ROCKINGHAM – Having not played in a competitive game since last Wednesday in the Beach Diamond Invitational championship at West Brunswick High School, the Lady Raiders softball team didn’t take long to knock off what little dust it may have gathered in Tuesday’s 13-0 mercy-rule romping of Sandhills Athletic Conference opponent Lumberton High School.
With the most recent state softball rankings released Tuesday, Richmond stayed locked in at the No. 2 spot for 4A competition, and is ranked sixth overall in the state. Those numbers held true as the SAC-leading Lady Raiders (12-3, 9-0 SAC) peppered second-place and No. 10 ranked Lumberton (11-4, 5-2 SAC) for 13 hits in the win.
After a quick 1-2-3 top of the first inning by Richmond’s ace Greyson Way, the Lady Raiders made quick work of their bats, as they nearly batted through the order twice in the inning, sending 15 batters to the plate. Facing Lumberton ace and UNCW commit Morgan Britt, Richmond hung a nine-spot in the inning, tying the most runs in a single inning in a game this season (nine runs in the fourth inning against Pinecrest High School on March 16; and nine runs in the first inning against Purnell Swett High School on March 9). The school record is 15 runs in the second inning against Westover High School in 2008, a 30-0 victory.
Britt isn’t a stranger to Richmond, having had success against the Lady Raiders in the 2017 conference tournament championship, pitching seven innings and striking out 11 batters in a close 3-2 Lumberton victory. But the coin was flipped Tuesday, as Britt lasted just 1/3 of an inning, and only faced eight batters and gave up seven earned runs and three walks. She had trouble finding the strike zone early, sending her first pitch of the night high to the backstop and several others behind Richmond’s batters.
“We had heard that she (Britt) was having some control issues, but no, we didn’t really expect that,” Richmond head coach Wendy Wallace said of the early going in a post-game interview. “We came out with a game plan to execute to hit, but that definitely played into our favor.
“I felt like we made the (necessary) adjustments tonight,” Wallace continued. “We had several hits up the middle, and we did a good job of hitting outside pitches back up the middle. The girls looked better at the plate and didn’t try to chase pitches or pull outside pitches across the plate.”
Savannah Lampley and Owen Bowers led off the home half of the first inning with back-to-back walks, and after an infield pop out, Official Richmond County Female Athlete of the Week Brianna Baysek scored Lampley on a hard-hit infield single to third baseman Katie Kinlaw that careened off her glove and toward the Richmond dugout. Bowers would slide safely at home on a passed ball, and during the same at-bat to Kayla Hawkins, the sophomore first baseman did a little yardwork as she hit a towering two-run homer, her fifth of the year, to left-center field.
Back-to-back one-out singles by Taylor Parrish and Paige Ransom, followed by a walk to Madison Jordan to load the bases led Lumberton head coach Mackie Register to pull Britt from the game and replace her with Ariel Allbrooks. The senior pitcher didn’t fare very well against her first batter, as freshman Payton Chappell smacked a two-RBI single to left field to push to lead to 6-0. RBI singles by Lampley, Way and Baysek, all still with one out, would cap off the inning’s scoring.
The Lady Raiders, who have been a power-hitting team this season with 23 team home runs and 37 doubles, sprayed 10 singles to all parts of the field in Tuesday’s win, a rarity to some extent. To date, Richmond has 143 hits on the year, with 62 of those as extra-base hits. The Lady Raiders have also scored 139 runs in 15 games (9.26 runs per game), but perhaps more impressively, have only allowed 39 runs to be scored against them in that span (2.6 runs allowed per game).
Way would send the Lady Pirates back to the dugout in order in the second and third innings, and didn’t allow her first base runner of the night until there was one out in the top of the fourth (Britt reached on a fly ball error). She took a no-hitter deep into the game, but lost it with one out in the fifth inning when Allbrooks roped a double to left field. Nonetheless, Way collected her 12th win of the season, going five strong innings, facing just 17 batters, allowing the lone hit to Allbrooks, and striking out six batters.
Richmond would strike again offensively in the bottom of the second, as Allbrooks walked Ransom and Jordan to start the inning. Chappell dug into the batter’s box with no outs and lasered an 0-2, RBI-double to center field, making the score 10-0. Leading all batters at the plate during the game, Chappell finished the night 3-for-3 with two singles, a double, three RBIs and two runs scored.
Lampley would tack on another run in the inning thanks to an RBI 4-3 fielder’s choice to score Jordan from third base. With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Way helped her cause at the plate, and ended the game’s scoring with a two-RBI double to extend the lead to 13-0.
Eight of Richmond’s 11 players would collect a hit in the win, with Baysek, Chappell, Hawkins and Way all getting at least two. Chappell and Way tied for a game-high three RBIs apiece, while Baysek, Hawkins and Lampley all had two RBIs. According to MaxPreps.com, Richmond has the third toughest strength of schedule in the state (11.6) for all classifications, and have met little competition from SAC opponents (outscoring them 116-15 this season, including three shutouts).
Allbrooks tossed 3.2 innings of work, gave up nine hits, and allowed six runs to score (five of which were earned).
It’ll be a quick turn-around for these two teams, as they’ll meet against on Friday at Lumberton. First pitch is set for 7 p.m., with Richmond looking to remain undefeated in conference play. Wallace also noted that her focus in practice this week will be defense, as she hopes to eliminate errors from happening.
