The Laurens County Sheriff’s Office recently arrested a Columbia man accused of Breach of Peace. 62-year-old William Adam Roark of Calhoun Street, was arrested for the alleged charge Sunday. According to the arrest warrant, on April 14th, Roark was allegedly observed screaming obscenities  and beating on the walls of the residence located on Caribou Driving In Laurens. Effectively breaching the peace and tranquility of the home. Willie Roark was released from the Laurens County Detention Center on Monday.

An Anderson County Police Officer was the first witness of the third day of the trial of Timothy Spencer.
The officer presented pictures of the victim, and tire tracks near  the scene where the body was found in the woods, and at first, she was assumed to be a Jane Doe.
The next and only witness of the day was another Anderson County Police Officer who took the stand when a published interview between police and the defendant was shown to the jury.
This video stirred up a controversy between prosecution and Tristen Schaeffer, for the defense, who accused the prosecution of bringing to light previous charges of the defendant, to which the prosecution denied.
Schaeffer angrily asked Judge Hocker to declare a mistrial, to which he denied.
The trial is expected to continue into next week and autopsy pictures are scheduled to be shown.

The Laurens County Sheriff’s Office is proud to be a participant for this Senior P.R.E.P event to be held on Friday, May 3rd at Laurens Walgreens from 9AM to 11AM.
What exactly is Senior P.R.E.P.? It’s an initiative designed to raise awareness of the importance of individual emergency preparedness for South Carolina’s senior population.
Many local agencies will be in attendance with promotional items and excellent relevant information pertaining to Laurens County seniors.
The following agencies have committed to being partners on this important day in our community.
Laurens County 911
Laurens County Sheriff’s Office
Laurens County EMS
Laurens County Fire – Station 21
Laurens City Fire
Laurens Police Department
Prisma Health (Laurens Campus)
Clinton Fire Department, Clinton SC
City of Clinton, SC (Police Department)
Laurens County Emergency Management

An Anderson County Police Officer was the first witness of the third day of the trial of Timothy Spencer.
The officer presented pictures of the victim, and tire tracks near  the scene where the body was found in the woods, and at first, she was assumed to be a Jane Doe.
The next and only witness of the day was another Anderson County Police Officer who took the stand when a published interview between police and the defendant was shown to the jury.
This video stirred up a controversy between prosecution and Tristen Schaeffer, for the defense, who accused the prosecution of bringing to light previous charges of the defendant, to which the prosecution denied.
Schaeffer angrily asked Judge Hocker to declare a mistrial, to which he denied.
The trial is expected to continue into next week and autopsy pictures are scheduled to be shown.

A Laurens woman has been charged with an alleged disturbance at a Waterloo area home Tuesday of this week. Sheriff’s records indicate that 41-year-old Jennifer Lynn Braddock of Truman Street, Laurens has been charged with Breach of Peace and Malicious Damage.

One affidavit alleges that on April 16th Ms. Braddock breached the peace and tranquility of other residents on Skilled Road, Waterloo. She reportedly became loud and boisterous while using profane language, after causing damage to ;property that did not belong to her. An investigator reported seeing video where one could hear the defendant being loud and boisterous.

A second affidavit states that Ms. Braddock willfully and knowingly cause damage to a China Cabinet belonging to another person there on Skillet Road. The defendant reportedly admitted to pushing in a door that caused the cabinet to fall, after knowing that the cabinet had been in place for a long period of time. She allegedly knew the cabinet was unsteady and would be an easy way to gain access to the residence by pushing it over.

Cash or Surety bonds for the two charges on Jennifer Lynn Braddock were set totaling $3,212.50 for both charges.

Failing to make payments is apparently behind a Laurens Police arrest Wednesday of this week. 42-year-old Jessica Ann White of East Cambridge Avenue, Greenwood was charged with Breach of Trust with Fraudulent Intent, valued at $10,000 or More.

A warrant states that on March 25th of this year Jessica Ann White committed Breach of Trust by going over the allotted time and failing to make contact by telephone. It further alleges seizure of her bank card to stop future transactions. This reportedly regarding a truck valued at $43,000.

A cash or surety bond of $10,000 was set on the Breach of Trust warrant for Jessica Ann White.

Highway fatality victims from last year are to be remembered in a special virtual event in eight days. The South Carolina Department of Public Safety announced that this event is to remember the more than 1,000 lives lost on South Carolina Highways during 2023. Rachael Urconis with the Office of Highway Safety and Justice Programs state that the virtual service will include a video tribute and several messages of comfort from various highway safety professionals.

