Dunaway excited about future or Laurens Academy softball program
Mackenzie Runyans, Madisyn Graham, Makayla Lindley selected to play in SCISA North-South All-Star Game
Laurens – The 2026 softball season didn’t go the way Laurens Academy head coach Frankie Dunaway hoped it would. The Crusaders finished with a 4-13 record and went 0-2 in the SCISA AA state tournament. However, Dunaway thinks better things await.
“It wasn’t our best season, but like I told you before, we’re a young team,” Dunaway said. “I have two seniors. We started the season with no pitchers, and in January of this year, a sophomore player, who’s never played before, started taking pitching lessons.
“We ended up with two pitchers for the season. We’ll start next season with the same two pitchers (Mackenzie Runyans and Caroline Robinson), plus I’m moving up my middle school pitcher (Peightyn Lawson, who will be a seventh-grader in 2027). We’ll have players returning plus a couple new faces that should help us improve.”
LA had three players selected to the All-Region team in senior Madisyn Graham, junior Makayla Lindley and Runyans.
Graham, who played first base. finished with a .351 batting average to go with an on-base percentage of .467, three doubles, eight runs batted in and 16 run scored.
Runyans pitched and played shortstop when Robinson was in the circle. Runyans batted .349 to go with an OBP of .462. She had one double, two triples, eight RBI and 16 runs.
Lindley handled the catching chores and finished with a .361 average. She had an OBP of .477, scored 12 runs and had six RBI.
Other key contributors were sophomore third baseman/outfielder Brooke Abercrombie, junior outfielder Addison Mitchum, senior outfielder Sophie Harvey and junior middle infielder Morgan Bolding.
Abercrombie batted a team high .386 with eight RBI and 11 runs and an OBP of .426, while Mitchum had a team high OBP of .511 to go with a .267 batting average, 12 runs and two RBI. Bolding batted .341 with an OBP of .471 and a team high 17 runs. Harvey had an OBP of .385 to go with a .200 batting average and nine runs.
Junior outfielder Caroline Mullinax had the team’s only home run. Eighth-grade outfielder Ellie Watts batted .267 with a .450 OBP, and Robinson had a .366 OBP to go with 10 runs.
Laurens came close to picking up a victory in the opening game of the state tournament. The Crusaders dropped a 5-4 decision to Andrew Jackson Academy. They were eliminated with a 13-3 loss to Dorchester Academy.
