes in the Viking ship as they rolled to an 18-3 win over the Vikings allowing the Vikings only 2 hits… The Raiders had a total of 4 doubles and one triple among their 14 hits… Zealy Martin led the Raiders at the plate going 3 for 4 with 2 doubles and drove in 4 runs… Carly Edwards and Ashlyn Messer both had 2 hits for the Raiders and each had a double … 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… The Raiders are now scheduled to travel to host the JL Mann Patriots tomorrow at 6:00 pm in the 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.
• 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.
• Up Next in Baseball...The Crusader baseball team will try to avoid elimination today as they host Lee Academy.

.

• Brashier Middle College 6 – Crusaders 5… The Crusader softball team traveled up to Brashier Middle College yesterday to take on the Bengals… All I have is the final score and I hate to have to report that the Crusaders fell 6-5… If I get more information I will pass it on to you later.
• Up Next in Softball… Their schedule now shows they will host the Greenwood Academy Hawks today at 5:00 pm according to their schedule on MaxPreps.

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 Wednesday (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 (4-21-25) ESPN/USA Softball Top 25, the top 5 had a little change compared to last week as Tennessee (2)  is now #1 followed by Texas A&M (1), Texas, Oklahoma and Oregon (6)…  Spots 6-10 are occupied by Florida (7), Florida State (8), UCLA (5), Arkansas (10) and LSU (9) … South Carolina moved up a spot to #11 and Clemson checked in at #19 again this week… 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 6 – Rockies 3… First game of a 3-game series in Colorado.
• 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).

• Up Next… The Drive had the night off and will start a 6-game series with the Ashville Tourist at home tonight.
• 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 .

 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

• Golf: Clinton 160 – Mid-Carolina 174… Doing some catching up with the Red Devil golf team, last Tuesday (4-22) they traveled down to Prosperity to take on the Rebels of Mid-Carolina HS in region action and I am glad to report that the Red Devils took a 160-174 win… Aiden Bragg was the match medalist shooting a 38… Mia Carles was close behind with a 39, Gabi Carles shot a 41 and Luke McMurray finished with a 42… According to the CHS athletic website, they will host Chesnee Thursday, 5-1-25 at Lakeside CC with tee time of 4:00 pm.
• Tennis: Clinton 4 – Batesburg-Leesville 0… Last Thursday the Red Devil boys’ tennis team traveled to Batesburg-Leesville for a non-region match… They were able to get in the 4 singles matches before lightning caused one of the singles matched a doubles match to be suspended… Nathan Meade, Edwin Orr, Matthew King and Jacob King all took wins in singles action so the Red Devils won 4-0 to remain undefeated… For more details on this match click here.

• Up Next in Baseball… The Red Devils are scheduled to travel to Saluda to take on the Tigers tonight at 7:00 pm.

• Up Next in Softball… The Red Devils are scheduled to play Eau Claire Wednesday in a doubleheader at home starting at 5:30 pm.

Laurens

• Up Next in Baseball… Their schedule on MaxPreps shows them hosting the Union County Yellow Jackets next Tuesday (4-29) at 6:30 pm

• Up Next in Softball… The Raiders are now scheduled to travel to Emerald Monday to take on the Vikings at 6:00 pm.

• Softball Senior Night… Last Thursday night the Raiders honored their 2 seniors before the game with Emerald.
  • #4 – Addyson Carlisle… Addy has been a member of the team for 3 years and has become a great leader due to her work ethic, team first attitude and a spirit of encouragement due in part to her Christian faith… she plans on attending Auburn University and majoring in biology.
  • #9 – Ashlyn Messer… Ashlyn has been a member of the team for 6 years anchoring the team at first base… She also sets an example for the younger teammates by example and her positivity is evident to all to the younger teammates rooted mainly in her Christian beliefs.

Laurens Academy

• Up Next in Baseball...The Crusader baseball master schedule on their website says they have finished their regular season, but they do have a game to make-up with the Hawks… I’ll try to find out if they will be making up that game and if so when.

.

• Up Next in Softball… Their schedule now shows they will be traveling to Brashier Middle College Tuesday (4-29) for a 5:30 contest with the Bengals.

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 Wednesday (4-30) with first pitch at 6:00 pm.

