By MONTE DUTTON

A high-school baseball game can be a many splendored experience.

I saw a no-hitter, an inspirational one, twirled by Laurens’ Asher Goss on Wednesday night.

That’s just part of the pleasure, though.

I sat for a while with a lifelong acquaintance who played for the Raiders at the same time I was trying to for the Red Devils. We owned Laurens in those days. The first remark he made was that the referees beat Laurens our senior year. I told him I’d go by what the records say and changed the subject.

We got along great then.

I like to mingle at ballgames. I like to crack jokes with people I’m pretending to know. Even now, after all these years, I’m taken aback when I encounter people who seem to know everything about me. I learned a long time ago that saying, “Excuse me, but who in hell are you?” seldom works.

They feel as if they know all about me because, if they read my stories, they do.

Duh.

One reason I wander about is that I’m taking photos from various locations: from the dugout, behind a fence, through the screen behind the plate, switching to manual focus sometimes to keep the infernal screen from throwing off the auto.

When I was out of college, I’d stand on a high-school sideline, take a photo and scribble what just happened. The camera had film in it. It featured neither auto-focus nor rapid-fire shooting. It was harder. Then again, I usually just needed one good shot to accompany the story.

For the next 30 years, the only times I took photos were for fun.

Now I’m right back where I started.

Laurens didn’t waste time in a junior-varsity doubleheader hosted by the Raiders, scoring seven runs in the first inning of the first game en route to an 11-1 victory over Riverside and a sweep with a 9-2 victory in the nightcap.

Runs ruled after the top of the fifth inning, when the Warriors scored their only run, driven in by Cooper Levinson.

Ke’Allen Blackwell went 2/2, scoring a pair of runs. Samuel Adams doubled and Tristian Buzbee tripled for the Raiders (11-6). Braden Yarbrough and Logan Martin each pitched two innings for Laurens, and Cody Hamyes finished up.

Game one had the same number of hits (9) as errors.

Tyler Duprel only lasted 1/3 of an inning for the Warriors.

Riverside got the quick start in the nightcap, scoring two first-inning runs. The Warriors were still batting when it rained.

Any sense of Riverside security was short-lived.

Once play resumed, the Raiders promptly loaded the bases on an error and two walks in the bottom of the first inning. Preston Dixon drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, and Adams tied the game with a single. Noah Hughes then doubled in two runs.

The Raiders added four more runs in the second and one in the fourth.

Dixon and Adams were both 2/3. Both scored a run and drove in three. Adams tripled.

Hughes was the winning pitcher.

For Riverside, Lane Myers homered and took the loss on the hill.

Clinton (8-4) pounded Chester, 16-0, in a JV game on Wednesday, erupting for 12 runs in the run-rule ending third inning.

Talan Campbell crammed five strikeouts into two innings of work. Angel Vargas allowed the Cyclones’ only hit in the third.

Vargas and Avery Barnes each raked a double among their two hits. Twos were wild for Clinton’s Clayton Kyko, who lined up two at-bats, runs, hits and RBI.

Jacoby Kennedy collected Chester’s lone hit. Logan Case, the first of  four pitchers, took the loss.

Thornwell took a 22-3 softball loss from Dixie at the Saints’ home park on Thursday.

The Saints scored their runs in the bottom of the first inning, though the Green Hornets had already put up 10 in the top half.

They added six runs apiece in the second and third innings, and that was that.

Dixie scored 22 runs off 16 hits and six Thornwell (4-12) errors.

First baseman Karleigh Porter went 2/2 at the plate for the Saints. Shortstop Adrienne Anderson doubled.

Camden Nelson (L) had a rough inning in the circle. Lexi Hazel pitched the remaining two frames.

Clinton boys’ tennis subdued Union County for the second time in as many days, following up a 5-1 with a 6-0 verdict on Thursday.

The Red Devils are 4-1, 3-0 in Region 4-3A.

# 1 Singles, Nathan Meade defeated Drake Sealy 6 – 2, 6 – 1; #2 Singles, Edwin Orr defeated Colby Parker  6 – 0, 6 – 0; # 3 Singles, Matthew King defeated  Reid Barnado  6 – 0, 6 – 0; # 4 Singles, Jacob King defeated Corbin Lancaster  6 – 1, 6 – 0; # 5 Singles, Malakye Brewer defeated Reid Sanders 6 – 1, 6 – 0

# 1 Doubles did not play; # 2 Doubles, Brady Mason & Ethan Wargo defeated Gabriel Tyler & Sean Williams  6 – 3, 6 – 1.

Clinton visits Emerald at 5 p.m. on Friday.

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