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...]

Real Radio 860 WLBG Sports Report: 5-17-13

Welcome this is your Real Radio 860 WLBG sports for Friday and it’s brought to you by Presbyterian College Athletics… The Blue Hose baseball team opened up their final regular series of the season with Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, NC last night and the Runnin Bulldogs took a 4-2 win over the Blue Hose… PC was held to just 4 hits on the night… Now a schedule change concerning the rest of the series with G-W… The threat of bad weather has caused the rescheduling of the 2 remaining games into a doubleheader today… The first game will be at 2 pm and the second at 6 pm… Remember you can keep up with the action at www.GoBlueHose.com.

Local sports:

CHS:

• Softball Camps… Please see the information below and in the Between the lines area at www.wlbg.com for information about softball camps conducted by CHS softball Coach Nickie Templeton being held at the Clinton YMCA around the 1^st of June or just after… Registration deadline is May 29^th. 

LDHS:

•  Spring Football Game: Last night the Laurens Raider football team closed out their spring practice with their annual spring game… As expected, the defense seemed to have the better night overall but the numerous fans were not disappointed in what they saw in the new triple-option offense… Coach Lawson is striving for a more equal balance in running and passing and this scheme seems to provide it… Quinn Suber, Grayson Bailes, Graydon Hamby and Toby Jackson all saw time at the quarterback position… Ryan Hughes and Spanky Crocker both ran hard as the offensive line opened holes for them… Coach Lawson’s comments are below in a video interview with local media representatives.

• Powder Puff Game… Also last night the Junior girls took a 30-0 win over the senior girls in the Powder Puff game held in conjunction with the Spring Football Game… The main difference in the game was the speed of the junior team largely in the form Maleaka Neal… She out-raced the senior team for 3 scores and Shekiya Burnside raced in with another score… The juniors other 2 points came on a safety.

College Notes:

• Baseball: Clemson and South Carolina also opened their last regular season series on the road last night…
  • Clemson 8 – Florida State 2…. The #14 Tigers of Clemson took an 8-2 win over the #8 Seminoles of Florida State last night in Tallahassee [Read more...]

Real Radio 860 WLBG Sports Report:  5-16-13

Welcome this is your Real Radio 860 WLBG sports for Thursday and it’s brought to you by the Laurens County Speedway – the Darlington of Dirt Tracks… Well rain wrecked havoc with the schedule for the 3^rd week in a row a last Saturday but rest assured they are not going to stop trying as the races are scheduled to go again this Saturday night.. Got to get them going soon, I hear a lot of the drivers wives are complaining that the due to no racing lately many of the drivers are messing up their yards at home doing laps around the house.

NASCAR: Really have not had time to catch up NASCAR lately so let’s do some of that now:

• Schedule… The NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race will take place Saturday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway with the green flag scheduled to drop at 7:30 pm.
• Sprint Cup Standings..  Jimmie Johnson leads the pack with 423 points… Carl Edwards is 2^nd 44 points back and Matt Kenseth 3^rd 59 points behind Johnson… Dale Earnhart Jr. and Clint Boyer round out the top 5… Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Aric Almirola and Kevin Harvick make up the next 5.

Local sports:

CHS:

• Brandon Pitts… On Monday CHS senior second baseman Brandon Pitts signed a letter of intent to play baseball at the USC- Union… Pitts says he hopes to play mostly second base as in high school but may get some time at the shortstop position.
•  Softball Camps… Please see the information below and in the Between the lines area at www.wlbg.com for information about softball camps conducted by CHS softball Coach Nickie Templeton being held at the Clinton YMCA around the 1^st of June or just after… Registration deadline is May 29^th. 

LDHS:

• Tonight the LDHS football team will hold its Annual Spring Game at KC Hannah Stadium starting at 6pm. In conjunction with the Spring Game the annual Powder Puff game will also be held. They will start at 6 pm and play for 15 minutes and then the football team will play for two 15 minute [Read more...]

Real Radio 860 WLBG Sports Report:  5-15-13

Local sports:

CHS:

• Golf: After shooting an 8 over par 80 on Monday at the AAA state golf tournament, Hunter Nichols fired a 3 under par, bogey free round, 69 and finished in a tie for third. For his effort,  Nichols also earned All-State honors… Congratulations to him!
• Softball Camps… Please see the information below and in the Between the lines area at www.wlbg.com for information about softball camps conducted by CHS softball Coach Nickie Templeton being held at the Clinton YMCA around the 1^st of June or just after… Registration deadline is May 29^th.

LDHS:

•  Softball Awards… Last night The Lady Raider softball team had their annual awards banquet at the First Baptist Church Family Life Center… It was there announced that Elizabeth Carman and Maria Williamson were named to the All-Region I-AAAA Softball Team… Williamson also captured the team’s MVP award while Carman the team Offensive Award… Allison Foreback picked up the Most Improved while Annsley Nelson got the Hustle Award and Jordan Henderson the Defensive Award… The Lady Raiders only senior Amber Aylesworth picked up a 6 Year Letter Award and the Captains Award… Retiring Coach Frank Alexander was also honored for his years of service with the Lady Raiders…  There were numerous other awards and to see a complete list of these awards click on the following: 2013 Laurens Softball Awards  Just below you will also find a short slideshow of some photos taken at the banquet… Congratulations to the winners and the entire team!