• Softball: Abbeville 13 – Saints 5… Last Friday the Saints hosted the Abbeville Panthers and after the game the bell remained silent as the Panthers took a 13-5 win… They led 7-0 going into the bottom of the bottom of the 3^rd inning before the Saints were able to put 2 runs on the scoreboard but the Panthers went on to take a 13-5 win over the Saints scoring runs in every inning but the first and the fifth innings… The Panthers outhit the Saints 13-6 but the Saints at times were their own worst enemy as they had 6 errors in the game so that only 5 of the Panther runs were earned…. Madi Landrith was the only Saint to get more than one hit as she went 2 for 3 with both her hits being doubles as she drove 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 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 (4-20-25) DI Baseball.com Top 25 poll, the top 5 spots had a good bit of change… Texas is still #1 (2) followed by Clemson (3), Oregon State (6), Florida State (7) and Arkansas (2)… Spots 6-10 are occupied by Tennessee (4), LSU (9), North Carolina (12), Vanderbilt (19) and Georgia (5)… 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 (4-21-25) ESPN/USA Softball Top 25, the top 5 had a little change compared to last week as Tennessee (2)  is now #1 followed by Texas A&M (1), Texas, Oklahoma and Oregon (6)…  Spots 6-10 are occupied by Florida (7), Florida State (8), UCLA (5), Arkansas (10) and LSU (9) … South Carolina moved up a spot to #11 and Clemson checked in at #19 again this week… 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 Cindic 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.

• Friday: Braves 8 – Arizona 2… Game played in Arizona
• Saturday: Braves 8 – Arizona 7
• Sunday: Arizona 6 – Braves 4… The Braves will start a 3-game series with the Colorado Rockies tonight at Colorado.
• 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).

• Friday: Hub City 6 – Drive 2
• Saturday: Hub City 16 – Drive 8
• Sunday:  Drive 6 – Hub City1.
• Up Next… The Drive have the night off and will start a 6-game series with the Ashville Tourist at home tomorrow night.
• 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!

Mike Hughes

If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to report scores, please contact me via email at: sports@wlbg.com .

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: Clinton 4 – Batesburg-Leesville 0… Yesterday the Red Devil boys’ tennis team traveled to Batesburg-Leesville for a non-region match… They were able to get in the 4 singles matches before lightning caused one of the singles matched a doubles match to be suspended… Nathan Meade, Edwin Orr, Matthew King and Jacob King all took wins in singles action, so the Red Devils won 4-0 to remain undefeated… For more details on this match click here.

• Up Next in Baseball… The Red Devils were NOT able to play the Eau Claire Shamrocks yesterday and are now scheduled to play them in a doubleheader on Wednesday (4-30) at home starting at 5:30 pm.

• Up Next in Softball… The Red Devils were NOT able to play the Eau Claire Shamrocks yesterday and are now scheduled to play them in a doubleheader on Wednesday (4-30) at home starting at 5:30 pm.

• Jabari Dillard Signs with Howard University… I almost let this slip through the cracks but back on Friday, 4-11-25, Jabari Dillard signed a letter of intent to continue his education and track career at Howard University in Washington DC jumping hurdles for the Bisons… Several other schools showed interest in him including but not limited to North Greenville, Coastal Carolina and SC State… When asked why Howard, he said it was not just the quality of the track program but also its academic reputation and the fact they made him feel like family… He plans on majoring in biology geared toward a pre-med track with plan to attend medical school and hoping to become a sports medicine physician… He mentioned he will have to adjust to the hurdles being 3 inches higher in college than in high school and that they will probably use him in the short distance hurdles rather than the long-distance ones… The 100-meter dash is within the realm of possibilities for him… Congratulations and good to him not only on the track but in his life goals.

• Bryanna Belton Signs with Columbia International… Wednesday, 4-23-25, Bryanna Belton signed a letter of intent to continue her basketball career and academic career at Columbia International University in Columbia, SC playing for the Rams… Other intuitions were interested in her playing for them but the Rams impressed her the most because when she went and practiced with them they made he feel like family and the university centered its curriculum around God… That she said would have most likely caused her to want to go to school there even if she was not offered the chance to play basketball… She reflected back on her career at Clinton HS and said that the 28 points she scored against Laurens a couple of years ago was the highlight and the low point was when the Red Devils were defeated this season in the Upper State Finals… She also talked about her leadership role on this year’s team as one of three seniors helping to bring the young players along with encouragement and by example when some of them seemed to be frustrated when things were not going well for the team…She was originally recruited by the Rams as a shooting guard but further examination of film on her showed the ability to play both offensively and defensively in the paint so she may be used there also… She is planning on majoring in biology and maybe going on further to become a radiologist but has not completely given up on desire to become a nurse…. Congratulations to Bryanna and may both her basketball and academic career continue to get better with the Rams!

