The Raiders will play for a State Championship

Laurens HS

• Baseball: Raiders 7 – Green Wave 6… Caution and Warning: Watching the Laurens Raiders play baseball may be hazardous to the health of people with heart problems… The reason I say that is last night the Raiders found themselves down 6-2 to the Easley Green Wave going into the top of the 7^th inning at Easley last night and came back to take a 7-6 win… The Raiders struck first scoring a single run in the in the 2^nd inning when Owen Pridgen singled with 2 out to drive in Coleman Coker who singled to lead off the inning… The Green Wave responded scoring 6 runs in the bottom of the inning on a mixture of singles, walks, a hit batter and an error by the Raiders… The Raiders scored another run in the 4^th inning when Ben Willis singled and two batters later Owen Pridgen doubled to drive him in to make it 6-2 Easley… The game rocked along with no one really threatening until the Raiders came to bat in the 7^th inning… Leading off the inning both Jireh Brown and Zay Pulley singled… Hunter Nabors was then hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs…. Bennett Edwards then stroked a double to center field to drive in the 3 base runners and make it 6-5 Easley… Asher Goss then drew a walk… The next two Raiders struck out but a passed ball allowed Zee Williams who was a courtesy runner for Edwards and Goss to move up to third and second… Avery Madden then singled to drive in Williams and Goss for what would prove to be the winning runs… Connor Rice then came into the game to pitch in relief of Grayson Ledford… He was able to strikeout the first two batters but the third one tripled putting the tying run just 90 feet away from home plate… Rice then recorded the final out by striking out the last hope for the Green Wave and the celebration was on not only on the field but also in the stands where a large number of Raider fans were located… The Raiders had 10 hits to the Green Waves 5 and Zay Pulley, Bennett Edwards and Owen Pridgen each had 2 hit to lead the Raiders at the plate… 
• Up Next for the Raiders… With the win the Raiders have punched their ticket to the championship series which is scheduled to begin next Monday and will be a best 2 of 3 series… The Raiders will be on the road to either North Myrtle Beach or James Island… The North Myrtle Beach Chief took a 7-1 win over the James Island Trojans on Monday but last night the Trojans came back to take a 13-2 win over the Chiefs to tie the beast of 3 series at 1 game each… Those teams will play again tomorrow and the winner will host Laurens on Monday… 

Thornwell

• Thornwell Drops Varsity Football in 2024… Last week Thornwell Athletic Director David Coates sent out an email to parents and other at Thornwell stating that the saints will not be having a varsity football team for the upcoming school year in the fall of 2024… The reason for this is a lack of interest despite their best efforts to encourage participation from among their current students… Some of the upperclassmen have either decided not to play football or are no longer enrolled at Thornwell… Thornwell will continue to offer JV football for students in grades 7-10…  Hopefully this is a one year deal or at the most 2…. Go Big Dogs!

Laurens Coach Patterson interview here.

AAAA Bracket here.

Thornwell Football e-mail here.