By MONTE DUTTON

Visiting teams laid lots of goose eggs in Laurens County on Monday evening.

Laurens blanked Southside, 17-0. Thornwell quieted Calhoun Falls, 16-0 and 12-0. Clinton erased Fairfield Central, 12-0.

Be they Raiders, Saints or Red Devils, they all laid goose eggs, a mere day after Easter.

At Clinton’s valley park, freshman Isaac Cain had few worries after he surrendered an anomaly, Kaden Diggs’ double (extended to three bases by a Red Devil error), with one out in the top of the first. Cane left Diggs standing there with a strikeout and a grounder to third baseman Angel Vargas.

And away the Red Devils went, producing three runs in the first inning, three in the second, two in the third and four in the fourth. Center fielder Camden Finley and second baseman Talan Campbell each had two hits, and each included among them one for extra bases. Campbell’s was a double, and Finley’s was a triple. Catcher Luke Young drove in two; Finley, Owen Glenn and Rhett Gilliam each scored a pair.

Cane, who went the lesser distance of five innings, allowed two hits and a walk. He fanned six.

It is a busy week: Clinton (12-6, 6-2 Region 3-2A) is scheduled to play at home on Tuesday against Eau Claire and Wednesday versus Strom Thurmond, then visit the Shamrocks on Thursday.

Five innings at a time lessen the pitching strain.

Brett Young, Owen Glenn, Gilliam and Tanner Finley stole bases.

Fairfield Central’s Caden Brown bravely took a beating. In four innings on the bump, he surrendered 12 runs (eight earned) with four walks and four strikeouts.

Diggs and Graeme Douglas each had hits for the Griffins (7-13, 3-4)

Clinton has won seven of its last nine games, six of them by shutout.

Whoever heard of a five-way no-hitter?

It wasn’t much of a gem. Monday night’s 17-0 Laurens victory over Southside only lasted 2-1/2 innings at Ed Prescott Field. Ir was almost not much of a perfect game. The next-to-last Southside batter was hit by a pitch.

In nine outs, Raiders head coach Tori Patterson used five pitchers: Grayson Ledford (one inning), Connor Rice (2/3), Coleman Coker (1/3), Bennett Edwards (2/3) and Zay Pulley (1/3).

Ten up and nine down.

Laurens (12-9, 8-5 Region 1-4A) scored 12 runs in the bottom of the first inning. The hit parade went this way: single, single, home run, double, double, popout, triple, single, home run, popout, hit by pitch, home run, single, home run, hit by pitch, strikeout.

Catcher Bennett Edwards went 3/3 with two homers, three runs and five RBI. Five others had two hits apiece. Coker and Jackson Martin doubled. Avery Madden, Ledford and Jireh Brown tripled. In addiition to Edwards’ two blasts, Coker and Rice homered.

The Raiders visit Southside (0-18, 0-10) on Wednesday in Greenville.

Thornwell (7-12, 4-7 Region 1-A) pounded Calhoun Falls (0-8) not once but twice, 12-0 and 16-0, and the latter was a three-inning no-hitter by Parker Workman, who walked one and fanned nine.

Sam Robertson hurled a five-inning two-hitter in the opener, walking two and striking out 13.

Tru’Mari Kinard Shelton drove in five runs for the Saints in game one, distinguished by a double and a triple. Eleven first-inning runs kicked off game two.

Bryce English and Griffin Raines tripled.

Laurens softball lost its seventh game in a row, falling in Woodruff, 15-3.

The Wolverines put six runs on the board in the first inning and eight in the second, led by three hits each by Jaylen Means and Danicka Simmons.

The Raiders (6-11) got two hits from Zealy Martin and a double from Carly Edwards.

Woodruff (11-6) collected 12 hits off Laurens pitchers Summer National and Martin. Simmons got the win.

The Raiders visit Emerald on Tuesday

Tickets are on sale for the Big South Softball Championship, a five-team, four-day bracket that will be held on the campus of Presbyterian College for the first time ever.

Fans from around the conference can purchase their postseason seats through PC’s ticket website, BlueHoseTix.com.

Five Big South member institutions will compete in Clinton for an automatic bid to the 2025 NCAA Tournament, as the event begins on Wednesday, May 7 and will continue to the championship game/games on Saturday, May 10.

Presbyterian (20-24, 3-9) is not currently in position to qualify for the tournament.

Several times during Monday night’s Pistons-Knicks playoff game, I saw commercials for something called Michelob Ultra Zero.

I haven’t had a beer since I got out of the hospital. No doctor told me not to. I just haven’t. I didn’t drink enough, at least in the past decade, to decide to quit. I just have so far, for no substantial reason.

Michelob Ultra Zero is low carb and no alcohol.

What’s the point?

I know many, many names of prescription medications, thanks to TV commercials, yet I mostly don’t know what any of them do. It’s just a mishmash of weird names.

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.