This Memorial for our state’s traffic victims from last year is set to begin Saturday, April 27th at 10:00 a.m. This virtual memorial service will be available for viewing on the SCDPS Facebook page and in the public Facebook event. The virtual Facebook event page is: https://linktr.ee/dps_fhf.

Macabre details continued to be reported yesterday during the fourth day of a murder trial in Laurens County General Sessions Criminal Court. Timothy Spenser is charged with murder in the death of 61-year-old Billy Jean Cross of Fountain Inn. She had been missing for some time when a body was found in Anderson County. Eventually, authorities determined the body was that of Ms. Cross.

In the Hillcrest Square courtroom yesterday morning, a witness was called to the stand whom the prosecution had assigned the task of examining the technical details of a GPS in the defendant’s truck. The witness said the GPS pinpointed that the truck had been in the area where Ms. Cross’s body was found off Highway 81 in Anderson County.

Another witness was a doctor who had performed the autopsy on the victim. He testified that the cause of death for Billy Jean Cross was strangulation. He stated that a scarf was still around her neck when her body was discovered. He also said that he had difficulty removing the scarf from the deceased neck.

Employees of the State Law Enforcement Division were the final witnesses in yesterday’s session. They told of examining the blanket the blanket the body had been wrapped in, and studied DNA from a large trash can, in which the defendant allegedly carried her away.

The defense for Timothy Spenser also had some questions for the SLED agents. They were expected to begin their questioning when the trial resumed this morning.

There was some indication that this murder trial could continue into next week.

Local Notes

Clinton HS

• Tennis… I need to do some catching up with the Red Devil boys’ tennis team.
  • Friday (4-12-24): Clinton 6 – Emerald 0… Last Friday the Red Devil boys’ tennis team traveled to the other side of Lake Greenwood to take on the Emerald Vikings… They kept their region record a perfect 4-0 as they took a 6-0 win over the Vikings… Nathan Meade, Edwin Orr, Matthew King, Jacob King and Malakye Brewer all too one-sided win in region action… The #2 doubles team of Brady Mason and Ethan Wargo also defeated their opponents… For more details on this match, click here.
  • Monday (4-15-24): Then on Monday the Red Devils hosted the Woodruff Wolverines on the courts at Clinton MS… This time the final score was a little closer but the Red Devils prevailed by a score of 4-2… All 4 of the Clinton wins came in singles action as Nathan Mead, Edwin Orr, Mathew King and Jacob King all took wins… For more details on this match click here.
  • Tuesday (4-16-24): Clinton 4 – Woodruff 2… The very next day the Red Devils hosted the Wolverines and the results were exactly the same with the Red Devils taking a 4-2 win… The same singles player that won the day before won again… For more details on this match click here.
  • Wednesday (4-17-24): Clinton 4 – Aiken 2… The Red Devils than hosted the Aiken Green Hornets and you might not believe this but the results were basically the same as the two days before as the Red Devils won by a score of 4-2 with the same singles players taking wins with a little difference in the set scores… To see more details on this match click here.
  • Red Devils Finish First in Region…  The Red Devils have now concluded their regular season with an 8-1 overall Record and 6-0 in region play… They will start their participation in the Class AAA Tennis Playoffs next Tuesday (4-23) at home against an opponent yet to be determined… To see the brackets for the Class AAA Playoffs click here… Congratulations to the Red Devils and Go Big Red!

Laurens HS

• Softball: Greenville 16 – Laurens 5… The Raider varsity softball team closed out a busy week last night with a 16-5 loss to the Greenville Red Raiders… The score was 4-2 Greenville at the end of 3 innings when in the 4^th inning the wheels started coming off the bus as the Red Raiders scored 5 runs and put Laurens in a whole that they just could not get out of as Greenville went on to take the 16-5 win… Greenville outhit Laurens 19-9 but the Rader also had bad case of “erroritis” with 9 miscues so that only 5 of Greenville’s runs were earned….  Carly Edwards led the Raiders at the plate as she went 4 for 4 with a double and a RBI… Click here to see the box score of the game and click here to see the scorebook to see how the runs were scored… The team is now 7-9 overall and 3-4 in region play… They will host Clinton next Tuesday at 7:00 pm.

• Cheerleading Tryouts… Cheerleading tryouts will be held at LDHS starting Monday, May 6^th and running through Thursday, May 9th in the Main Gym at LDHS… There’s a lot of information you need to know before coming out on those dates including information about needing a current physical form… For much more information about this, click here.

