PEMBROKE — Aside from one defensive half inning early in Tuesday’s state playoff opener, the Richmond Raider baseball team nearly played lights out.
Starting the NCHSAA 4A East postseason on the road, the No. 24 Raiders couldn’t get the job done against No. 9 Purnell Swett High School.
Running into defensive woes early, coupled with a strong starting pitching performance by the Rams’ Jacob Chavis, Richmond came up short 7-1.
Purnell Swett took advantage of two walks, three errors and four hits to score all of its runs in the bottom of the second inning.
Making the final start of his high school career was senior James Eason for the Raiders. A pitch-to-contact righty, Eason went 1.2 innings and allowed seven runs (three earned) on four hits.
Of the 13 batters he faced, Eason got 12 of them to put the ball in play. Richmond committed four errors in the field behind him, with the Rams adding four hits.
Junior Jason Walker took over on the mound in relief with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the second. With Richmond trailing 4-0, a walk and a two-RBI single made it a seven-run lead.
Walker struck out Chandon Sanderson for the final out, which started a string of 13 straight batters retired in order. Purnell Swett wouldn’t have another base runner the entire game.
Going 4.1 innings, Walker was dialed in with four consecutive innings of 1-2-3 baseball. He struck out six batters in the process.
Opposite of Eason and Walker, Chavis threw a complete game and didn’t allow a hit. He carried a perfect game through 5.1 innings, which was broken up when junior Jabari Douglas drew a one-out walk.
Chavis finished the game with one earned run, four walks and nine strikeouts. The Raiders put the ball in play a dozen times, but those contacts ended in eight flyouts and four groundouts.
“Credit to Chavis and their whole team,” Brown said. “We knew he was a good arm, we’d already seen him once this year. He shut us out for six innings in the first game. We thought we had a good plan against him, we just didn’t execute for whatever reason.
“And making so many errors early in the game hurt us, too. Sometimes this year we’ve done that and gotten out of it. It’s one of those things with baseball, if you keep making the same mistakes, at some point it’s going to catch up with you.
“I hate it for James because he’s a guy who pitches to contact and he did that tonight,” Brown continued. “Defensively we’ve got to make plays. And I can’t say enough about Jason, he came in and gave us a chance. We couldn’t get anything going offensively.”
A one-out single and a wild pitch in the bottom of the first were erased for Richmond when sophomore catcher Evan Hodges hosed Mason Brewer trying to steal third. Senior first baseman Isaac Hinshaw made a nice play on a chopper to first to end the inning.
The Rams (18-8) started the bottom of the second by putting two runners on via a pair of errors. The leadoff runner, Camden Hunt, was eliminated when Eason spun and picked him off at second base.
With the bases loaded and one away, a three-RBI double got the scoring started. An RBI base knock in the next at-bat made it 4-0. Later in the inning, with two gone and the bases loaded, Walker took over.
Douglas got some momentum going for the Raiders with his one-out free pass in the sixth. Junior Jeremiah Ritter followed with another base on balls in the ensuing plate appearance, but not before Douglas moved to third base.
Hinshaw, batting leadoff for the Raiders, delivered with runners on the corners. He aired a sacrifice fly to center field, allowing Douglas to turn on the jets and slide safely across home plate under the tag.
The Raiders’ only other base runners in the game came in the top of the seventh. Hodges and junior Riley Brown both walked but were stranded.
Richmond’s first season under Brown came to an end with a 14-10 overall record. The Raiders made the playoffs for the third straight year and made a significant jump in the Sandhills Athletic Conference standings.
Posting a 9-3 record, the Raiders placed second in the SAC, their best finish since 2019. Richmond swept its series against Hoke County, Scotland and Union Pines, while splitting its series with Pinecrest, Lee County and Southern Lee.
Brown said the focus of the season can’t be Tuesday’s playoff loss, but instead the strides the program made this school year.
“It sucks right now, but we can’t look at just tonight,” Brown commented. “The big thing with me coming in was building the program up to what we wanted it to be, getting back to the old school days of being in the mix for the conference championship, having home playoff games and winning multiple playoff games.
“Within our program, individual teams will leave a mark and this 2024 team 100 percent did that.
“They were the only team to beat Pinecrest in conference at their place, we swept Scotland and finished second in the conference for the first time in a while,” he closed. “Those are some pretty good things to hang your hat on.”
Tuesday’s loss was the final high school game for seniors Eason, Hinshaw, Marquan Martin and Zane Searcy.
The Richmond Observer will publish the All-Conference team and any other accolades once they’re made available.
Sports editor’s note: A photo gallery of Tuesday’s playoff game at Purnell Swett will be published Wednesday.
