SANFORD — A pitcher’s duel in Tuesday’s Sandhills Athletic Conference softball game went in favor of Richmond Senior High School.
Shaking off the team’s first loss of the season from the night before, the Lady Raiders returned to the win column with a 2-1 victory over Lee County High School.
Setting the tone for the Lady Raiders was senior pitcher Quston Leviner, who tied her single-game career high with 11 strikeouts.
With 21 Ks in her last two outings, Leviner also struck out 11 batters in a game against Lee County last year.
Pitching a complete game, Leviner’s gem consisted of giving up just two hits and one unearned run.
Opposite of her was Savanna Mullins, who also pitched a complete game for Lee County. She allowed two earned runs on six hits and also struck out 11 batters.
The game was scoreless through the first four innings as Leviner and Mullins traded zeroes. Richmond stranded three base runners during that span and Lee County (2-4, 2-2 SAC) left five on base.
In the bottom of the fourth, an error and two intentional walks loaded the bases for the Lady Yellow Jackets. But Leviner answered the call with a strikeout of Cherish Smith to end the threat.
The Lady Raiders broke into the scoring column in the top of the fifth, plating both of their runs in the game.
A leadoff infield single by junior Kady Harris allowed junior Christi Jacobs to use a sacrifice bunt to move Harris to second. A wild pitch saw Harris take third before Leviner helped her own cause with a one-out RBI double to center field.
In the next at-bat, junior Katie Way smacked a line drive RBI single to center, bringing home Leviner to make it 2-0.
With two on and one out in the bottom of the sixth, Lee County scored its lone run when bunt brought in a runner from third. That same bunt resulted in a 5-4-6 double play, picking off a runner at third and ending the inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, Leviner used two strikeouts and a groundout to strand the would-be tying run at first base.
Adding singles in the win were Ryelan Lyerly, Makayla Parks and JaKayla Steele.
The Lady Raiders (7-1, 4-0 SAC) remained in a tie for first place in the SAC standings with Scotland (6-1, 4-0 SAC).
Richmond will play at home on Thursday against Union Pines High School (4-4, 2-1 SAC) at 7 p.m.
Note: The Richmond junior varsity softball team didn’t play on Tuesday.
