FAYETTEVILLE — A complete game, two-hitter by senior pitcher Cameron Carraway helped the Raider varsity baseball team complete its regular-season sweep over Jack Britt High School Friday night.
During a stretch spanning from the bottom of the first through the bottom of the fifth inning, Carraway retired 12 straight Buccaneers batters to earn his second win of the season.
In what proved to be another pitching and defensive battle between the two Sandhills Athletic Conference teams, a couple of clutch at-bats in the early innings proved to be enough for the Raiders.
With the win, Richmond and head coach Ricky Young improved to 6-3 overall and 5-1 in conference play. On Tuesday, the Raiders defeated the Bucs 6-1 in the series opener.
“Cameron threw the ball really well tonight,” Young commented on his No. 2 pitcher. “He got into a little trouble a couple of times but he he battled through them for his second win. He was able to throw all three pitches for strikes, and when he can do that, he’s a great pitcher.”
Richmond’s offense would score all three of its runs in the opening two innings, and only collect two hits itself, starting with a one-out RBI double by senior first baseman Jake Ransom in the top of the first. Fellow senior Tyler Bass started the game with a walk, and moved into scoring position on a Brett Young fielder’s choice.
With Bass on second, Ransom ripped a 2-2 offering from Chase Jernigan into the left-center alley, letting Bass race home. It was Ransom’s team-leading 15th RBI of the spring.
Seniors Garret Richardson (hit-by-pitch) and Hunter Parris (sacrifice bunt fielder’s choice) would lead off the top of the second inning as Coach Young used small ball tactics to score both players. Senior Evan Hudson would lay down the second of three straight successful bunts to move Richardson and Parris to third and second, respectively.
Hitting in the No. 9 spot, senior Nolan Allen bunted a Jernigan pitch back to the mound, attempting a safety squeeze. Jernigan fielded the ball and tossed it to his catcher, Chandler Cannon, but Richardson managed to slide under the tag to make it 2-0.
With two outs, Brett Young grounded a ball to third base and reached safely on a throwing error. Parris, who was on third base, scored on the play for Richmond’s final run.
On the hill, Carraway got out of a two-on, one-out jam in the bottom of the first with his first of six strikeouts and a fly out to Richardson in right field. Those two outs started a string of three-straight innings where he sat the Buccaneers down in order. A one-out error in the bottom of the fifth ended the streak.
In the same half-inning, Richardson made a sliding grab in right to rob Justin Conway of a would-be RBI single after Armando Viera reached on the aforementioned error.
Carraway’s only hiccup of the night came in the bottom of the sixth when he gave a lead-off walk to Cannon. Following a fielder’s choice and a pop out, Jernigan roped a double to the right-center gap, scoring Cannon.
Trying to stretch it to a triple, Richardson started a relay to Young and then Parris to tag Jernigan out to end the inning.
“In the huddle after the game we talked about how well we bunted tonight,” Young explained. “We also had that big relay (in the sixth) to help Cameron out. Those are all things we work on in practice, and making those plays was big tonight.
“Jack Britt is a really good team and this is a hard place to win,” he concluded. “This win is big for us. I’m really happy that we were able to earn a win tonight.”
The Raiders will be back in action Saturday at 3 p.m. looking for their third-straight win, as they host non-conference Northwest Guilford High School. The junior varsity team will also play, starting at noon.
