By MONTE DUTTON

A few weeks ago, before a Laurens High baseball game, I commiserated with the Raiders’ head coach, Tori Patterson, about how bad a Clinton region opponent, Columbia, was.

Patterson offered one word: “Southside.”

The Tigers, Laurens’ final Region 1-4A opponent, are 0-17. Southside, 0-9 in the region, has been outscored, 276-25. Suffice it to say that the Raiders (11-9, 7-5) are favored in the three-game set that begins on Monday night at Ed Prescott Field, moves to Greenville on Wednesday and returns to Laurens on Friday.

Columbia (0-13, 0-6) has been outrun, 241-30.

Both the Raiders and Red Devils figure to finish second in their respective regions. Fountain Inn (19-4, 11-1) and Mid-Carolina (15-7, 7-0), have all but wrapped up Regions 1-4A and 3-2A, respectively, though the Red Devils still have a mathematical shot at first.

Westside (13-6, 6-6) is a game behind Laurens, and the Rams are favored in their final three games against Emerald (9-11, 5-7). It’s far more likely for the Vikings to win a game against Westside than for Southside to win against the Raiders.

It’s a busy week for Clinton (11-6, 5-2), which is scheduled to face Fairfield Central (7-12, 3-3) at home on Monday, Eau Claire (3-6-1, 2-6) at home on Tuesday, Strom Thurmond (7-6) at home on Wednesday and Eau Claire in Columbia on Thursday.

Fairfield Central is Mid-Carolina’s opposition on Tuesday and Friday.

Presbyterian baseball (16-22, 8-7) is in a Big South swoon, after experiencing a Big South sweep at the hands of Radford (20-19, 8-7) on the road.

The Highlanders finished off the Blue Hose, 9-8, on Saturday afternoon despite two home runs from PC outfielder Rhogue Wallace.

Wallace, Trey Fenderson and Amman Dewberry all homered for the Blue Hose, who once led 5-1 and squandered an 8-6 lead when the Highlanders scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning.

The four batters at the top of the Radford order – Jhonkeanu Perez, Hunter Keen, Breckin Nace and James Ward – each had two hits, as did Noah Toole.

The fourth Highlander hurler, Jaxon Kehoe (1-0) was the winner, and PC’s fourth, Sean Hollister (4-4), took the loss.

The Blue Hose visit North Carolina (31-9) on Tuesday at 6, riding a six-game skid.

Wallace, Fenderson and Dewberry smacked consecutive homers for Presbyterian in the third inning. Radford has won six in a row.

PC’s remaining Big South series are against Charleston Southern at home this weekend, league-leading High Point on May 2-4 at home and at USC Upstate on May 9-11.

Presbyterian is now tied for third in the conference standings, trailing High Point (27-13, 11-4), and USC Upstate (21-19, 8-4) and tied with Winthrop (22-20, 8-7), Charleston Southern (22-14, 8-7) and Radford.

One of the more memorable matches in Presbyterian lacrosse history was played on Saturday afternoon in Farmville, Va., where the Blue Hose won, 13-12, in the final second.

Sophomore Emma Claire Mills avoided overtime against the Lancers by scoring at the final horn. The Blue Hose connected twice in less than two minutes.

Mills’ 28^th career goal occurred when she swerved through the Lancer defense after a shot by Kenzie Partsch that bumped backwards with six seconds left.

Presbyterian’s buzzer beater wouldn’t have been possible without true freshman Emily Currie, who logged a hat trick and tied the match up at 12 apiece by scoring with 1:21 on the clock. Presbyterian (5-11, 2-5) returns home to Bailey Memorial Stadium for Senior Day. They take on Wofford on Saturday afternoon at 1.

The Blue Hose must defeat the Terriers (7-9, 4-3) to secure a slot in the Big South Championship, which begins on April 29.

Clinton softball takes a six-game winning streak into Tuesday’s home game against Eau Claire (0-7, 0-6). The Shamrocks host Thursday’s game with both set for 5:30 p.m. starts.

Clinton (10-8, 4-4) have put together consecutive victories over Columbia (twice), Laurens, Newberry and Fairfield Central (twice).

It annoys me that some sports-themed radio stations talk about pro football year around.

April is such a great time to discuss who’s playing quarterback for the Steelers in the fall and how, if I’ve got a lick of sense, I should be betting about it now, or that’s the shills’ opinion.

I love football. Two of my favorite places are Wilder and Paladin stadia. But to everything there is a season (turn, turn, turn).

For 40 years my belief has been that there are lots of poor players, but there’s no such thing as a bad recruit (or draft pick, or free-agent signing). Some kid’s going to wind up on All-America teams after going to school as a walk-on, and some other kid’s going to play for three four-year schools, two jucos and wind up losing all his money on bitcoin.

This is the approximate topic of a novel I’ve been trying to sell. I’m rewriting it now.

However, many novels – and non-fiction books – of mine are available at Amazon.

I have a baseball novel, The Latter Days, on the market. It’s about an old baseball scout, Clyde Kinlaw, and his commitment to an unknown long shot and an overrated prospect.

I wrote two novels about rebellious stock car racer Barrie Jarman, Lightning in a Bottle and Life Gets Complicated.