Laurens

• Baseball: Laurens 7 – Southside 0 (2 games)… The Raider baseball team was scheduled to travel to Southside HS Wednesday night to take on the Tigers in a doubleheader of baseball… Southside did forfeit both games to the Raiders so the Raiders win both games by a score of 7-0 in each game.
• Up Next in Baseball… The Raiders and the Hillcrest Rams were not able to play last night… Their schedule on MaxPreps shows them hosting the Union County Yellow Jackets next Tuesday (4-29) at 6:30 pm

• Softball: Laurens 24 – Emerald 2… The Raiders were able to host the Emerald Vikings yesterday and its good news for Raider fans as the Raiders sunk the Vikings ship by a score of 24-2… The Raiders outhit the Vikings 15-5 and the Vikings also had a few errors so that only 11 of the Raiders runs were earned… Eight of the 15 hits the Raiders had were for extra-bases… Addison Trevino went 3 for 3 with a triple and 3 homeruns driving in 5 runs to lead the Raiders at the plate… Carly Edwards also had a homer that drove in 3 runs for the Raiders… Addy Carlisle also had 3 hits one of which was a double driving in 3 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… The Raiders are now scheduled to travel to Emerald Monday to take on the Vikings at 6:00 pm.

• Softball Senior Night… Last night the Raiders honored their 2 seniors before the game with Emerald.
  • #4 – Addyson Carlisle… Addy has been a member of the team for 3 years and has become a great leader due to her work ethic, team first attitude and a spirit of encouragement due in part to her Christian faith… she plans on attending Auburn University and majoring in biology.
  • #9 – Ashlyn Messer… Ashlyn has been a member of the team for 6 years anchoring the team at first base… She also sets an example for the younger teammates by example and her positivity is evident to all to the younger teammates rooted mainly in her Christian beliefs.

Laurens Academy

• Baseball: Greenwood Christian 15 – Laurens Academy 6… The Crusaders traveled down to Greenwood Christian yesterday to take on the Hawks… The Hawks held the Crusaders scoreless for the first 4 innings while they scored 9 runs and went on to take a 15-8 win over the Crusaders… The Crusaders actually outhit the Hawks 10-8 but Crusaders did have some errors and more walks than strikeouts plus they hit 7 Hawks with pitches so that only 10 of the Hawks 15 runs were earned…All 10 of the Crusader hits were singles and both Evan Asalone, Elijah Hornberger and Hack Hardy had 2 hits each to lead the Crusader offense… 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 Crusader baseball master schedule on their website says they have finished their regular season but they do have a game to make-up with the Hawks… I’ll try to find out if they will be making up that game and if so when.

.

• Up Next in Softball… I do not know if the Crusaders played at Greenwood Christian yesterday as scheduled…. I’ll try to find out today… Their schedule now shows they will be traveling to Brashier Middle College next Tuesday (4-29) for a 5:30 contest with the Bengals.

Thornwell

• Up Next in Baseball… According to their schedule on MaxPreps, the Saints will not be back in action until Friday, 5-2-25 when they travel to Southside HS in Greenville… I need to check on that.

• Up Next in Softball … Looking at the Saints schedule on MaxPreps it looks like they will be hosting Abbeville today (4-25) at 4:15.

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 (4-20-25) DI Baseball.com Top 25 poll, the top 5 spots had a good bit of change… Texas is still #1 (2) followed by Clemson (3), Oregon State (6), Florida State (7) and Arkansas (2)… Spots 6-10 are occupied by Tennessee (4), LSU (9), North Carolina (12), Vanderbilt (19) and Georgia (5)… 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 (4-21-25) ESPN/USA Softball Top 25, the top 5 had a little change compared to last week as Tennessee (2)  is now #1 followed by Texas A&M (1), Texas, Oklahoma and Oregon (6)…  Spots 6-10 are occupied by Florida (7), Florida State (8), UCLA (5), Arkansas (10) and LSU (9) … South Carolina moved up a spot to #11 and Clemson checked in at #19 again this week… 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

• 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 is back in action this weekend as NASCAR moves most of the action this weekend to Talladega…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 Off Last Night… The Braves were off last night and return to action tonight as they start a 3-game series with D-Backs out in Arizona… They are in last place in the NL East with a 10-14 record.
• 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 – Hub City 3… The Drive finally got a win in the third game of their 6-game series with the Spartanburgers.
• 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 .

