By MONTE DUTTON

Westside’s 8-4 victory over Laurens on Monday night came principally at the Raiders’ own hands.
Five errors, all in the Laurens infield, were LDHS’s undoing as only one of the runs was earned. Laurens (3-7, 0-1 Region 1-4A) can make amends on a Wednesday trip to Anderson and the Rams’ home diamond. Then the teams return to Ed Prescott Field on Friday. All is not lost, and it’s only the first region series.
It all began pleasantly enough when Zay Pulley lined a double to center field, his home territory, on a full count to lead off the bottom of the first inning. After Ben Willis lined out to second base, catcher Bennett Edwards lined a single to left, scoring Pulley. Westside starter – and winner – Tyler Scott got the final two outs without further incident.

Willis started on the mound and cruised into the third, when Westside took the lead for good. Willis allowed five hits and a like number of walks, but struck out six before moving to short after 3-1/3 frames on the hill. Jacob Holmes and Landon Geddings singled in the fourth-inning runs.
Conner Rice and William Nunley also toed the rubber for Laurens, each surrendering three unearned runs. The Rams distanced themselves from Laurens with two runs in the fifth, one in the sixth and a crushing three in the seventh.
The Raiders had just clawed back to within a run in the sixth, on Willis’ RBI double, Avery Madden’s sacrifice fly and Jireh Brown’s run-producing single.
Holmes singled in two runs in the top of the seventh, and another scored on one of two Logan Martin misplays in the inning.

Pulley and Edwards each collected two hits for Laurens. Ditto for Westside’s Scott and Holmes.
The College Basketball Invitational is a blend of the sublime and the ridiculous.
The Blue Hose are dancing. It’s not a big dance. The Twist, maybe.
Presbyterian College played in the men’s basketball tournament, held wholly at Daytona Beach (Fla.) Ocean Center, last year. The Blue Hose were the only team in the 12-team field with a losing record.

This is true again. Last year PC had a 14-18 record and played Montana in the first round, losing 82-79 in overtime to finish 14-19. This year the Blue Hose are to play Illinois State in the first round on Sunday at 6:30. Again their record is 14-18.
For the third time in Presbyterian’s Division I era and for the second straight season, the Blue Hose have “earned” a postseason tournament berth. Last season, Presbyterian played in the CBI, and the Blue Hose won two games in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament in 2019.
What a country.
The CBI runs March 23-26.

Manhattan (17-13), Incarnate Word (17-16), Elon (17-15), Army (16-15), Queens (19-14), Northern Arizona (18-15), Florida Gulf Coast (18-14), Jacksonville (19-13) and Cleveland State (21-12) will join Presbyterian and Illinois State (19-14) in the CBI.
The opening and quarterfinal rounds will be televised on FloCollege (paid subscription required), with the semifinals on ESPNU and the championship game on ESPN2.
Manhattan and PC have already played once, with the Jaspers edging the Blue Hose, 86-81, in overtime on Dec. 21.
Seattle won the tournament last year.

Clinton softball pummeled Abbeville, 18-3, scoring 14 times in the third inning.
The game ended mercifully after the Red Devils (3-3) brought 19 batters to the plate and all but two reached base. Nine of them walked. Clinton had only five hits – one each by Taylor Davis, Kamryn Campbell, Me-Me Smith, Sierra Templeton and Halleigh Luke – and didn’t need that many.
Campbell drove in three runs. Cat Wilkie ably handled the pitching circle.

Senior first baseman Kendall Owens of the Presbyterian College softball team is Big South Player of the Week in softball.
The balls will be bouncing on both the adjacent diamonds as Region 3-2A rival Mid-Carolina visits Clinton in softball and baseball on Tuesday.
Batting a torrid .590 since March 2, the Virginian was a key factor in PC’s first-ever series victory against USC Upstate since the two became conference mates in 2019. In those three games, she went 5/10 with two doubles, a home run and three RBI.

Owens has put together at least two hits in nine of her last 13 appearances, hitting .474 over a six-game week and slugging at an .842 rate.
With one Big South series in the books, Kendall is the Blue Hose leader in season batting average (.422), hits (35), doubles (12), walks (15) and total bases (61).
Laurens swept away Southside, 7-0, in boys’ tennis, and split with the Tigers in soccer. The girls won, 7-1, and the boys lost, 5-0.
If I had two nickels to rub together right now, I’d load the truck on Tuesday morning and set out for Denton, Texas, to watch Furman play in the NIT.

I’m familiar with the area. I’ve probably driven past the UNT Coliseum a hundred times. It’s where I-35 East (through Dallas) and I-35 West (Fort Worth) regroup for Oklahoma. I have many friends, most of whom play guitars and one of whom builds them, who live nearby.

If the timing was right, I might not come back.
However, my trip to the Southern Conference Tournament was taxing. I’m not ready for Texas. I’d have to stop at lots of rest areas.
North Texas is the Mean Green. Mean Joe Greene once played football there. The school, once North Texas State, was famous for beauty queens. On the night I had emergency surgery, North Texas played Texas State in a bowl game. High on ketamine, the game seemed to take at least five hours, and that was just the fourth quarter.
Just as was the case for the season, I’ll tune in the Paladins on ESPN+ and be damn glad to get it.
For the second season in a row, Presbyterian is playing in the College Basketball Insider tournament in spite of its 14-18 record. That’s a record that may never be broken.

I feel as if the world has passed me, not to mention my abdomen, by. As much as it took a physical toll on me, I wouldn’t have missed Johnson City and Asheville for the Final Four. Chattanooga and Samford are also in the NIT field.
Most of my books are available at Amazon and other online bookseller sites. The most recent, The Latter Days, is a baseball novel, which you may enjoy in part because, well, the Paladins no longer play it. If you’d like to sample my fiction, Longer Songs is a collection of short stories derived from songs I’ve written.
Thanks for putting up with me.