Home Local Sports Early deficit too much for JV Renegades in loss to Scotland

Early deficit too much for JV Renegades in loss to Scotland

Rising eighth grader Jabari Douglas crosses home in the top of the third inning during Thursday's game at Scotland.
Kyle Pillar — Sports Editor.

LAURINBURG — Over the course of the spring and summer seasons, the Richmond junior varsity baseball team hasn’t found itself playing without a lead very often.

But Thursday’s Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League game at Scotland saw the JV Renegades unable to erase an eight-run deficit after the first inning.

Richmond tried to battle back in the middle innings, but fell to Scotland 11-6 in five innings due to the time limit.

“It’s hard to win a baseball game when you walk 10 batters, hit five more with a pitch and make three errors in the field,” head coach Corey Wallace said. “We just have to be more consistent with our pitching, like we were on Wednesday.

“Today we struggled to find the strike zone,” he added. “We also have to stop making excuses — every time we make a mistake, there’s an excuse and that’s not the way this game is supposed to be played.”

Richmond took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when rising sophomore Damon Bryant scored on a bunt single by rising sophomore Cain Hunsucker.

The JV Renegades went through three pitchers in the first inning, starting with rising freshman Mason Murray and then rising eighth grader Jason Gainey. The two combined to allow eight runs (five earned), walked five batters and hit one batter.

Wallace inserted rising eighth grader Evan Hodges with no outs and the bases loaded, and Hodges got out of the inning with Richmond trailing 9-1. 

Hodges found his groove and tossed three innings, giving up two unearned runs on one hit and struck out four batters.

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Rising sophomore Vance Goodwin closed the final inning on the bump, allowing one earned run on two hits with three Ks.

The JV Renegades chipped away at the deficit with three runs in the top of the second. With rising freshman Sam Thompson on first, Murray hit a single to right field, and a throwing error allowed Thompson to score and move Murray to second.

Following Murray stealing third and rising freshmen Brooks Calhoun and Gray Maultsby both drawing a walk to load the bases, rising freshman Jeremiah Ritter dodged a tag attempt on a bunt single up the first-base line, allowing Murray and Calhoun to score.

An inning later, rising eighth grader Jabari Douglas reached on a leadoff error, and rising freshman Garret Mabe drew a base on balls with on out. With the two on the corners, rising sophomore Tyler Graham belted an RBI single to right, scoring Douglas and moving Mabe to third.

In the next at-bat, Mabe scored Richmond’s final run on a wild pitch that skipped to the backstop. Scotland added solo runs in the third and fourth innings.

Richmond’s six hits were all singles by six different players — Bryant, Goodwin, Graham, Hunsucker, Murray and Ritter. Graham had one RBI, while Ritter’s two RBIs led the team.

“We battled at the plate a lot, and we did so knowing we could still win the game,” Wallace explained. “That’s the kind of fire you want to have in the dugout. We fouled off a lot of two-strike pitches, made good situational decisions and got the ball down when I asked them to bunt.

“Offensively, the guys did everything I asked them to do,” he closed. “We’ll use this as a learning experience and move forward to tomorrow’s game.”

The JV Renegades (1-1) will host Scotland (1-1) on Friday for a makeup of a rainout from earlier in the week.



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Kyle Pillar is a 22-time North Carolina Press Association award-winning sports editor with The Richmond Observer. Follow the sports department on X @ROSports_ for the best in-depth coverage of Richmond County sports.