LILLINGTON, N.C. — The junior varsity Richmond Renegades picked up their second straight mercy-rule win over Western Harnett in as many days on Tuesday.
Making the road trip for the middle game of the three-game set, the JV Renegades defeated Western Harnett 10-0 in five innings.
Richmond collected seven hits in the win, including a game-high two hits from rising sophomore Vance Goodwin. Adding to the hit parade was rising freshman Sam Thompson with a double.
Collecting one single each were rising sophomore Zane Searcy, and rising freshmen Riley Brown, Mason Murray and Jason Walker.
Brown had a team-high two RBIs, while Goodwin, rising sophomore Damon Bryant, rising freshman Garret Mabe and rising eighth grader Caden Nolan each recorded a solo RBI.
Ten different players crossed home plate safely in the win.
“We drew a lot of walks today and those, along with errors, is really how we got a lot of our base runners,” head coach Corey Wallace said. “However, we made a lot of mistakes on the basepaths trying to do too much, and I didn’t think we executed well at the plate tonight.”
On the mound, rising freshman Jeremiah Ritter tossed a complete-game shutout and only allowed two hits. He struck out six batters and walked three.
Ritter’s performance on the mound was the second consecutive complete-game shutout by the JV Renegades this week, following fellow rising freshman Landon Taylor’s outing in Monday’s win.
“Jeremiah did very well controlling the strike zone for the majority of the game,” Wallace commented. “I was pleased with his ability to maintain focus when things weren’t going his way.”
Richmond broke the game open in the top of the second inning with six runs to take a 6-0 lead. With two outs, an error on a Brooks Calhoun grounder allowed Taylor (error) and Walker (single) to score.
An error on a Mabe ground ball, followed by a walk to rising freshman Gray Maultsby, loaded the bases. Ritter helped his cause with a hard ground ball to second that was booted for an error, scoring Calhoun and Mabe.
In the next at-bat with runners in scoring position, Brown roped a line drive single to right field for his two RBIs, bringing in Maultsby and Ritter.
After Ritter faced just four batters in the bottom half, Richmond tacked on three more runs in the top of the third. Three straight walks to Jabari Douglas, Jason Gainey and C.J. Jenkins to start the inning resulted in a run when Nolan drew a bases-loaded walk.
Two batters later, Bryant grounded into a fielder’s choice at short, but picked up the RBI when Jenkins crossed home. Goodwin recorded his lone RBI in the next at-bat, singling to left and scoring Nolan.
Ritter retired Western Harnett’s batters in order in the third and fourth innings, and the JV Renegades added the mercy-rule run in the top of the fifth. With one out, Mabe brought in Thompson (double) on a sacrifice fly to left.
Improving to 4-1 on the summer, Richmond will look for the series sweep on Wednesday with another home game against Western Harnett.
