In the first inning of Tuesday’s Region 3-2A baseball game at Columbia High, Clinton collected 16 walks, a hit batter, Tanner Finley’s double and Owen Glenn’s three-run homer.

That was quite enough for the Red Devils to post their third straight shutout by double digits, defeating the hapless Capitals, 18-0.

Clinton (9-4, 3-2) scored all 18 of those runs in the top of the first inning and needed only two more to humble Columbia (0-11, 0-5), which has lost 10 of its games by at least 10 runs.

The Red Devils needed only five hits to score 18 runs.

First baseman Tanner Finley had a double. Luke Young, Hunter Avery and Jaydon Glenn smacked singles. Camden Finley, Brett Young and Jared Willard each walked twice. Maison Tinsley, Owen Glenn and Rhett Gilliam each scored twice.

Columbia did not manage a hit. Zack Lawson, who was credited with the win, pitched two innings and Colin Lollis one.

Aaron Watson, one of three Columbia pitchers, took the loss.

The teams play each other again in Clinton on Friday.

It wasn’t radically different in Laurens (7-5, 5-2 Region 1-4A), where the Raiders pounded Emerald, 11-1.

After spotting the Vikings a run on Aaron Polly’s second-inning homer, Laurens scored four runs in the third inning, one in the fourth, four in the fifth and two in the sixth.

The Raiders’ 11 hits were apportioned thusly: Logan Martin three, Ben Willis and Bennett Edwards two each, and Zay Pulley, Avery Madden, Jireh Brown and Brayden Patterson, each with one.

Edwards, Patterson, Brow and Martin each ripped doubles. Edwards tripled. Willis scored three runs. Edwards drove in three runs. Martin and Madden pushed in two.

Polly’s homer was the only hit off Grayson Ledford, who walked two and fanned two.

Coleson Marino took the loss for Emerald (5-7, 1-2).

It was not a night for tight competition among Laurens County’s high schools, but the rest of the games went the other way.

Ware Shoals (8-2) pounded Thornwell, 22-2, led by Brayden Madden, who went 3/3 with a three-run homer.

Zack Crowe had two of the Saints’ three hits. The first of three Thornwell (3-9) pitchers, Crowe took the loss on the mound. Dalton Boyter struck out 11 Saints to earn the win.

Fountain Inn demolished Laurens, 23-7, in softball, pounding 25 hits off three Raider pitchers.

Summer Nations took the loss. The Fury starter, Halle Baker, went the distance in the circle, allowing eight hits with three walks and five strikeouts.

The Fury (6-4, 1-2 Region 1-4A) achieved its highest run output of the season and won for the fourth time in its last five games.

Payton Herring enjoyed a 4/6 night at the plate with two doubles and five runs batted in for Fountain Inn, and Olivia Lieb homered and went 2/5.

Ashly Messer homered for the Raiders (6-5, 3-2), who play Clinton on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Presbyterian College (14-16) took a short-lived lead with a run in the top of the third inning, but South Carolina (18-12) scored a pair in the the bottom half and wound up pounding the Blue Hose, 11-1, in Columbia. The baseball game at Founders Park ended at seven innings.

The Blue Hose struck first on Amman Dewberry’s RBI single.

South Carolina quickly responded as Ethan Petry launched a two-run homer over the left-field wall to put the Gamecocks ahead, 2-1.

The Gamecocks put PC away with five runs in the sixth inning and four in the seventh.
Jackson Soucie (2-0), the second of four Carolina hurlers, earned the win, and Yechiel Saint (1-2), second of PC’s five, took the loss.

Nathan Hall and Petry each collected two hits for the Gamecocks. Trey Fenderson, who doubled, was one of six Blue Hose with a hit apiece.

The Blue Hose return home this weekend for a Big South series against Longwood. Game one is set for Friday, April 4, with first pitch at 6 p.m.

Tyrell Williams, who was dazzling in his appearance versus UNC Asheville, is the Big South Freshman of the Week.
Making his first weekend start of the season, Williams was nearly flawless in PC’s opener against the Bulldogs. He retired the first 12 batters, pitching four perfect innings and seven strong ones.

Williams allowed just three hits and one earned run while striking out two and issuing only one walk. Of the 25 batters he faced, he only allowed four on base while forcing 10 groundouts. His dominant outing helped secure an 8-3 victory for the Blue Hose and earned him his first win of the season.

Clinton’s Sofia Carles enjoyed a career-best eighth-place finish for PC as the Blue Hose finished seventh in the Mimosa Hills Intercollegiate in Morganton, N.C.

Carles shot a final-round 74 and finished at +14.

Wofford, led by medalist Bella Kent, won the tournament at 925, 31 strokes ahead of the Blue Hose in the nine-team tournament.

The Big South Tournament is April 13-15 at Fripp Island.

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