Real Radio 860 WLBG Sports Report: 5-24-13

Welcome this is your Real Radio 860 WLBG sports for a Friday and it’s brought to you by Presbyterian College Athletics… The PC baseball team finished theirseason with a 24-32 overall record and 10-14 in Big South Action… The Blue Hose just missed making the Big South Tournament this year… The Blue Hose will lose 5 seniors due to graduation but return plenty of talent… One of those who will be returning is Laurens Academy graduate Brandon Martin who will be a junior next season… He had the 5^th highest batting average on the team batting .259 (team average was .253) in 112 at bats… He had 29 hits (5 of which were for extra bases) driving in 10 runs and scoring 12…. Remember you can keep up with everything related to PC athletics at GoBlueHose.com.

Local:

CHS: Last night CHS honored athletes who participated in spring sports… Each coach had their team members come on stage where they received certificates, letters or other awards… The highlight of the ceremony was the naming of the male and female athlete of the year based on a prescribed point system… The female athlete of the year is Gabby Bates who lettered In varsity volleyball, basketball and track… The male athlete of the year is Kenyon Brown… Kenyon lettered in football, basketball and track… Congratulations to not only Gabby and Kenyon but also to all the other award winners.

LDHS: Recently it was announced that Jim Iacuone will be the boys’ golf coach at LDHS next year… He has been the JV boys’ golf coach as well as the girls’ varsity head coach… He is stepping into this position after Coach Bill Screws announced he was stepped down in anticipation of his retirement after next season.

College Baseball Notes:

SEC Tournament:

• Vanderbilt 4 – South Carolina 3… For the second consecutive day, 12th ranked South Carolina rallied from three runs down, however top ranked Vanderbilt loaded the bases in the 10th inning and with one out a RBI base hit from Conrad Gregor lifted the Commodores to a 4-3 win over the Gamecocks in an elimination game… The Gamecocks are now 39-18 on the season and will find out Sunday night if that is good enough to host a regional tournament and if not will find out if / where they will play in the regionals on Monday
• Alabama 7 – Mississippi 5… Mississippi eliminated.
• Arkansas 4 – LSU 1… Arkansas advances to semifinals on Saturday
• Mississippi State 6 – Texas A&M 4… Mississippi State advances to the semifinals on Saturday.

ACC Tournament:

• Virginia 8 Georgia Tech 2… Virginia 1-1 in Pool B, Georgia Tech 1-1 in Pool B [Read more...]

Real Radio 860 WLBG Sports Report: 5-23-13

College Baseball Notes:

ACC Baseball Tournament:

• # 7 seed Georgia Tech 4 – # 2 seed Florida State 3
• # 6 seed Virginia Tech 10 – # 3 Virginia 1
• # 4 seed NC State 6 – #5 seed Clemson 3..  NC State broke open a 2-2 tie with a 4 run seventh inning to take a 6-3 win… Garrett Boulware went 3-4 for the Tigers and had a solo homer in the 9^th inning… The Tigers will be off tonight and will be back in action tomorrow night at 7:00pm against #1 seed North Carolina.

SEC Baseball Tournament:

• #3 Arkansas 2 – #6 Ole Miss 1
• #2 LSU 3 – #7 Alabama 0
• # 9 Texas A&M 5 – #1 Vanderbilt 0: The Aggies only had 9 hits to produce their 5 runs but 3 of them were homers… Meanwhile the Ray Parker of A&M shut down the Commodores only allowing 3 hits.
• #5 Mississippi State 5 – #4 South Carolina 3:  The Bulldogs of Mississippi State led 3-0 going into the bottom of the 4^th when the Gamecocks scored 3 to tie the game… Joey Pankake and LB Dantzler charted back-to-back singles followed by a Grayson Greiner walk. A walk by Max Schrock with the bases loaded plated Pankake before a single by Brison Celek scored Dantzler and Greiner.     It stayed that way until the top of the 9th when the Bulldogs scored 2 runs and the Gamecocks could not match them in their half of the 9th to give Mississippi Stat a 5-3 win over Carolina…. South Carolina will now face #1 Vanderbilt in an elimination game today in the 2^nd game of the day. My guess is that it will be about 1:00pm.. The game can be heard on Sports radio 1410 WPCC [Read more...]

Real Radio 860 WLBG Sports Report: 5-22-13

Local:

New Basketball Coaches Named at LDHS: Yesterday Athletic Director Mark Freeze had a news conference n the main office conference room where he announced the new head boys and girls head basketball coaches for LDHS. They are:

• Girls – Yoneko Washington… Most long time Raider fans know Coach Washington better as Yoneko Allen a former LDHS standout who played on 2 undefeated state championship teams and was AAAA Player of the Year her senior season… After playing at WCU she went on the coach at Union County for 5 years and is coming from Boiling Springs where she served as head coach last season… She said this is a dream come true to be back coaching at LDHS.
• Boys- Ben Sinclair… Coach Ben Sinclair is taking on his first head coaching job at LDHS after serving as JV and assistant varsity coach at Dreher High in Columbia and Wade Hampton in Greenville… Coach Sinclair has spent the last 6 years at Wade Hampton where the basketball program has a winning tradition… While there, they went undefeated and won the AAA State Championship in 2011.
• For more information, see my posting at wlbg.com in the Featured Sports section where you will find more information about each of these coaches and how the envision the teams being in the future… Congratulations to both of these new additions to the Raider coaching staff.

