By MONTE DUTTON

Fun. You can’t beat fun.

Another of my late sportswriting chums – I’ve been mourning Jim McLaurin lately – used to say that with a regularity that somehow didn’t undermine the humor.

It was all in the timing.

David Poole and I were alike in a lot of ways and different in just as many. He said he saw the message above on a sign at a county fair.

My version has always been uttered with attribution to Dudley Moore – yeah, dead, too – in Arthur: “Isn’t fun the greatest thing you can have?”

For the second year in a row, Laurens and Clinton are trying to hop a train to baseball glory.

Both could claim region titles. The Raiders have had it all the way, but a surprise loss on Monday put them in harm’s – specifically, Greer’s – way.

It all got wrapped up Wednesday night because Laurens won and Greer lost.

Clinton, which streaked to the Class 3A title and won its last 18 games last year – lost many quality players. The Red Devils still have their fair share, and the team has gotten better as the season has run its course.

It’s going to take another victory over Emerald on Friday night, and a make-up win over Union County next Tuesday, but a third straight Region 4 championship is in the Red Devils’ hands.

Last season both teams entered the playoffs as their regions’ top seeds. It could happen again.

Whether it happens or not, it’s fun.

Laurens took care of business on Wednesday night in Taylors, and not far away, Riverside was taking care of more business for the Raiders.

With Asher Goss on the mound, a week after a no-hitter he tossed at Riverside, Laurens broke on top – similarly to how Wade Hampton had started Monday – and defeated the Generals, 6-3.

Right fielder Avery Madden went 3/3 and drove in two runs. Caleb Coker and Zay Pulley homered back-to-back.

The Raiders struck swiftly in the second inning. Owen Pridgen reached the hard way: by being hit with a pitch. Ben Willis sacrificed him to second, and Pridgen scored with ease on Madden’s double to left field. Not to be outdone, Coker launched a bomb on a 2-1 count.

Another home run, by Pulley, made it 4-0.

Goss, a little shaky, weathered a leadoff walk and a Jack Stepp double in part due to a 6-4-3 double play behind him in the third inning.

The Raiders (16-5, 8-3) left runners on second and third in the top of the fourth.

Goss walked three of the first four Wade Hampton (7-13, 2-8) batters in the fifth, but he struck out Will Kay and got Trevin Quinn to ground to Hunter Nabors at second base. He threw 112 pitches and ran out of gas in the sixth, when the Generals scored three runs to pull within one.

Laurens stabilized the game in the top of the seventh inning. With one out, Goss and Pridgen launched consecutive singles, setting up a first-and-third scenario for Willis, whose sacrifice fly scored Goss. Josh Goodwin, who ran for Pridgen, scored on Madden’s single up the middle.

Chandler Stefoff (L) lasted only 1-1/3 innings.

Laurens clinched the top region seed in the 4A playoffs because Riverside edged Greer, 8-7, in the Yellow Jackets’ home park. The Raiders take a game lead into Friday’s games but own a tie-breaker for winning the series against Greer (15-6, 7-4) earlier.

Catcher Addison Trevino had a night in Laurens.

The Raiders catcher went 5/5 with six runs batted in as Laurens defeated Fountain Inn, 12-8, on Wednesday night in softball.

Trevino opened the bottom of the first inning with a home run. It was the first of seven Laurens (7-8) scored in the inning.

Carly Edwards and Makayden Livingston each went 2/4. Edwards doubled.

The Fury scored five runs in the fourth inning and got back within two, but Laurens’ four-run sixth took care of that.

Taylor Ford, Peyton Kinsler and Olivia Lieb each had two hits for Fountain Inn.

Kandyce White, who allowed Laurens’ first four runs in a third of an inning, took the loss.

Summer Nations went the full seven innings, allowing 10 hits, four earned runs and three walks. She fanned five.

Clinton (7-1, 6-0) wrapped up the Region 4-3A boys’ tennis title on Tuesday with a 4-2 victory over Woodruff.

Clinton 4, Woodruff 2

# 1 Singles, Nathan Meade defeated  Cohen Lyda  6 – 1, 6 – 2; # 2 Singles, Edwin Orr defeated  Jacob Thompson  6 – 0, 6 – 0; # 3 Singles, Matthew King defeated  Owen Edmondson  6 – 0, 6 – 0; # 4 Singles, Jacob King defeated Louis Phelps  6 – 0, 6 – 1; # 5 Singles    Malakye Brewer lost to Bryce Collins  6 – 0, 6 –3

# 1 Doubles  DID NOT PLAY; # 2 Doubles, Brady Mason & Ethan Wargo lost to Jayden cLanford & Benjamin Martin  6 – 3, 7 – 5.

Wade Hampton hosted Laurens and captured a 4-2 victory in Region 2-4A boys’ tennis on Tuesday.

Dylan Brink won in a third set tiebreaker at No. 3, and Gibson Partee won in a third-set tiebreaker at No. 5.

Woodmont visits on Thursday, and the Raiders open the playoffs next Tuesday.

Playing Class 4A Eastside never seemed wise, but the Eagles flew down from Taylors and headed back to the nest with a 25-4 softball victory over Thornwell Charter (5-15).

Eastside scored 13 runs in the second inning and reaped the benefits of 13 hits, 14 walks and five Thornwell errors.

Madi Landrith tripled for the Saints, who also got singles from Madi Porter, Camden Nelson and Karleigh Porter.

Laurens’ junior varsity put up five runs in the first inning and seven in the second, then settled in for two innings and a competition-shortened, 12-0, baseball demolition of Wade Hampton.

The Raiders (13-6) batted .500 as a team, and the Generals flipped five errors into the till.

Third baseman Logan Martin went 3/3 – two runs scored, two driven in, double – and Samuel Adams was 2/2 with two runs and three RBI.

Braden Yarbrough gave up three hits, walked four and struck out the same.

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