ROCKINGHAM — Helping the Richmond baseball team extend its winning streak, junior outfielder Landon Taylor has been named the Official Richmond County Male Student-Athlete of the Week presented by Rockingham NC Self Storage.
Grabbing wins in each of their last four games, the Raiders went 3-0 last week in two conference games and one non-conference game. Taylor provided a wealth of offense, including a walk-off winner in front of his home crowd.
Playing his second full season as a varsity starter in the outfield, Taylor earned his first career recognition.
Athletic Profile
Year: Junior
Spring sport: Baseball
Position: Outfielder
Varsity experience: 2 seasons
Other sports: Bowling
“CLASSROOM CREDITS” WITH LANDON TAYLOR
Taylor is a dual-enrollment student who is working toward his high school diploma and an associate’s degree at Richmond Community College.
During the fall semester, he took two college courses and two AP classes and earned straight As. Taylor started the spring semester with a 4.60 weighted GPA.
This spring, he’s taking two more classes at Richmond — Chemistry Honors and Weight Training Honors with head baseball coach Eric Brown.
At RichmondCC, Taylor is enrolled in Spanish 112 and Math 172. His grades currently are all As.
Of the benefit of being able to take college courses in high school, Taylor said he enjoys the schedule, the boost to his GPA and the fact that he’s earning college credits. His favorite class this semester is Chemistry Honors because “I really like Mr. (Matthew) Learn and the way he teaches.”
Looking to the future, Taylor hopes to attend a four-year university and added that playing baseball is a possibility.
“WALKING IT OFF” WITH LANDON TAYLOR
Last week, the Raiders swept their Sandhills Athletic Conference series against Hoke County with a pair of mercy-rule wins. Between those wins, Richmond won a 3-2 thriller over Purnell Swett, walking it off in the bottom of the seventh thanks to Taylor’s bat.
Over those three games, Taylor batted 6-for-8 (.750) from the left side as the leadoff hitter. He had five singles and a double and added four base-on-balls.Taylor also drove in three runs and scored three times.
Against the Bucks in the 11-1 series-opening win, Taylor swatted two singles and a double. His lone RBI in that game came off a double to left field in the top of the second to make it 3-0. Scoring twice, Taylor crossed the plate in the first and fourth innings.
His biggest contribution of the week came as part of a three-run walk-off rally against Purnell Swett. A bases-loaded two-RBI double from Collin Hill tied the game in the home half of the seventh.
In the next at-bat, Taylor barreled up an RBI single two pitches later, a shot up the middle of the infield to plate Jabari Douglas. After rounding first, Taylor was swarmed by his teammates in celebration.
As part of the 15-5 thrashing, Taylor connected for two more singles in Friday’s finale against the Bucks. In a nine-run second inning to put Richmond ahead 12-2, Taylor drew a walk and scored and later had an RBI single to left to put the Raiders ahead by 10 runs.
Through nine games played this season, Taylor is batting .357 (third-highest on the team) with 10 hits (tied for team-high). He’s got two doubles, two triples and is tied for first on the team with seven runs scored.
His eight runs batted in are second most for the Raiders and ranks in the top four on the team in on-base percentage (.472) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.708).
The Raiders (7-2, 4-2 SAC) will play four games this week, starting with their series opener with Union Pines High School (4-6, 1-3 SAC) Tuesday. The road game will start at 7 p.m.
RAPID RESPONSE VIDEO WITH LANDON TAYLOR
The Richmond Observer will publish two more Official Richmond County Student-Athletes of the Week next week.