College Notes:

• Tigers: The Clemson Tigers start ACC baseball Tournament play tonight as they face the NC State Wolfpack… The 39-17 Tigers are the #5 seed playing the #4 seed Wolfpack who ended the regular season 42-13… First pitch is scheduled for 7:30.
• Gamecocks: The # 4 seed South Carolina Gamecock baseball team begins SEC Tournament play tonight as they take on Mississippi State in the last [Read more...]

Real Radio 860 WLBG Sports Report: 5-21-13

Welcome this is your Real Radio 860 WLBG sports for a Tuesday and it’s brought to you by Presbyterian College Athletics…  The PC baseball team closed out their season last weekend with a 3 game series up in Boiling Springs, NC against the Runnin Bulldogs of Gardner-Webb… The Bulldogs had the brooms out as they swept the series winning 4-2 on Thursday and winning both ends of a double-header on Friday by scores of 12-7 and 9-5… I’ll have more about the PC baseball and softball season on Friday.
Local:

Clinton High:

• Dalton Foster… Yesterday senior Red Devil catcher Dalton Foster signed a letter of intent to further education and play baseball at USC-Salkehatchie… Dalton is a member of this year’s All-Region 3-AAA Team.
• Brandon Pitts… Last week I mentioned to you that on Monday, May 13^th another CHS senior Brandon Pitts had signed a letter of intent to play baseball and continue his education at USC-Union… At that time I had not been able to catch up with Brandon to do a brief video interview… Yesterday I was able to sit down with him and his video interview and Dalton’s can be found on a posting in the Between the Lines area at www.wlbg.com…  If you get a chance, check it out…  Congratulations to both these young men.

Laurens High:

• Last Friday Laurens High Athletic Director Mark Freeze handed out a special award to senor Tevin Barksdale… Tevin is the only member of this year’s senior class to have lettered in three varsity sports… Tevin lettered in football, basketball, and track… There is a photo of him and Coach Freeze on today’s sports report at wlbg.com… Congratulations to Tevin on this accomplishment.

College Notes:

• Allen Staton & Adam Taylor…. North Greenville University baseball standouts Adam Taylor and Allen Staton have received recognition for their play during the 2013 season being honored as members of the American Baseball Coaches Association All-Southeast Region Team…. Staton, a sophomore second baseman/pitcher, earned a spot on the All-Southeast Region First Team after batting .388, including a team-high .683 slugging percentage and 11 home runs… The Laurens, SC native also ranked first on the team with 71 hits, including 19 doubles, to go along with 54 RBI and 34 runs scored in 44 games… Taylor, a senior outfielder, was named to the All-Southeast Region Second Team after recording a team-high .392 batting average and a .485 on-base percentage in 45 games played… He recorded 67 hits on the season, including 10 doubles, five triples and five home runs, while scoring 41 runs and driving in 29 RBI…. To see the complete All-Region team click on the following: 2013_ABCA_SE_All-Region_Team
• SEC Baseball Tournament starts today in Hoover, AL and the Gamecocks of SC are a #4 seed which means they have a bye today and will play in the late game tomorrow.. I’ll have more tomorrow morning… If you are interested in the tournament bracket, click on the following: 2013_SEC_Baeball_Bracket
• ACC Baseball Tournament does not start until Wednesday… I’ll have more about that before then.

Braves 5 – Twins 1… The Braves did not wait on any late inning heroics last night as they have tended to do lately as they scored 4 runs in the 1^st inning in [Read more...]

Real Radio 860 WLBG Sports Report:  

Local sports:

CHS:

• Gabby Bates… Last Friday morning Clinton High School senior Gabby Bates signed a letter of intent to play basketball and continue her education at Southern Wesley University in Central, SC. The three sports star for the Red Devils also mentioned there was a chance she might also play volleyball and participate in track when the Warriors start their program hopefully next season. If you look in the Between the Lines section at wlbg.com you will a short video interview done with her there. Congratulations to  her! 

LDHS:

• 5 Sign… The athletic conference room at Laurens High School was a busy place at noon on Friday, May 17th 2013.  At that time, five Raider seniors signed letters of intent to further their education and athletic careers at various institutions in the state….The Raider baseball program had three players to sign on Friday. Christian Burton signed to play at USC-Union, Di’Markus Sanders at USC-Salkehatchie and Shannon Smith at Erskine. Two Raider basketball players also signed to continue their education and athletic careers. Dra Cunningham signed with Orangeburg Calhoun Prep Academy and Tyrez Young with South Carolina Sports Academy in the Myrtle Beach area.  Interviews with them are also at wlbg.com in the Between the Lines section….Congratulations to these young men!

Pro Baseball:

Atlanta Braves: The Braves got the brooms out in Atlanta as they and swept the Dodgers but it was not easy. [Read more...]