The baseball teams of Clinton and Laurens high schools have won their share of laughers, but now the playoffs have arrived and the going’s gotten tougher.

Both the Red Devils and Raiders have proved themselves tough.

On Thursday night, Clinton (20-3) spotted Wren six runs and roared back to win, 7-6, on Brett Young’s two-out hit in the seventh inning.

On Friday night, Laurens (17-9-1) fell behind by five but defeated North Augusta on the road via Owen Pridgen’s two-out, two-run single in the top of the seventh. The final was 8-6.

Both Laurens County teams could have moped and wept prematurely. Instead, both took the “things are tough right now, but we’re going to figure something out” route and found it. GPS didn’t help.

It’s a dangerous path, but they’re capable of it. Best not to make it a habit. The opposition is trying, too.

Classes 3A (Clinton) and 4A (Laurens) have different formats. Clinton is 2-0 in the postseason and a win away from winning its district because there are four of them. Each winner advances to a four-team Upstate round. Laurens is 3-0 but not yet to the finals because 4A has two eight-team districts, with two winners playing best-of-three for a trip to the state finals.

So far, so good, in both cases.

Clinton has a possibility of two games on Monday, so the first is to begin at 5:30 p.m., against Pendleton, which earned the right by defeating Wren on Saturday.

Laurens doesn’t play again until Friday, which is, in 4A, the luxury of its 3-0 start.

Presbyterian College, which is somehow in Coral Gables, Fla., this weekend playing the No. 11 team in the country, in three games that have nothing to do with whether or not the Blue Hose qualify for the Big South tournament. PC still has conference series on the next two weekends. It’s a long shot, but the Blue Hose have a chance to finish fourth and make the championship.

PC (18-28, 9-12 BSC) face Longwood at home May 12-14 and visit Radford in Virginia on May 18-20. The span from third-place Gardner-Webb (27-17, 12-7) to the eight-place tie of UNC Asheville (21-21, 7-12) and High Point (14-31, 7-12) is five games. The Blue Hose are three games behind fourth-place Charleston Southern (20-22, 11-8).

Many of these teams are playing each other this weekend. PC is not.

Longwood (19-27, 8-13) is playing at Elton Pollock Field. Radford (9-37, 1-18) is buried deeply. PC probably needs to win five of the six games to have a shot.

Miami slaughtered Presbyterian, 13-4, on Friday night. So what?

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