Laurens Academy

• Baseball: High Point Academy 10 – Laurens Academy 9…Yesterday the Crusaders traveled to Spartanburg to take on High Point Grizzles…. The Crusaders truly lost a heartbreaker as High Point led 9-5 going to top of 7^th where the Crusaders scored 4 runs to tie the game only to have the Grizzles come back and score an unearned run in bottom of the inning to take 10-9 walk-off win…  Crusades outhit Grizzles 9-3 but they both teams had cases of “erroritis” as 8 crusader errors helped the Grizzles to the point that only 4 of the Grizzles 10 runs were earned while HP had 3 errors so that only 4 of the Crusaders 10 runs were earned….Caleb Hardy and Hack Hardy led the Crusaders at the plate as each had 2 hits in the game with both having a double… Caleb Hardy drove in 2 runs… Click here to see the box score of the game and click here to see the scorebook to see how the runs were scored… The Crusaders now have a 5-7 record on the season.
• Softball: Crusaders 10 – Wardlaw 2… Catching up with the Crusader softball team, they traveled down to Wardlaw back on Monday (4-15) and I am glad to report that they took a 10-2 win over the Patriots… The Crusader scored 2 runs in the 3^rd inning and then scored 4 more runs in the 6^th and 7^th innings while holding the patriots to a pair of runs in the 6^th inning… The Crusaders outhit the patriots 11-5 with Catherine Riddle going 3 for 5 with 2 runs batted in… Madeline Baldwin, Emily Suttles and Morgan Bolding each had a pair of hits for eth Crusaders… Olivia Huck picked up the complete game win giving up the 2 unearned runs on 2 hits while striking out 11 and walking none… Click here to see the box score of the game and click here to see the scorebook to see how the runs were scored.

• MS Baseball… The Crusader middle school baseball team has been in action over the last few days and I need to catch up with them.
  • Friday (4-12): Crusaders 10 – Eagles 2… Last Friday (4-12) the Crusaders hosted the Eagles of Richard Winn… The Eagles actually outhit the Crusaders 5-3 but that’s not what counts as the Crusaders took a 10-2 win in 4 innings… All three of the Crusader hits were singles and were delivered by 3 different players… The Crusaders took full advantage of 9 walks issued by 2 Eagle pitchers along with a couple of hit batters and 3 stolen bases (including home) by Mason Cooper… Click here to see the box score of the game and click here to see the scorebook to see how the runs were scored.
  • Monday (4-15): Patriots 8 – Crusaders 2… Then on Monday (4-15) the Crusaders traveled down to Wardlaw to take on the Patriots…. The Patriots outhit the Crusaders 7-3 as they took an 8-2 win over the Crusaders… The Patriots scored 6 of their 8 runs in the 2^nd inning… Three different Crusaders had 1 hit each a single… Click here to see the box score of the game and click here to see the scorebook to see how the runs were scored.
  • Wednesday (4-17): Crusaders 11 – Christ Church 1… One last score to bring to you on the MS Crusaders, yesterday they traveled up to Greenville to take on the Christ Church Cavaliers… In this game, they took an 11-1 win scoring 7 runs in the 3^rd inning and 4 in the 5^th while holding the Cavaliers to a single run in the 1^st inning… The Crusaders only outhit the Cavaliers 6-2 with no Crusader having over 1 hit but Trey Oakes hit was a double that drove in a run… The Crusader also took advantage of 14 walks issued by 3 Cavalier pitchers and when they got on base they swiped 14 bases to get themselves in scoring position… Click here to see the box score of the game and click here to see the scorebook to see how the runs were scored…. The team is now 8-3 on the season.

Thornwell

• Softball: Eastside 25 – Thornwell 4…  The Thornwell Saints softball team was in action Wednesday when they hosted the Eastside Eagles a class 4A team in the same region as the Laurens Raiders… Eastside scored 3 runs in the first inning and then the wheels came off the bus for the Saints as the Eagles scored 13 runs in the 2^nd inning as they went on to take a 25-4 win over the Saints in 4 innings… A couple of stats will tell you why the score was so one sided… First the Eagles had 13 hits to the Saints 4… Also the Eagles had 6 doubles and one triple while the Saints had only one extra-base hit a double by Madi Landrith that drove in a run and the Saints had 5 errors to the Eagles 1… No Saint had over 1 hit… Click here to see the box score of the game and click here to see the scorebook to see how the runs were scored.

Broadcast Notes… We plan on brining you the following contest here on Real Radio WLBG:

• Friday, 4-19: Baseball host Wade Hampton, 6:30
• Tuesday. 4-23: Baseball Clinton at Laurens, 6:00

 Local Sports Schedules: All schedules subject to change right up to game time.

