ROCKINGHAM — A pair of five-run innings was all it took for the Richmond Senior High School softball team to repeat as the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament champions.
The No. 1 Lady Raiders hosted No. 3 Lumberton High School Friday, and mercy-ruled the Lady Pirates 10-0 in five innings. An outburst of scoring, coupled with three home runs, allowed Richmond to defend its tournament title.
In the two seasons that the SAC has been in place since realignment, the Lady Raiders have won both conference tournaments. In last season’s showdown, No. 1 Richmond handed No. 2 Jack Britt High School a 7-2 loss.
The run-rule victory marked the seventh time in the last decade that the Lady Raiders had done that against Lumberton. It also redeemed a loss to the Lady Pirates in the last meeting, Richmond’s first conference loss in nearly three seasons.
It was also the second time in as many season Richmond has won the regular season and conference tournament championships.
Both ball clubs played a scoreless first three innings, combining to leave four runners on base. Richmond turned two doubles plays to get out of early jams, the first was an unassisted double play by senior Taylor Parrish in the first, who snagged a Madison Canady line drive and stepped on the bad to double off Kasey West.
The other was a 4-3 double play that saw another Canady liner caught by freshman second baseman Kenleigh Frye, who turned and caught Sarah Kaukola napping at first.
In the circle for Richmond (24-2) was senior ace Greyson Way, who went the distance to earn her 23rd win of the season. It was her 10th shutout of the spring, as she held Lumberton to just three hits and had two strikeouts.
Her opposite number was junior Brianna Brewer who surrendered 10 runs, eight earned, in five innings. Brewer gave up 10 hits, three of which were homers, and walked three more batters.
“Tonight was just like Wednesday against Purnell Swett,” head coach Wendy Wallace said of the slow offensive start. “Allyiah Swiney got our first hit, and the bottom of our lineup made adjustments early, which was followed by the top.
“The last couple of games, the bottom of our lineup has been our spark plug,” she added of Frye, Swiney and sophomore Payton Chappell. “Putting them in motion caused Lumberton to make some errors. Then we started hitting the ball hard.”
In the bottom of the fourth, junior Kayla Hawkins hit a one-out double, and later scored when Frye hit a hard infield single to second base to break the scoreless tie.
A single by Swiney, followed by a Chappell walk, loaded the bases. A passed ball at the plate allowed Frye to score easily, and Swiney used her speed to slide in safely on the same pitch to make it 3-0.
On the next pitch, senior shortstop Savannah Lampley started the home run parade with a laser that cleared the right field fence, a two-run blast and the third of her season.
Up 5-0, Way got out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the top of the fifth, getting a flyout and a strikeout.
Way would lead off the home half of the fifth with a single, and courtesy runner Maylyn Wallace came home in the next at-bat when Parrish crushed the first offering from Brewer for a two-run blast to straightaway left, her team-leading 13th of the season.
Hawkins reached on an error, and junior Madison Jordan came in clutch with the team’s third two-run homer of the night, her first one to date.
Needing only one more run to put the game away, sophomore Paige Ransom lined the walk-off RBI single up the middle, deflecting off Brewer’s glove before trickling into shallow center field. Swiney, who reached on a single, raced in from second to claim the SAC tournament title.
In her last two games, Swiney has gone a perfect 7-for-7 at the plate with two homers, five RBIs and five runs scored.
Eight different Lady Raiders recorded at least one hit, with Swiney’s three being a game-high. Jordan, Lampley and Parrish all had a game-high two RBIs apiece, while Fyre and Ransom each added one.
“The only negative thing I’ve seen this week is that when we get to the playoffs, we can’t wait until the fourth or fifth innings to score,” Wallace said. “The good thing is that the teams we play from here on out will be ones we haven’t played two or three times. That’ll help us.
“Greyson threw really well, and Lumberton is a really good hitting team,” she added. “She battled through the rain and settled down. She got two huge outs with the bases loaded in the sixth.”
Richmond will now wait for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association to release its playoff brackets. Wallace said she hopes to land the No. 1 overall seed, and said she’s not sure if her team will land in the East or West Region.
The Lady Raiders are currently ranked as the NCHSAA’s No. 1 overall 4A team, and brackets are expected to be released over the weekend. Last year, Richmond was No. 1 in the West Bracket and received a first-round bye.
