ROCKINGHAM – It wasn’t the start to the 2018 campaign that the Richmond Senior High School softball team wanted, but Wednesday’s 4-0 loss to Marlboro Academy is a situation the Lady Raiders have been in before and is something they can use as a learning experience moving forward.
During Richmond’s second game of the season a year ago, the Lady Dragons left Lady Raiders Stadium as 4-0 victors following an extra-inning grand slam by catcher Samantha Bryant. And while the score Wednesday mirrored last year’s first matchup between the two teams, Richmond rebounded from that loss with a 14-game winning streak.
And perhaps, as Sandhills Athletic Conference play begins Monday, a similar narrative may be in the works, and something head coach Wendy Wallace said her team will “take and run with.”
A light drizzle set the atmosphere for the season opener, as Richmond’s junior ace Greyson Way engaged in a much-anticipated pitching duel with Marlboro Academy’s junior Jenna Greene. Combined, neither allowed much offense, and the two right-handers had 23 strikeouts and only allowed nine batters on base.
The stats leaned in favor of Greene, as she racked up 14 strikeouts (all but one swinging), and only allowed one hit and one other baserunner due to an error. Way, who still looked dominant and pounded pitchers inside, tallied nine strikeouts and allowed three runs in seven innings of work in her first official start at the varsity level.
“Greyson still pitched a really good game,” Wallace said of her ace pitcher. “She pitched solid and hit her spots for the most part. Early in the season, she’s still trying to find her zone and what’s working and what’s not. In most games we play, when we allow five hits, we’re still going to win. That wasn’t the case tonight.”
The Lady Dragons got off to a quick start in the top of the first inning, as Regan Liles drilled a one-out double to the left-center gap between Mackenzie Webb and Bri Baysek. Laney McLaurin brought her home on the ensuing at-bat, with an RBI-single, which saw McLaurin race to second on the throw to the plate, which almost beat Liles.
After a fly ball out to right field, recent Radford University commit Lindsay Hunter sent a pop fly to shallow center. Richmond shortstop Savannah Lampley and center fielder Baysek converged on the ball, but neither managed to snag it for the third out. The ball fell to the ground and McLaurin hustled home to score the final run of the inning.
Greene sat down Lampley and senior catcher Owen Bowers on swinging strikeouts to open the home half of the first, before Way popped out to short. The Lady Raiders would earn their only hit of the night with one out in the second inning from sophomore first baseman Kayla Hawkins when she roped a hard shot into left field.
From that point on, the only other baserunner for Richmond came in the sixth inning when junior Taylor Parrish launched a fly ball to center field that was dropped. Parrish was replaced by Webb on base with just one out, but freshmen Payton Chappell and Paige Ransom closed the inning in the seven and eight holes, respectively.
A pair of solo home runs over the left field wall by McLaurin (led off third inning) and eighth-grader Mattie Liles (sixth inning; first career home run) concluded the night’s scoring. Way gave up three runs on five hits in seven complete innings.
Way settled in during the fourth inning, going 1-2-3 in the fourth and fifth innings, as well as the seventh inning.
Richmond’s one-through-three hitters (Lampley, Bowers, Way) combined to go 0-for-9 with six strikeouts. Greene sat Richmond hitters down in order in five of her seven innings of work, and did not allow a runner past first base. As a team, aside from strikeouts, Richmond had six fly outs and only one ground out.
And what made Greene so challenging? A rise ball that Richmond batters couldn’t stay on top of.
“We weren’t able to lay off of it tonight,” Wallace noted about Greene’s specialty pitch. “Jenna pitches so well in just knowing how to pitch. Even when her rise ball comes out of the zone, her ball breaks just enough to where we were swinging under it. Early in the season it’s a little bit harder to hit because you can’t replace live at-bats (in practice).”
But not everything was for loss for the Lady Raiders, as Wallace saw Wednesday’s game as a learning experience for her team moving forward.
“For the most part, we had pretty good defense except for two errors,” Wallace explained. “And I thought we were aggressive at the plate, one positive being only having one strikeout looking. The biggest thing is being able to get our bunts down – we can’t even make a threat (to score) if we are striking out. Their infielders didn’t have to make a play on the ball all night, so we have to put it in play and make them make plays.
“We have to learn from what we saw tonight,” Wallace concluded. “We’ll develop as better hitters because of what we faced. I want us to face good competition (early) so that we don’t skate through without seeing good pitching until the playoffs. And it is tough that we faced one of the toughest pitchers in the first game of the year, but that will make us better for conference play.”
With a six-day break between games, Wallace explained that her hitters will adjust and take what they saw and did Wednesday and transition it into practice to prepare for SAC play.
The Lady Raiders (0-1) will return to action Tuesday, March 6, and host Purnell Swett High School (0-0) at Lady Raiders Stadium. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. following junior varsity play. Richmond will have a shot at redemption against Marlboro Academy, the reigning SCISA 2A state champions, on Monday, March 12, in Bennettsville, S.C.
