Head coach Steve Englehart released Presbyterian College’s 12-game football schedule, which begins on Aug. 30 in Macon, Ga., against the Mercer Bears.
Mercer, en route to an 11-3 record and Southern Conference title, routed the Blue Hose, 63-10, last season.
PC, in fact, opens the season with the last two SoCon champs. Furman slumped to 3-8 last season after a 10-3 record in 2023. The last time the Blue Hose took on the Paladins, 2014, PC pulled a 10-7 upset.
Hopes haven’t been so high for the Hose since Kevin Kelley, “the coach who didn’t punt,” took over for a season in 2021, when PC won its first two games and lost the remaining nine. This time Englehart’s more orthodox approach has provided expectations that are more solid.
Englehart, who picked up the pieces in the wake of the Kelley disaster, has gone 1-10, 4-7 and 6-6. Presbyterian enters the season riding a four-game win streak.
“Our 2025 schedule is as challenging as ever,” said Englehart. “We are excited to once again play a 12-game slate that includes six home games, and getting able to compete against the last two SoCon champions in Mercer and Furman right out of the gate.
“The PFL is going to be a tough and competitive league all-around, as it always seems to be. We have a ton of respect for every team in this conference and know that we will need to bring our best efforts every Saturday in order to compete for our first PFL title.”
Presbyterian won their last four games of the season by an average of 18 points, going undefeated in the month of November for the first time since 2002 and led by PFL Offensive Freshman of the Year quarterback Collin Hurst.
The final two non-conference efforts will be held at Bailey Memorial, hosting old rival Erskine for the home opener on Sept. 13. Presbyterian grounded the Flying Fleet 31-14 last season.
The Blue Hose battle Bluefield in the last contest before PFL play, butting heads with the Rams on Sept. 20. PC has won the only two prior meetings with Bluefield (2014 and 2018), winning by a combined tally of 110-24.
Morehead State will serve as PC’s first Pioneer Football League roadblock on Sept. 27, a team that has encountered the Blue Hose every year since 2021. The last four games between Presby and MSU have all been decided by eight points or less.
After a week off, Oct. 11 finds the Blue Hose in Indianapolis to play Butler.
Presbyterian will go back and forth between home and away games at this stage of the season, hostinging Stetson back at Bailey on Oct. 18, then traveling to Ohio to face Daytona on Oct. 25 sees the Blue Hose depart for Dayton.
The Blue Hose tangle with Valparaiso back in South Carolina on Nov. 1, then go back on the road to play Davidson on Nov. 8 and Saint Thomas (Minn.) on Nov. 15.
Presbyterian will close the season at home, matching up with Marist on Nov. 22.
Season tickets for the 2025 Blue Hose football season go on sale this Friday in conjunction with the team’s spring game at Bailey Memorial Stadium. The scrimmage starts at 6, matching Blue against White.
Take a look at the schedule here.
Brayden Passmore belied his name – he passed less, issuing just one walk and two hits – as he pitched Fountain Inn past Laurens, 1-0, in an epic pitchers’ duel at Ed Prescott Field on Tuesday night.
Fountain Inn (15-3, 7-0) scored the Region 1-4A game’s only run in the first inning and held on despite the best efforts of the Raiders’ Grayson Ledford and Connor Rice, who combined to allow three hits.
Passmore needed just 77 pitches, throwing 56 strikes and striking out eight, for a complete-game victory. He retired the first nine batters in order, finally yielding Laurens shortstop Ben Willis a lead-off single in the fourth inning.
The Raiders (9-6, 7-3) advanced a runner past second base or put more than two on base. Edwards grounded into an inning-ending double play to end the sixth after Willis reached on an error and Zay Pulley walked.
First baseman Logan Martin led off the seventh with a single but remained at first as Coleman Coker flied out, Tristan Buzbee struck out and Jireh Brown popped up to end the game.