College Baseball Notes:

• Clemson 8 – USC Upstate 7… Freshman Kevin Bradley hit a three-run, walkoff homer with one out in the ninth inning to lift #14 Clemson to an 8-7 [Read more...]

Real Radio 860 WLBG Sports Report: 5-14-13

Welcome this is your Real Radio 860 WLBG sports for Tuesday and it’s brought to you by Presbyterian College Athletics… Last weekend the Blue Hose baseball team had their last home games of the season as they hosted Longwood… The Blue Hose dropped the first two games of the series by scores 6-2 and 9-7… The Blue Hose came back and took the series finale by a score of 4-0… The team will finish out its regular season with 4 games this week… They finish Big South play with a 3 game series at Gardner-Webb that starts this Thursday… Meanwhile the will face the Gamecocks of South Carolina tonight in Columbia and that game can be heard at GoBlueHose.com and also it will be on Fox Sports South and the 1^st pitch is scheduled for 7:00pm.

Local sports:

CHS: Spring Sports All Region 3-AAA Selections: Recently CHS released the names of those athletes who were selected to the All-Region Region 3-AAA Teams in the various spring sports… They were:

• Girl’s Track – Aaliyah Boyd
• Boys Track – Kenyon Brown, Dee Jennings & Chandler Sprouse
• Boys Soccer – Madison Simpson &  Dexter Simmons
• Baseball –  Matthew Craven & Dalton Foster
• Softball –  Jessica Wood & Allison Oxner
• Boys Tennis –  Austin MacMillan, Alec Powell, Jay Peay &  Isaac MacMillan
• Boys Tennis Region III 3A Player of the Year – Austin MacMillan
• Boys Tennis Region III 3A Coach Of The Year – Clovis Simmons
• Golf – Hunter Nichols

College Notes:

• Baseball Rankings: In NCAA Division I the USA Today Coaches Poll has Vanderbilt #1 with a 45-6 record… North Carolina is 2^nd with an identical [Read more...]

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

Local sports:

CHS:

• Track: Congratulations to CHS sophomore Dee Jennings for finishing 4^th in the 110 meter hurdles in the State AAA Championship meet this past weekend at Lower Richland High School.  

LDHS:

•  Track: The LDHS track team also had members participating in the State AAAA Championship meet this past weekend also… In the 400 meter dash, Laurens junior Eligaha Case finished 6^th… Case was also part of the 4×400 meter relay team that finished 5^th… The other members of the team were Tevin Barksdale, A’Derius Freeman and Kalim Taylor… An interesting note in the 4×400 meter relays… the top 2 teams (Beaufort & Spring Valley) both beat the old state record with Beaufort setting a new record of 3:16.35… That means they were up against some stiff competition… Congratulations to members of both teams track teams who competed!

Laurens Academy:

• Softball: The Lady Crusader softball team was in action this past weekend in the opening rounds of the SCISA state playoffs down in the Lexington area… On Friday they opened up with a 4-0 win over Andrew Jackson… Following the first round victory they took on #2 seed Clarendon Hall and came up on the short end of a 14-8 score… The Lady Crusaders trailed 8-2 in the 4^th inning and their offense began to come alive after that but Clarendon Hall matched them the balance of the game… This gave the Lady Crusaders a 1-1 record in the double elimination tournament going into Saturday’s games… The Lady Crusaders rebounded on Saturday morning taking a 10-4 victory over St John’s… It then fell on the Lady Crusaders to take on the #1 seeded team in the form of Colleton Prep… The Lady War Hawks proved to be too much for the Lady Crusaders as they eliminated them by taking a 10-0 win… The Lady Crusaders have only 1 senior on this year’s team so they poised to make a run again next year… Congratulation to Coach Muir and the Region Champion Lady Crusader softball team for a fine season!

Pro Baseball:

Atlanta Braves: The Braves completed their 4 game series with the Giants out in California…  You may remember that the Braves took a 6-3 win over the Giants on Thursday night… So how did the rest of the series go?

• Friday: Giants 8 – Braves 2… The Braves managed only 3 hits in the game and Brian McCann had one of them a 2 run homer in the 5^th inning… Tim Hudson took the loss.
• Saturday: Giants 10 – Braves 1… The Braves had 7 hits in the game but could not get the clutch hit at the right time… The Giants produced their 10 runs on 14 hits off 6 different Brave pitchers.
• Sunday: Giants 5 – Braves 1… The Braves offensive woes continued yesterday as the Giants took a 5-1 win over the Bravos to win the current series 3-1… The Braves again managed only 4 hits and Braves’ pitcher Kris Medlin picked u his 1^st loss of the season… After the Braves fast start, they are now 21-16 on the season and they will end their current road trip with a 3 game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight.

