SANFORD, N.C. – It wasn’t the most fundamentally-sound performance of the summer, but the Richmond Rattlers senior baseball team managed to overcome a slow start and four errors Wednesday to win its 11th consecutive game.
Scoring a Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League team-high in runs, the Rattlers battled early rain showers and slippery conditions en route to a 23-9 mercy-rule win over the Lee County Spinners on the road in five innings.
While the 23 runs were a summer best, the Rattlers managed just 10 hits in the win, and got some major help from Lee County’s pitching, which issued 22 walks in the 45 total batters faced. Also, five of Richmond’s runs were scored via a wild pitch or passed ball, two more came from bases-loaded walks and another thanks to a throwing error.
Richmond’s pitching also struggled early, as rising senior Tyler Bass lasted just one inning on the hill, giving up six runs on two hits and three walks. Like his counterpart, Lee County’s Elliot Mann, Bass was having trouble keeping a grip on the ball and was dealing with slippery mound conditions. Combined between the two starters, nine errant pitches sailed to the backstop in the first inning alone.
Richmond head coach Ricky Young called time and gathered his infielders behind the mound, allowing for the grounds crew to try and dry out the mound. It seemed to have worked, as the Rattlers rebounded from a 6-1 deficit after the first inning to outscore the Spinners 22-3 over the next four frames. And while the hits were few and far between the patiently drawn walks, there were some boomers.
“I told them that we’ve gotten used to having leads early in games, so this was a good test to get down and see how we could respond,” Young said of his early-game meeting at the mound. “We could make every excuse in the world to say the ball or the field is wet, but the other team could make the same excuse. I thought we did a good job of rebounding and getting more focused with better at-bats.”
After rising senior Brett Young scored on a wild pitch after drawing a walk in the first inning, Richmond tacked on seven runs in top of the second to take a 8-6 lead. Bass, Nolan Allen, Evan Hudson and Luke Preslar all scored on wild pitches in the inning, while Young raced home on a 1-3-6 fielder’s choice after teammate Jake Ransom got himself tagged out in a rundown. The other two runs in the inning came courtesy of RBI singles by Bass (scored Hunter Parris) and Garret Richardson (scored Cameron Carraway).
Hudson, whose sidearm throwing motion tends to freeze batters, took over in the bottom of the second inning for Richmond. After loading the bases with no outs, he struck out the side in consecutive batters, two of which were looking, to get the Rattlers out of the jam. He also got some defensive help from Parris in the third, as he recorded all three outs, snagging a liner to third and converting two successful 5-3 putouts across the diamond.
In the visitor’s half of the third, the boys in green added four more runs to jump ahead 12-6. A one-out walk by Preslar later resulted in a run thanks to a throwing error by the catcher. Bass ripped his second of three singles on the night, and was followed up by a walk by Young, who managed to draw free passes in all five of his at-bats in the win.
After a ground ball out with two on, Carraway teed one up and sent a ball into orbit over the left-center field wall for a three-run blast. It was his first dinger of the summer.
The Rattlers broke the game wide open in the fourth inning, as they sent 12 batters to the dish and scored eight more runs. Back-to-back walks to start the inning by Richardson and Allen presented a two-RBI opportunity for Parris, as he smashed a gapper to the 380-foot sign in right-center field and raced around the bases for a triple.
Hudson helped out his own cause with an RBI single to score Parris in the next at-bat, and a Preslar walk and a Bass single loaded the bases with no outs. Young was credited with a RBI on a walk that brought in Hudson, and rising senior Jake Ransom slashed a two-RBI single to right field, scoring Preslar and Bass.
Carraway wasn’t finished producing, as he brought in his fourth RBI of the night on a long fly ball to right field, plating Young on a sacrifice fly. An infield RBI-single by rising senior Garet Weigman scored Ransom to cap off the inning’s eight-run explosion.
Hudson threw three innings on the night, and continued to pitch well in the middle innings. He allowed just three runs on two hits and two walks, while striking out four Spinners. He ran into some trouble in the fourth inning as he gave up the final three runs to Lee County, with one run coming via an error, a single and a bases-loaded walk, respectively.
“We just needed someone to come in and throw strikes, and Evan does a good job at doing that,” Young commented on Hudson’s performance. “He kept his pitch count down until his final inning, and we brought Mitchell (Paul) in to close it out.”
To end the night’s scoring, Richmond added three insurance runs in the fifth to secure the mercy-rule victory. Rising junior Austin Talton scored on another bases-loaded walk by Young, and fellow rising junior Will Chappell came home on an RBI single by Ransom. Carraway tallied in his fifth and final RBI on the night with another sac fly, this time going to straightaway center and scoring rising junior Dawson Bryant (walk).
Rising junior left-hander Mitchell Paul relieved Hudson in the fifth inning and closed the game out thanks to two exceptional plays by his defense behind him. After allowing the leadoff batter to slice a single to right field, Richardson corralled the ball on the warning track and sent a laser to second base to catch the runner trying to stretch the play.
The game ended two batters later after a one-out walk with a spectacular, and uncommon, 6-2-5 double play.  Bass received a throw from the outfield on a single, and threw a dart to Weigman at home, catching the lead runner trying to score. Weigman applied the tag, and subsequently doubled off the same Lee County batter who had hit the single, as he got caught in no-man’s land between second and third. Bryant caught the ball and ended the game with a well-placed tag.
“Our defense was sloppy in the first inning and we threw the ball all over the place,” Young concluded. “Once the rain stopped, we went back to playing really good defense like we have all summer.”
Carraway went 1-for-2 on the night, with a home run and five RBIs, while also recording two runs and two sac flies. Bass led the team with three hits, going 3-for-3 with three runs scored and an RBI. Also contributing multiple RBIs for the Rattlers were: Ransom (2-for-3, three RBIs, one run), Young (five walks, four runs and two RBIs) and Parris (1-for-2, two RBIs). Recording lone RBIs on the night were Hudson, Richardson and Weigman.
The Rattlers will wrap up their CCSSL season Thursday at home against Lee County. First pitch is set for 7 p.m., as Richmond looks to end the season on a 12-game winning streak.