• School District 55: To see the sports schedule for this week at LDHS, click here.
• School District 56:  To see the sports schedule for this week at CHS and CMS, click here
• Laurens Academy: To see the varsity and middle school baseball schedule click here… To see the varsity & middle school softball schedule click here.
• Thornwell:  To see the Thornwell varsity baseball schedule and results click here.… To see the Saints softball schedule and results click here.
• PC Sports Calendar… To see the PC athletics sports calendar, click here.

College Sports: For any game mentioned below, click on the score for more details if available.

 College Baseball

• D-1 Rankings… The latest college baseball rankings according to D1BASEBALL.COM TOP 25 came out on 4-17-24… The top 5 are (previous spot in parenthesis): Texas A&M (3), Arkansas (1), Kentucky (8), Tennessee (4) and Oregon State (5)… Clemson dropped from #2 to #6 while Coastal Carolina moved up a spot to #19….  South Carolina got back in the top 25 checking in at #20… If you wish to see the entire top 25 according to the poll click here.
• Scores… If you click here, it will carry you to a posting linked to the NCAA website where you can find the latest scores, past scores and future contest in D1 baseball… When you get there, it will list scores and contest by top 25 and if you scroll down, it will also list them by conferences… Enjoy!

College Softball

• D-1 Rankings… The latest college softball rankings put out by ESPN and USA Softball came out 4-14-24… The top 5 are (previous spot in parenthesis): Texas (1), Oklahoma (2), Duke (3), Tennessee (4) and Stanford (7)… The Clemson Tigers dropped a spot from #19 to a tie for #20 with Oregon while South Carolina dropped out of the top 25… If you wish to see the entire top 25 according to the poll click here
• Scores… Similar to baseball above, if you click here, it will carry you to a posting linked to the NCAA website where you can find the latest scores, past scores and future contest in D1 baseball… When you get there, it will list scores and contest by top 25 and if you scroll down, it will also list them by conferences… Enjoy!

 Pro Sports

Atlanta Braves… For more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores.

•  Braves… The Braves are off last night and will start a 9-game home series tonight with the fist team in being the Texas Rangers.
• Season Schedule… If you would like to see the Braves, click here… It should also show where the game will be televised if it is televised.
• Standings… To see the MLB Standings click here… Once you get there you will see the standing by league (American or National) and also by division.

Greenville Drive… For more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores.

• Wilmington 8 – Drive 7 –… The Greenville Drive lost last night to the Blue Rocks up in Wilmington, Delaware last night by a score of 8-7… The game was tied going into the 9^th inning where the Blue Rocks scored the unearned winning run with 2 outs to take the walk-off win.

• Schedule… If you wish to see the Greenville Drive schedule and results of completed games, click here.
• Standings… To see the standings for the South Atlantic League (SAL) click here.

NBA

• Scores… To see the latest scores in the NBA and games up next, click here
• Standings… To see the current standing and records in each of the NBA Conferences click here.

NASCAR

• Chase Eliot Wins at Texas… Chase Elliot had not won a Cup Race in his last 42 starts… Well yesterday ho broke that streak out in Texas… The race had an overabundance of caution flags and actually ended in the second overtime period where Elliot had just past the start-finish line where he received the white one lap to go flag before another caution came out.… Click here to go to the NASCAR website where there is much more about this including the final race results.
• Standings… Kyle Larson still leads the Driver Standings in the Cup Series while Martin Truex Jr. remains second… Denny Hamlin still checks in at 3^rd…To see the driver standings for the Cup Series click here… Once you get there you can also click on links to see the standings in Xfinity and Truck Series using tabs in the upper right corner of the posting.
• Schedule This Week… This week NASCAR holds its racing this week at Talladega… To see the schedule for practices and races click here.
• NASCAR on TV this Week… NASCAR has several things being televised this week including race practices and qualifying, the race itself and assorted other things… To see the TV schedule for each day of the week click here.

This & That:

Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame… Recently the Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame announced the five members of its fifth class which will be inducted on Thur., April 25^th at Laurens County Museum on courthouse square at 6:30 pm… The five new members are Robert Wilder, Anthony Downs, Charles Peterson, Walter Todd and Jean Hammond Whitfield… Now to read more about each of the inductees and to learn how they were chosen click here… You will also find out who the members of the first four classes were as well as General information about the Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame… Tickets are now on sale for $30 and include a catered meal… To purchase your ticket, click here… No tickets will be sold at the door.

 Ticketing Information and Other Important Information for Raider Spring Sports… The Raider athletic department has released information about ticketing including how to buy ahead of time and policy for purchasing at the gate… Also information about what passes will be accepted as well as other information you need to know before you go… To see all of this and more, click here

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