Fighting Scots end Richmond’s 12-game winning streak on senior night

ROCKINGHAM – The Richmond Raiders came into Friday night’s game against Scotland High School riding a 12-game winning streak, including a 1-0 nail-biter win against the Scots on Wednesday.

But errors would be the Raiders undoing on senior night in a game that saw Richmond let a 4-0 lead wilt away in the late innings.

 

Before the game, nine seniors were escorted by family members and recognized by the crowd: Justin Ingram, Chase Demay, Jonathan Lee, Drew Loving, Zack Hinson, Drew Grant, Braxton Furstein, Trey Watkins and Gordon Pihl.

 

The Raiders would jump on the board early when starting pitcher Lee doubled to center field followed by shortstop Loving reaching second base on an error by Scotland’s left fielder. Loving would then steal third and score when Cam Carraway grounded to short.

 

On defense in the top of the fourth on the last out of the inning, Lee came over to cover first on a ground ball hit to first and got into a scuffle with the Scotland batter and was immediately thrown out of the ballgame.

 

Fast forward to the fifth when Furstein doubled to right center, and Pihl singled to right center to score Furstein. Brett Young would come in to run for Pihl. Designated hitter Jake Ransom would then single to right field, moving Young to third base. Nolan Allen came into pinch run for Ransom and then immediately stole second. A single by Garet Weigman would empty the bases and put Richmond up 4-0.

 

Due to two errors from Richmond in the top of the sixth inning, the Fighting Scots would claw all the way back to tie the game at 4-4 and then eventually take a one-run lead at 5-4 going into the bottom of the sixth.

 

Quickly running out of outs, Drew Loving – who came in to pitch for Lee – grounded out, followed by a pop out by Carraway and a strikeout from Hunter Parris. 

 

Scotland was unable to add on to their lead in the top of the seventh inning which left Richmond with three outs left to at least tie the game or take the lead for the win.

 

Unfortunately, second baseman Ingram popped out to second and Watkins came in to pinch hit and struck out. Furstein was hit by a pitch which gave Richmond a baserunner and a glimmer of hope, but Pihl grounded out to second to end the game.

 

When asked what happened in order for Richmond to lose the game, head coach Ricky Young said, “We just had one bad inning, and we didn’t execute defensively, and they took advantage of it.”

 

With this being the final game in the regular season, Richmond will now look towards the Sandhills Athletic Conference Tournament, which is slated to start Tuesday.

 

With a loss to a heated rival and the winning streak behind them, Young admitted that the team needed to get back to the fundamentals that enabled them to win those 12 games in a row.