By MONTE DUTTON
Without question, a fine Laurens baseball team is the prime mover here, but as I drove to LDHS on Monday, it occurred to me that the Raiders have won every game I’ve attended to date.
The biggest factor is that Laurens (21-6) has won most of its games. Another is that I’ve only seen home games, and the Raiders are 12-1 at home.
Like most sports fans, I follow superstitions just in case there’s something to it, even though it would be utterly ridiculous. Two hot dogs, a pack of potato chips, a Diet Coke and the Raiders are good to go.
I ramble around taking photos, winning friends and influencing people wherever I go, whether in the home dugout, outside the fence beyond the visiting dugout or at various locations through the screen, where I have to manually focus to shoot through it.
Without a camera hanging around my neck, the friendly folks from Rock Hill probably would’ve figured I was running for office.
School spirit is rising at Laurens, where a goodly portion of the baseball team has dyed its hair bright gold. I looked for the peroxide concession but couldn’t find it.
Nothing in this world is new. My father dyed himself blond in the 1950s, when I never saw it, and in the 1970s, when I was appalled.
Northwestern pitchers displayed pinpoint control on Monday night.
From the beginning, the Trojan hurlers were hitting the Laurens hitters right on their bats, and the result was an 8-0 Raiders victory over the Rock Hill school on opening night of the Class 4A baseball playoffs at Ed Prescott Field.
On the fifth pitch of the bottom of the first inning, Laurens’ Zay Pulley yanked a double to left, and the Raiders were off. Hunter Nabors walked. Pulley advanced to third base on a wild pitch. He and Nabors scored on Bennett Edwards’ double.
Asher Goss singled. Ben Willis walked. Avery Madden lofted a sacrifice fly to right field. The bases were loaded when it all ended, and Laurens led, 3-0.
Four of the Raiders’ nine hits were doubles, and a fifth was Goss’s blast to center with one out in the fourth inning.
Only eight runs of offense can relegate the details of a shutout to the sixth paragraph. Lefty Grayson Ledford 
and righty Ryland Paxton shared the goose eggs. Ledford gave up Northwestern’s four hits in his five innings, fanning four. Paxton held the Trojans hitless for two flashy frames replete with three walks and five strikeouts.
None of the first four slots in the Northwestern batting order managed a hit. Only a double by Nick Mullennix went for more than a base, and the remaining singles came out of the bottom of the order in Bryson Deese, John Black and Brighton Ligon.
In contrast, Edwards, Goss and Coleman Coker all popped a pair of hits for the Raiders (21-6). Coker drove in three runs. Goss scored two.
Neither team committed an error.
Three Northwestern hurlers took the mound in anguish. Charlie Bailey (L) went two miserable innings – four hits, four earned runs, four walks, a wild pitch and two hit batters – and his successors, Parker Carroll and Eathan Root, both took some damage.
The Trojans twice threatened. In the fifth inning, Laurens left fielder Zee Williams, recently installed, threw out Deese at the plate. Northwestern (6-21) managed to rap three straight two-out hits without scoring.
In the sixth, Paxton struck out the side wrapped around consecutive one-out walks.
Laurens is again at home on Wednesday against the Greenwood Eagles, 12-9 winners over Midland Valley. The Raiders have beaten both, Greenwood 4-2 and 5-3, and Midland Valley, 10-2.
Visits to Holly Hill Academy have been futile for Laurens Academy in several sports.
Monday night was no exception as the Raiders scored at least one and no more than two runs in every inning en route to a 10-2 victory in the best-of-three series that opens the SCISA Class A baseball playoffs.
The teams meet again on Tuesday at Laurens Academy (5-11), beginning at 6 p.m.
The best news for the Crusaders was probably that they scored two runs in spite of having only one hit. The bad news was plentiful. LA committed seven errors. Only four of the runs charged to Hack Hardy (L) and Caleb Hardy were earned.
Laurens Academy scored both its runs in the fifth inning with two out. Evan Asalone’s double, the Crusaders’ only hit, drove in Elias Littleton, who had walked. Asalone later scored on a wild pitch. Ashton Soles (W), who pitched a complete game, hit two batters in the inning.
Tyler Green, Mason Rudd and Bogie Gillam each had two of the Raiders’ 10 hits. Rudd tripled and drove in two, as did Mason McGriff.
Clinton (11-1) advanced to the Upstate finals in boys’ tennis with a 4-2 victory over Wren on Monday in Piedmont.
Next up the Red Devils visit Daniel for a 5 p.m. Wednesday match in Central.
Clinton 4, Wren 2
# 1 Singles, Nathan Meade defeated Luke Floyd 2 – 6, 7 – 5, 10 – 8; # 2 Singles, Edwin Orr defeated Wade Shelley 7 – 6 (4), 6 – 3; # 3 Singles, Matthew King defeated Carter Botts 6 – 7 (1), 6 – 4, 10 – 5; # 4 Singles, Jacob King defeated Taylor Thomas 6 – 3, 6 – 3; # 5 Singles, Malakye Brewer lost to Colsen Ellenburg 6 – 0, 6 – 2.
# 1 Doubles N. Meade & E. Orr (CHS) did not play; # 2 Doubles, Brady Mason & Ethan Wargo lost to Miller Dimond & Micah Cox 6 – 0, 6 – 0.
Clinton, Region 4-3A champion, opens its defense of the Class 3A state baseball crown at home on Tuesday evening at 6:30 versus Wren, the No. 4 seed of Region 2.
For a 1/4 playoff opener, Wren (12-13) is a tough draw. The Golden Hurrricanes have defeated Belton-Honea Path twice, but they enter the postseason with losses in four of their last five games.
Clinton (13-10) won its last five region games en route to its third straight title. The Red Devils move to Class 2A in the fall.
The Wren-Clinton winner faces the Travelers Rest-Daniel winner on Thursday. If the Red Devils win, they are at home again.
The county’s softball teams are all opening the playoffs out of town.
Laurens (8-10) plays Indian Land on Tuesday night in Fort Mill.
Clinton (12-10) takes on Palmetto on Wednesday night in Williamston.
Thornwell (5-17) visits Lewisville on Wednesday. The Saints baseball team (6-14), by the way, is at McBee on Tuesday.
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