It’s not every spring one local baseball team, let alone two from Laurens County, gets to play for a state championship, and both the Laurens Raiders and the Clinton Red Devils aren’t there yet.
They’re so close they can taste it. They can feel it. It’s within their reach and almost their grasp.
Laurens (18-9-1) needs two victories in a potential span of three games, beginning Tuesday night at 7 in Fort Mill versus Catawba Ridge, to win the Upstate 4A championship and advance to the state championship series.
On Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., Seneca (17-10), which fell, 6-3, to Clinton on Saturday, returns after a 1-0 Monday elimination-game victory over Belton-Honea Path. Clinton (23-3), which last won a state title in 1961, needs one victory in two tries. If the Bobcats win, they’ll play again. That’s why the action gets underway at 5:30.
Both reached the Upstate bracket last year, but neither the Raiders nor the Red Devils came as close to the championship as they are now.
Catawba Ridge (21-6) is the champion of Region 3-4A. Laurens made the playoffs as the second seed of Region 2 but has won consecutive playoff games against, in order, Northwestern, Greenwood, North Augusta and Greenwood again. The Copperheads are 4-1, having lost to Greenville in their second game but defeated Wade Hampton, South Aiken, Riverside, and, while Laurens was knocking off Greenwood on Saturday, Greenville in a rematch.
Laurens was seeded eighth in the Upstate bracket. Catawba Ridge was second to Greenwood.
Mason Hamby leads the Raiders in batting average (.438) and, on the mound, earned run average (1.25). Jackson Martin has a team-best .516 on-base percentage and four home runs. Zay Pulley has 11 stolen bases. The Raiders have won four straight playoff games and 9-10 games overall.
Clinton, which has won 15 straight games, swept through Region 4-3A and has defeated Broome, Wren, Pendleton, Union County and Seneca in the postseason. The Low Country title is down to Brookland-Cayce and Beaufort.
The two classifications have different formats. Class 4A has two eight-team districts in both Upstate and Low Country. Four four-team districts are contested in 3A. As a result, Clinton is one victory away from the Upstate championship, while Laurens needs two. The Raiders and Copperheads will play again in Laurens on Thursday, regardless of the outcome on Tuesday. If Seneca wins a first game on Wednesday, the teams will play a second game that night, hence the 5:30 start time.
Hamby, also a regular in left field, is the likely Laurens starter in the first game of the Upstate best-of-three. Wil Stewart, who doubles at first base, takes the ball for the Red Devils. Both are seniors.
According to MaxPreps’ power rankings, Clinton is ranked seventh in the state overall, while Laurens ranks 29th. Catawba Ridge ranks 16th, Seneca 40th.
On Monday night, Seneca’s Jacob McGovern one-hit Belton-Honea Path, striking out 13. The Bears’ only hit occurred in the second inning. McGovern doubled and scored on the Bobcats’ lone error.
Clinton has scored 42 runs in five playoff victories. Laurens has scored 30 in four.
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