Greenville Drive: The Drive started a 4 game home stand with the Augusta Green jackets last Thursday night… Let’s catch up on how that went:

• Thursday: Augusta 6 – Greenville 3… This marked the 8^th consecutive loss by the Drive.
• Friday: Greenville 10 – Augusta 6…. The Drive fell behind 3-1 after the 1^st inning but battled back to break the 8 game losing streaks… Three Drive homeruns were one of the main factors for the win.
• Saturday: Greenville 6 – Augusta 5… The Drive made it 2 in a row over the Green Jackets with a 1 out walk-off homerun by Davis Chester.
• Sunday: Augusta 10 – Greenville 6… The Green Jackets earned a split of the current series with the Drive as they took a 10-6 win over the Drive last night… The Drive fall to 12-24 on the season and will start a 3 game series with the Ashville Tourist tonight up in Ashville.

FYI / Community Interest:

• Spring football practice is taking place at LDHS on May 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14 and 15. The Raiders will be working on installing their new triple-option offense under the direction of Coach Lawson and his new offensive coordinator Coach Jay Brannon. The annual Spring Game and Powder Puff game will be May 16. See the posting in the Between the Lines section at wlbg.com for more details.

• Coupon Book For Sale… As you may or may not know, the athletic budget at the local high schools provided by the district often does not cover all the items needed to run an athletic team and coaches often have to look for other sources of income to make ends meet. The LDHS football program is no exception to that dilemma… This coming year they must replace or refurbish all helmets due to the 10 year rule, new uniforms are needed and the coach’s sideline communication system used to confer with the assistant coaches in or around the press box must be replaced… All this takes money not in the normal budget… To help pay for these the football team is selling a coupon book for $20 that has over 50 coupons to various local businesses.. One coupon in the book offers a free oil change and tire rotation from a local dealership that is alone worth well over $20… Coach Lawson will have these at all the home athletic events this spring and you can also get one by calling his office # 683-3360 and leaving a message… They also have them in them available in the main office at LDHS… If you get the chance, purchase one, I did.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to reports scores, please contact me via email at: sports@wlbg.com or text me at 864-981-3470.

Real Radio 860 WLBG Sports Report:  5-10-13

Welcome this is your Real Radio 860 WLBG sports for Friday and it’s brought to you by Presbyterian College Athletics… The Blue Hose baseball took on #1 ranked Vanderbilt in Nashville on Wednesday night were down 5-0 going into the 9^th inning when they managed to score 2 runs but could get no closer as the Commodores took a 5-2 win… The Blue Hose have their final home series starting today at 3 pm against Longwood… If you get the chance, go out and take in some good baseball over at PC.

Local sports:

CHS:

• Tennis: Chapin 6 – Clinton 0…. The Red Devil boys tennis team hosted Chapin in the Upper State Championship yesterday and for only the 3^rd time this season the Red Devils came up on the short end of the score as Chapin took a 6-0 win over Clinton… Jay Peay and Isaach Macmillan both lost in 3^rd set tiebreakers… Click on the following for match details: 2013-5-9__CHS-0_Chapin-6_POF-Upper_State   Chapin (18-3) moves on to face either Hilton Head or Socastee in the AAA Finals on Saturday… The Region-3-AAA Champion Red Devils finish their season with a 14-3 record… Congratulations to Coach Simmons and the team on a fine season!! 

Laurens Academy: Someone once wrote all good things must come to an end… Unfortunately that applies to the Laurens Academy’s string of SCISA baseball championships as the Knights of W.W. King took 2 games from the Crusaders last night out at the Crusaders’ home field to break their consecutive championships at six…. The Crsaders only needed to win 1 game last night to advance to state finals but it just was not to be.

• Baseball Game 1: King 4 – Crusaders 3… In the first game the Knights took a 4-3 win behind the pitching of Blake Sauls…. The Crusaders trailed 4-1 going into the 7^th inning and scored 2 runs but could get no more as their rally fell short… The Crusaders would often get runners in scoring position but just could not get the key hit needed to bring them home and their defense made more errors than normal on the night… Click on the following for the game box score and statistics: 2013-5-9-A_LABB-3_King-4   Click on the following for the game scorecard: 2013-5-9-A_LABB-3_King-4_scorecard
• Baseball Game 1: King 4 – Crusaders 3… In the second and deciding game of the 3 game series, the Knights again took a 4-3 win over the Crusaders… In this game the Crusaders carried a 3-0 lead into the top of the 7^th inning but the Knights scored 4 runs to take the lead before the Crusaders could register an out on them… When the Crusaders came to bat in the bottom of the 7^th the Knights were able to get them out in order to take the win and advance to the championship series next week… again the Crusaders’ problems centered around lack of clutch hitting and higher than normal number of errors… Click on the following for the game box score and statistics: 2013-5-9-B_LABB-3_King-4   Click on the following for the [Read more...]