ROCKINGHAM – As the dog days of summer drag on, so does the Richmond Rattlers senior baseball team’s winning streak.
Back in action for the second night in a row against Union Pines, the Rattlers won their seventh-straight Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League game, defeating the Moore County team 5-1 thanks to a couple of clutch base hits and a solid pitching performance by rising senior Hunter Parris.
In the two games played of the three-game set, Richmond has scored 20 runs to Union Pines’ two, and hasn’t allowed them to score a run outside of the first inning in either contest.
While Wednesday’s game wasn’t as high-scoring as the series opener, which the Rattlers blasted Union Pines in 15-1 fashion in five innings, head coach Ricky Young was satisfied with his team’s effort on both sides of the ball.
“Our focus, and something that I’m telling both of our teams, is to throw strikes and make routine plays,” Young said following the game. “That’s what our focus has to be. We’re not going to go out and strike out 10 or 12 people every night, but we can be really good defensively. And we need to take advantage of (our defense).”
Parris took to the mound for the fourth time this summer, picking up his third win and helping the Rattlers improve to a 7-2 overall record. The right-hander went five strong innings, allowed just one run in the first inning, and struck out five batters. He also gave up just three hits.
In relief, rising junior lefty Luke Preslar faced just 10 batters in the final two innings to close out the win for Parris. Helping both pitchers was the Rattlers’ defense, which made 11 putouts, and made some athletic plays in the outfield. In the top of the fifth inning, rising senior left fielder Nolan Allen made a great jump on a line drive shot, and came up with the diving grab.
An inning later, with Preslar on the hill, fellow rising senior Evan Hudson, who had replaced Allen in left, made a terrific sliding catch near the foul line for the first out of the inning. Parris helped out his own cause with a double play after walking the first two batters in the fourth. After a Union Pines bunt attempt popped out to Parris, the Rattler pitcher turned and picked off a snoozing runner at second.
Union Pines got on the board first in the opening frame thanks to back-to-back doubles and a fielder’s choice. But rising senior second baseman Brett Young made two great defensive plays to end the threat. From that point on, Union Pines would only muster four walks and one base hit the rest of the game.
A night after scoring eight runs in their half of the first, the Rattlers only managed to plate one run thanks to a rising senior Jake Ransom opposite field RBI single to left field. Scoring was rising senior Alex Anderson, who led off the game with a single.
The Rattlers’ biggest inning of the night came in the home half of the third, as they sent nine batters to the plate and scored three runs to take a 4-1 lead. Young led off with a double, followed by a Ransom walk. Young stole third, and courtesy of an errant throw by Union Pines’ catcher, he was able to sprint home for the eventual game-winning run.
A base knock by rising senior Cameron Carraway advanced Ransom to second, and Ransom would advance to third after rising senior catcher Garet Weigman beat out a double-play attempt that got Carraway out at second. On the same play, the ball scooted by the first baseman, allowing Ransom to score safely and Weigman to move to second. Rising senior Tyler Bass kept the inning going with an RBI single, which scored courtesy runner Jahan Jones from second.
Anderson scored the game’s final run in the bottom of the fifth after leading off the inning by getting hit by a pitch. After a wild pitch and advancing to third on a fielder’s choice, Anderson was brought home by Carraway with a sacrifice fly to left field.
“We’ve got multiple people we feel comfortable putting in the outfield,” Young said of the defensive efforts. “They make good jumps on balls and are athletic. We have a lot of people we can interchange out there and not lose a beat.”
As far as the current seven-game winning streak the Rattlers are riding, it’s something that Young and the team are aware of, but don’t think too much about.
“We don’t talk about it too much,” he admitted. “We’re just trying to focus on getting better and doing the formula we know that will make us better next year.”
Richmond will finish the three-game set against Union Pines Thursday, back on the road in Cameron, N.C. First pitch is set for 6:15 p.m.