The Fury scored the game without a hit in the first inning on three walks and an error. The game’s only run was unearned. Ledford pitched the first 4-1/3 innings, allowing three hits and four walks (with six strikeouts). Rice allowed a walk and a hit batterin 2-2/3. He fanned four.
The Raiders ended a three-game win streak.
The teams play again in Fountain Inn on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. and return to LDHS for a Friday game at the same time.
Presbyterian (16-18) took on seventh-ranked Georgia in Athens on Tuesday night in baseball with predictable results as the Bulldogs (30-5) pounded the Blue Hose, 16-2.
PC actually actually scored the game’s first run on Jake Randolph’s sacrifice fly in the top of the first inning.
Georgia’s Ryan Black quickly responded with a lead-off home run in the bottom half. Ryland Zaborowski homered in the fourth, and Kolby Branch belted a grand slam in the fifth, when Georgia scored nine runs to lead 14-1.Rhogue Wallace drove in the Blue Hose’ second run in the top of the seventh.
Trey Fenderson laced his ninth and 10th doubles of the season for PC, his 12th multi-hit game and 11th straight in which he has reached base safely. He and Ryan Ouzts each had two hits.
Slate Alford and Branch each had three of Georgia’s 16 hits.
Georgia used eight pitchers. Matthew Hoskins (1-1) was judged the winner.
The first of four Blue Hose, J.J. Harrell (0-2), took the loss.
Presbyterian softball had to settle for a season split with rival Wofford (24-15), falling 4-0 in Spartanburg.
PC (19-20) was unable to solve starting pitcher Abby Greenwood in the team’s second-to-last non-conference matchup of the calendar, striking out nine times and registering hits in the first and seventh innings.
The Blue Hose aim to regroup this weekend in their first home appearance in over three weeks (their last home game was the win over Wofford in mid-March), hosting Gardner-Webb for a Big South doubleheader on Saturday and the finale less than 24 hours later.
Baxleigh Arnette and Mallory Fletcher had the Blue Hose hits. Abbi Campbell had two of the Terriers’ six.
Wren defeated Laurens (6-8, 3-4) in softball, 5-1, as R Martin had three hits for the Hurricanes.
Ony two of the runs charged the Raiders’ Summer Nations were earned.
Laurens’ four hits, all singles, came off the bats of Nations, Carly Edwards, Zealy Martin and Accy Carlisle.
The Raiders have lost four straight and take on Wren at home on Thursday.
Catcher Madi Porter drove in four runs in Thornwell’s 22-1 softball conquest of Calhoun Falls.
The Saints scored 12 runs in the first inning, 10 in the second and didn’t have to bat in a third as the game ended via a 15-run rule after Calhoun Falls scored its only run in the top of the inning.
Shortstop Adrienne Anderson led the Saints (5-4) with three hits. Porter, Camden Nelson, Skyla Bates and Madison Landrith each had two. Porter homered.
Thornwell visits Dixie on Wednesday at 5 in Due West.
Bates allowed only a hit better and struck out six in her two innings in the circle. Lexi Hazel finished up.
The undefeated Clinton boys’ tennis team (5-0, 3-0) blanked Columbia, 6-0, losing only three games. The Red Devils visit the Capitals on Thursday.
Nathan Meade defeated Malen Cherry, 6-0, 6-1. Edwin Orr defeated Jeffrey Orozco, 6-0, 6-0. Matthew King defeated Micah Perry, 6-0, 6-0. Jacob King defeated Nyzire Goldsmith, 6-0, 6-1. Jacob Meyerholz defeated Tristan Kruckow-Remsburg, 6-0, 6-0. No. 1 doubles did not play. Cooper Stinson-Malakye Brewer defeated Stephen Dickerson-William Daniels, 6-0, 6-1.
The Clinton softball team fared even better against Columbia than baseball, which defeated the Capitals 18-0 and 19-0 last week. The Red Devils (8-8, 2-4) won the softball games 18-0 and 20-0.
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