 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… According to the MaxPreps, the Red Devils will be traveling to Eau Claire today for a region contest, but I am not sure about that… They did not play the scheduled game yesterday.

• Up Next in Softball… According to their schedule on MaxPreps, the Red Devils will be in action today when they travel to Eau Claire Shamrocks at 5:30 pm

• Jabari Dillard Signs with Howard University… I almost let this slip through the cracks but back on Friday, 4-11-25, Jabari Dillard signed a letter of intent to continue his education and track career at Howard University in Washington DC jumping hurdles for the Bisons… Several other schools showed interest in him including but not limited to North Greenville, Coastal Carolina and SC State… When asked why Howard, he said it was not just the quality of the track program but also its academic reputation and the fact they made him feel like family… He plans on majoring in biology geared toward a pre-med track with plan to attend medical school and hoping to become a sports medicine physician… He mentioned he will have to adjust to the hurdles being 3 inches higher in college than in high school and that they will probably use him in the short distance hurdles rather than the long-distance ones… The 100-meter dash is within the realm of possibilities for him… Congratulations and good to him not only on the track but in his life goals.

• Bryanna Belton Signs with Columbia International… Wednesday, 4-23-25, Bryanna Belton signed a letter of intent to continue her basketball career and academic career at Columbia International University in Columbia, SC playing for the Rams… Other intuitions were interested in her playing for them, but the Rams impressed her the most because when she went and practiced with them, they made he feel like family and the university centered its curriculum around God… That she said would have most likely caused her to want to go to school there even if she was not offered the chance to play basketball… She reflected back on her career at Clinton HS and said that the 28 points she scored against Laurens a couple of years ago was the highlight and the low point was when the Red Devils were defeated this season in the Upper State Finals… She also talked about her leadership role on this year’s team as one of three seniors helping to bring the young players along with encouragement and by example when some of them seemed to be frustrated when things were not going well for the team…She was originally recruited by the Rams as a shooting guard but further examination of film on her showed the ability to play both offensively and defensively in the paint so she may be used there also… She is planning on majoring in biology and maybe going on further to become a radiologist but has not completely given up on desire to become a nurse…. Congratulations to Bryanna and may both her basketball and academic career continue to get better with the Rams!

Laurens

• Baseball: Laurens 7 – Southside 0 (2 games)… The Raider baseball team was scheduled to travel to Southside HS last night to take on the Tigers in a doubleheader of baseball… The best I can tell (and will confirm today), the Tigers chose not to play so the Raiders win both games by a score of 7-0 in each game.
• Up Next in Baseball… Weather permitting, the Raiders will host the Hillcrest Rams today at 6:30 with a JV game starting at 5:30.

• Up Next in Softball… The Raiders were scheduled to travel to Emerald yesterday to take on the Vikings… The best I can tell, they did not play but will confirm that today…. The Raiders are now scheduled to host the Vikings today at 7:00 weather permitting.

• Baseball Senior Night… Monday (4-21-25) the Raider baseball team honored the senior members of the team… They include:
  • #1 – Ben Willis… Ben plans on attending Horry-Georgetown Tech and majoring in Forestry.
  • #2 – Bennett Edwards…. He plans on attending Georgia Southern to continue his academic and athletic career.
  • #4 Avery Madden… Plans on becoming a lineman for Laurens Electric.
  • #5 Jireh Brown… Plans on attending a technical college.
  • #9 Grayson Ledford… Grayson had planned on attending Limestone University but with recent funding problems there, he is looking to play baseball and continue his education somewhere else
  • #10 Zay Pulley… Zay plans on attending Flounce Darlington Tech and majoring in HVAC.
  • #17 Coleman Coker… Coleman plans on attending Brevard College where he will continue his baseball career and be a pre-med major.
  • Also Honored… The raiders also recognized and honored their team manager Anthony Zou who plans to attend Clemson… Kensley Crowe was also honored for being the team’s athletic trainer and helping to take care of the team not only at home but on the road.

 Laurens Academy

• Up Next in Baseball...The Crusader baseball master schedule on their website says they will be playing at Greenwood Christian on Today, 4-24-25 at 6:00 pm

• Up Next in Softball… As best I can tell, the traveling to Greenwood Christian today, 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 not be back in action until Friday, 5-2-25 when they travel to Southside HS in Greenville… I need to check on that.

• Up Next in Softball … Looking at the Saints schedule on MaxPreps it looks like they will be hosting Abbeville Friday (4-25) at 4:15.

