ROCKINGHAM — Richmond Senior High School head softball coach Wendy Wallace predicted late last week that the team that managed to hit the ball best with runners on base would win Tuesday’s showdown between her Lady Raiders and visiting Jack Britt High School.
She would be right, as the Lady Raiders held off a seventh-inning push by the Lady Buccaneers to defeat the reigning 4A state champions 10-7. It marked Richmond’s fourth-straight win over Jack Britt since the two teams joined the Sandhills Athletic Conference in 2018.
The Lady Raiders would use 12 hits off of sophomore pitcher Carlie Myrtle to score 10 runs, seven of which went for extra bases. Senior shortstop Savannah Lampley, who played hero and hit a walk-off homer in the eighth inning of last year’s meeting in Rockingham, had Myrtle’s number again, as she went 3-for-3 with three doubles and two RBIs.
Richmond (7-0, 5-0 SAC) took a 4-2 lead into the home half of the sixth inning, and used six hits and an error to plate six runs to jump ahead 10-2. Down to their final three outs, the Lady Bucs scored five runs in the top of the seventh before senior pitcher Greyson Way earned her seventh win of the spring.
“It’s a good thing we did have a big sixth inning because Jack Britt came back and scored those runs in the top half of the seventh,” Wallace said. “In the third, fourth and fifth innings, we got out of our aggressive mindset at the plate. We were watching a lot of pitches and getting frozen on the inside pitch.
“We hit the ball well in the first two innings so I told the girls to go up and swing aggressively,” she added. “(Myrtle) doesn’t walk batters, and we do best when we attack the ball.”
Lampley started the scoring in the bottom of the first after she led off with a double to left field. Two batters later, Way singled to left field, scoring Lampley for her lone RBI of the night.
Richmond extended its lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the second, beginning with a 2-RBI double by Lampley. He two-bagger scored Madison Jordan (walk) and Allyiah Swiney (single). Sophomore Paige Ransom traded places with Lampley in the next at-bat with a double to center.
Way allowed runners in scoring position in both the first and second innings, but escaped the early jams thanks to some defensive work behind her. Freshman second baseman Kenleigh Frye made a nice grab on an infield fly in the first, and a lineout to Ransom with a runner at third ended the second.
Jordan and sophomore Payton Chappell also made solid defensive plays to maintain the lead. In left field, Jordan laid out for a diving catch to rob Taryn O’Connor of a hit in the top of the fifth, and Chappell fielded a hard grounder at third and got Alyssa Brown on a bang-bang play to end the third.
Both teams went quietly in the third frame, and Jack Britt broke into the scoring column with solo runs in the top of the fourth and fifth innings. Jessica McRae hit an RBI single in the fourth, scoring MaKayli Harris, and Catie McGrath trotted home on a throwing error after hitting a triple.
Richmond’s barrage of runs came in the bottom of the sixth, which began with a Ransom two-run homer to dead center field (scoring Lampley, double). Way, Taylor Parrish and Kayla Hawkins loaded the bases with one out, and Jordan connected on a blooper to shallow left field for a two-RBI base knock to make it 8-4.
After Myrtle recorded her eighth and final strikeout, Swiney sent a gap shot to right center, scoring Hawkins and Jordan. Trying to stretch it into a triple, Swiney was tagged out at third.
Eight Lady Bucs would come to the plate in the top of the seventh and score five runs to make things interesting. With two on and two outs, Brown scored O’Connor on an RBI single. A double in the next at-bat by Myrtle plated two more runs.
McRae would connect on a Way pitch for a two-run homer to cut the deficit to three runs, but an Alyssa Norton strikeout would end the rally.
In the circle, Way pitched a complete game, gave up seven earned runs on seven hits, and struck out eight batters.
Adding to Lampley’s performance at the plate were Ransom, Way and Swiney, all with two hits and combined for five RBIs. Ransom led the team with three RBIs, and Lampley scored three of the four times she reached base. Notching two RBIs apiece were Lampley, Jordan and Swiney.
“This is a huge win for us because we want to win every conference game,” Wallace said. “It’s always nice to beat Jack Britt. We still have to play them Friday, and it’ll be another battle. Both teams hit extremely well tonight, and we just need to be able to finish and close the door.”
The Lady Raiders will travel to Fayetteville on Friday for the regular-season series finale against Jack Britt (4-2, 3-2 SAC). First pitch is set for 7 p.m.
