RAEFORD — On the one-year anniversary since former Raider pitcher Jonathan Lee threw a perfect game against Hoke County High School, current senior pitcher Tyler Bass had a successful night of his own on the mound Friday.
The Raiders completed the regular-season sweep of the Bucks, and won their sixth-straight game, winning 4-2 behind a complete game by Bass. The right-hander earned his third win of the spring, his second in two games, allowing one earned run on seven hits and eight strikeouts.
“The story of the game was that Tyler pitched really well,” head coach Ricky Young said in the dugout after the win. “There were a couple of situations where Hoke County put some things together where they could have scored, but we stopped them. We had some big outs when they could have tied the game or taken the lead.”
In what proved to be another low-scoring affair, the Raiders scraped together runs in the third, fifth and seventh innings to get the job done. In the 13 games played this season, it was the 10th time the Raiders have held their opponents to three runs or less. Of those games, seven of them have seen a run or less scored.
The Bucks (5-8, 4-6 SAC) sent Keegan Hair on the mound to start, and would give up three earned runs on three hits in six innings. In the top of the third, senior Hunter Parris drew a leadoff walk and moved to second base when fellow senior Nolan Allen laid down a successful sacrifice bunt.
Following a Dallas Cowick fielder’s choice that moved Parris to third, Bass helped his own cause with an RBI single to right field, plating Parris.
After each team left runners stranded in their half of the fourth, Richmond tacked on two runs in the top of the fifth. Parris began the inning with another walk, and again moved to second on an Allen sac bunt, and trotted to third on a wild pitch.
Following a strikeout, Bass drew a two-out walk to put runners on the corners. Pinch hitter Evan Hudson dug in and moved out of the way as Parris raced home on a passed ball to make it 2-0.
Hudson made his at-bat count, sending a 3-1 Hair offering to deep left field, clanging an RBI double off the base of the wall. Running in from second was junior Austin Talton, who was a courtesy runner for Bass.
The Bucks would answer in their half of the fifth, using a Liam Miller two-out base knock to score Xavier Sumpter (hit by pitch). Senior Jake Ransom would end the threat by catching a foul ball down the first base line for the third out.
Hoke County would threaten to score again in the sixth, getting two runners on with just one out. Raider catcher Garet Weigman had other plans, as he sent a strike down to shortstop Brett Young at second base to catch Sumpter attempting to steal the bag.
Ransom would come through in the top of the seventh inning with an insurance run and his team-leading 17th RBI with a hard chopper up the middle off new pitcher William Danforth. His base knock scored Cowick from third, who was a courtesy runner for Logan Moore (walk).
Miller would collect his second RBI single of the game in the home half of the final inning, to cut the deficit to 4-2. But Bass responded with a lazy fly out to center and striking out Hair to end the game.
Allen, Bass, Hudson, Ransom and Luke Preslar combined for Richmond’s five hits, while Bass, Hudson and Ransom each collected an RBI.
“We just put ourselves in a good position, and we talk about winning one game at a time,” Young said of feeding the streak. “A win is a win, and we need to continue to find a way to win.
“Obviously, I’d like for us to swing the bats a little better,” he concluded. “Later on in the season, we have to be able to win these types of games to make the playoffs. These games help build experience and teach us how to win in tight situations.”
The second-place Raiders (10-3, 7-1 SAC) will look to keep up their winning ways when they travel to sixth-place Lumberton High School (3-8, 3-5 SAC) on Tuesday. First pitch is set for 7 p.m.