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 (4-20-25) DI Baseball.com Top 25 poll, the top 5 spots had a good bit of change… Texas is still #1 (2) followed by Clemson (3), Oregon State (6), Florida State (7) and Arkansas (2)… Spots 6-10 are occupied by Tennessee (4), LSU (9), North Carolina (12), Vanderbilt (19) and Georgia (5)… 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 (4-21-25) ESPN/USA Softball Top 25, the top 5 had a little change compared to last week as Tennessee (2)  is now #1 followed by Texas A&M (1), Texas, Oklahoma and Oregon (6)…  Spots 6-10 are occupied by Florida (7), Florida State (8), UCLA (5), Arkansas (10) and LSU (9) … South Carolina moved up a spot to #11 and Clemson checked in at #19 again this week… 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

• Cup Series has Easter Off… The Cup Series drivers had the week off this past Sunday… The Xfinity did race on Saturday with Sammy Smith taking the win at Rockingham… 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 is back in action this weekend as NASCAR moves most of the action this weekend to Talladega…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 4 – Cardinals 1… The Braves won the third game of the 3-game series with the Cardinals last night in Atlanta by a score of 4-1… Eli White had a 3-run homer for the Braves his first of the season… The Braves are 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).

• Hub City (Spartanburg) 4 – Drive 3… The Hub City Spartanburgers took a 4-3 win last night in Spartanburg scoring the winning run in the bottom of the 9^th inning on a single with 2 outs and runners on first and second bade.
• 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 .

 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

NOTE…  As best I can tell, all games scheduled for yesterday were rained out and at this time I do not have any information on their rescheduling… Further, the games on tap for today look like there is a high likelihood of them being rained out also.

Clinton HS

• Up Next in Baseball… Weather permitting, the Red Devils will be hosting the Strom Thurmond today at 7:30 according to their schedule on Max Preps.

• Up Next in Softball… According to their schedule on MaxPreps, the Red Devils will be in action Thursday when they travel to Eau Claire Shamrocks at 5:30 pm

Laurens

• Baseball Senior Night… Monday (4-21-25) the Raider baseball team honored the senior members of the team… They include:
  • #1 – Ben Willis… Ben plans on attending Horry-Georgetown Tech and majoring in Forestry.
  • #2 – Bennett Edwards…. He plans on attending Georgia Southern to continue his academic and athletic career.
  • #4 Avery Madden… Plans on becoming a lineman for Laurens Electric.
  • #5 Jireh Brown… Plans on attending a technical college.
  • #9 Grayson Ledford… Grayson had planned on attending Limestone University but with recent funding problems there, he is looking to play baseball and continue his education somewhere else
  • #10 Zay Pulley… Zay plans on attending Flounce Darlington Tech and majoring in HVAC.
  • #17 Coleman Coker… Coleman plans on attending Brevard College where he will continue his baseball career and be a pre-med major.
  • Also Honored… The raiders also recognized and honored their team manager Anthony Zou who plans to attend Clemson… Kensley Crowe was also honored for being the team’s athletic trainer and helping to take care of the team not only at home but on the road.
• 
•  Up Next in Baseball… Weather permitting, the Raiders will travel to Southside tonight (Wednesday, 4-23) and play a doubleheader with the Tigers with the first game starting at 5:00 pm.

• Up Next in Softball… The Raiders are now scheduled to travel to Mauldin today for a 6:00 pm game with the Mavericks.

Laurens Academy

• Up Next in Baseball...The Crusader baseball master schedule on their website says they will be playing at Greenwood Christian on Thursday, 4-24-25 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

• Up Next in Baseball… According to their schedule on MaxPreps, the Saints will not be back in action until Friday, 5-2-25 when they travel to Southside HS in Greenville… I need to check on that.

• Up Next in Softball … Looking at the Saints schedule on MaxPreps it looks like they will be hosting Abbeville Friday (4-25) at 4:15.

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

• Cup Series has Easter Off… The Cup Series drivers had the week off this past Sunday… The Xfinity did race on Saturday with Sammy Smith taking the win at Rockingham… 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 is back in action this weekend as NASCAR moves most of the action this weekend to Talladega…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.

• Monday: Braves 7 – Cardinals 6… Monday the Braves started their 3-game home series with the Cardinals by taking a 7- 6 win with Sean Murphy and Austin Riley homering for the Braves.
• Tuesday: Cardinals 10 – Braves 4… Sean Murphy (6) and Matt Olson (4) both homered for the Braves but it was not enough as the Cardinals took a 10-4 win in game two of the 3-game series.
• 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).

