"Why do they [write] for their money? Why do they [work] for short pay? They ain't getting nowhere and they're losing their share. They must have gone crazy back there." — Michael Burton (paraphrased)
Coleman Coker (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. Laurens remains alive in the Class 4A baseball as a result of Saturday’s 7-4 victory versus Daniel (20-8) in Central, thus atoning fo a 3-2 loss to the Lions on May 6. In between, the Raiders defeated Blue Ridge on May 8. Monday finds Laurens visiting Daniel for …
Continue reading Raiders headed back to Daniel after Saturday win
(Photo courtesy John Clayton) Click here. Laurens kept its hopes alive in Class 4A baseball and softball. Clinton flexed its Class 2A muscles in baseball, while its softball team’s fate depends on a Friday home game against Landrum. The Red Devils lost their playoff opener, 10-1, to Ninety Six. Thornwell is no more in the …
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. Clinton High School, undefeated at 11-0, is playing for the state boys’ tennis championship on Saturday in Cayce at 10 a.m. Red Devil teams have already won the Class 2A state title in football and reached the Upstate final in girls’ basketball. This is always a tall order, never more …
By MONTE DUTTON Tommy Spangler (Furman photo) Click here. At about the same time I arrived in the baseball valley on Tuesday, a familiar figure in a red shirt and a purple cap yelled my name. He brought someone with him. Was it a Clinton fan with Saluda roots? The only such person I know …
Bennett Edwards (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. Well, here we go. The playoffs are underway. It doesn’t mean that all the games are fraught with tension, but the tension is going to rise as the process that determines state championships runs its course. In baseball, both Laurens and Clinton closed their regular seasons with an …
Zay Pulley (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. Laurens crossed the lake as if it was Washington crossing the Delaware on Wednesday night, defeating Greenwood, 8-6, behind three hits from third baseman Coleman Coker and a leadoff homer from second sacker Zay Pulley. Pulley’s blast and Avery Madden’s double staked the Raiders to a 4-0 lead, …
By MONTE DUTTON Isaac Cane (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. 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 …
By MONTE DUTTON Bennett Edwards (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. 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 …
Continue reading Raiders, Red Devils position themselves for playoffs
(PC photo) Click here. Presbyterian College, which for a day (April 5) was atop the Big South standings, lost the first two of a three-game baseball series in Radford, Va. The Blue Hose have dropped four games in a row. Entering Saturday’s games, PC now trails High Point (27-12, 11-3) by three games and USC …
Jireh Brown bunts his way on (Monte Dutton photos). Click here. Tuesday’s Laurens-Clinton baseball game was about the same speed as Monday’s. The Raiders’ center fielder, Jireh Brown, was the speediest in a 7-1 victory, one day after a 5-0 triumph in Laurens. Brown singled four times, one on a bunt, in as many at-bats. …
Nightrider's Lament 