• Hub City (Spartanburg) 1 – Drive 0… The Drive traveled over to Spartanburg (Hub City) to take on the new Spartanburgers team in the first game of a 6-game series… They were able to get the game in and the Spartanburgers took a 1-0 win.
• 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 .

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

• Baseball: Red Devils 12 – Griffins 0… The Red Devil baseball team hosted the Fairfield Central Griffins last night making up a game postponed by weather a couple of weeks ago… G news for Red Devil fans as they took a 12-0 win in 4 innings… The Red Devils scored 3 runs in the 1^st inning and at least 2 runs in each of the next 4 innings as they outhit the Griffins 8-2 in route to the region win… To be honest, only 8 of the Red Devil runs were earned as 5 errors and a couple of wild pitches and hit batters aided the Clinton’s cause… Camden Finley and Talon Campbell each had 2 hits for the Red Devils with one of Campbell’s hits being a double and one of Finley’s a triple…. Isaac Cane took the complete game win striking out 6 and walking 1… 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… Weather permitting, the Red Devils will be hosting the Eau Claire Shamrocks today at 7:30.

• Up Next in Softball… According to their schedule, the Red Devils will be in action today when they host the Eau Claire Shamrocks at 5:30 pm

Laurens

• Baseball: Raiders 17 – Tigers 0 (3)… The Raider baseball team was back in action last night as they hosted the Southside HS Tigers at Ed Prescott Field in region action… The Raiders held the Tigers scoreless in the top of the 1^st inning then put 12 runs on the scoreboard in the bottom of the inning and added 5 more run in the 2^nd as they cruised to a 17-0 win over the Tigers in 3 innings… The Raiders simply outhit the Tigers 16-0 and 9 of those hits were for extra bases… Connor Rice, and Coleman Coker each had a homer in the game and Bennett Edwards had 2 homers… A couple of the homers ( Rice and 1 of Edwards) were inside-the-park homers as the Raiders had some speed on the base paths last night Edwards led the Raiders at the plate going 3 for 3 with 5 RBIs with every Rider in the lineup getting at least 1 hit with most of them getting more than 1… Pitching last night for the Raiders was “by committee” as 5 different players took to the mound… 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… Weather permitting, the Raiders will travel to Southside tomorrow (Wednesday, 4-23) and play a doubleheader with the Tigers with the first game starting at 5:00 pm.

• Softball: Woodruff 15 – Raiders 3… The news is not as good for Raider fans where the softball team is concerned as they traveled up to Woodruff HS yesterday and fell to the Wolverines 15-3 in 5 innings… The Wolverines scored 14 run in the first two innings putting the Raiders in a hole they just could not climb out of though they tried scoring 2 runs in the 3^rd inning and 1 in the 5^th… The Wolverines outhit the Raiders 12-6 and the Raiders did have a few errors that aided the Wolverines… Zealy Martin was the only Raider with more than1 hit as she 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 Softball… The Raiders are now scheduled to travel to Emerald today for a JV-Varsity doubleheader starting at 5:00 pm weather permitting.

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… There was a lot of bell ringing over at Thornwell last night as the Saints hosted the Blue Flashes in a doubleheader of baseball action and won both games.
  • Thornwell 12 – Calhoun Falls 0 (5)… In the first game the Saints took a 12-0 win in 5 innings outhitting the Flashes 9-2 and taking advantage of 6 Calhoun Falls errors and some wild pitched to take the win… Parker Workman and Tru’Mari Kinard-Shelton both went 3 for 3 for the Saints with Kinard-Shelton hitting a double and a triple to drive in 5 runs… Sam Robertson picked up the complete game win giving up just 2 hits while striking out 13 and walking just 2…To see the box score of the game click here and to see the scorecard to see how the runs were scored click here.
  • Thornwell 16 – Calhoun Falls 0 (3)… In the second game, the Saints took a 16-0 win over the Flashes in just 3 innings… The Saints only had 4 hits in the game (nobody had over 1) while the Flashes had none…. The story of this game is that the Flashes had 5 errors in the game (Saints had none) and the Flashes’ pitchers issued 11 walks, 5 wild pitches and hit a batter or two… Griffen Raines and Bryce English both had a triple for the Saints… Parker Workman picked up the striking out 9 and walking just one… 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 not be back in action until Friday, 5-2-25 when they travel to Southside HS in Greenville… I need to check on that.

• Up Next in Softball … Looking at the Saints schedule on MaxPreps it looks like they will be hosting Abbeville Friday (4-25) at 4:15.

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.