ROCKINGHAM — As expected, the Richmond Senior High School Lady Raider softball team flew past its competition in the first round of the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament on Tuesday.
No. 1 seeded Richmond wasted little time in defeating No. 8 ranked Seventy-First High School, rolling 16-0 in three innings. The win marked the second time in as many seasons that the Lady Raiders beat the Lady Falcons in the opening round of the conference tournament.
Also ranked as the No. 1 team in the 4A classification according to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s adjusted Maxpreps rankings for the second week in a row, Richmond used a one-hit shutout from senior pitcher Greyson Way to end the Lady Falcons’ season.
During the regular season, the Lady Raiders took both games of a doubleheader against Seventy-First, run-ruling the Lady Falcons both games and put up 41 runs in 10 combined innings.
After the game was delayed by nearly an hour due to Seventy-First’s bus running out of gas, Way didn’t struggle with keeping her hand on the throttle. She was just two batters over the minimum, and a walk and a hit away from a perfect game.
She struck out eight batters, and gave up her lone hit to Taylor Clark to lead off the top of the second inning.
Extending their winning streak to a season-high 11 games, the Lady Raiders would collect just five hits in the victory. They got some help from Lady Falcon pitcher Kayla Retsch, who walked nine batters, hit six more with a pitch and threw seven wild pitches.
Of their 16 runs scored, the Lady Raiders plated six runs off of wild pitches and passed balls, and another on a bases-loaded walk.
Richmond’s batters collectively hit for the cycle, using a three-run homer from senior Taylor Parrish for the final runs of an 11-run first inning. It was her club-leading 11th longball of the spring.
Freshman Kenleigh Frye tripled home junior Madison Jordan earlier in the first, and fellow freshman Maylyn Wallace doubled in Jordan as part of a five-run second inning.
Way and sophomore Payton Chappell both added singles to round out the five hits. Parrish led the team with five RBIs, adding her other two on a ground out in the first to make it 1-0, and a lineout to short in the second, which allowed junior Jasmine Ewing to tag up and score.
Bringing in two RBIs was Way, as she scored Chappell and senior Savannah Lampley with a single in the second to make it 15-0. Ewing recorded an RBI on a bases-loaded walk.
Lampley scored a game-high three runs, while Chappell, Jordan, freshman Allyiah Swiney and sophomore Paige Ransom all crossed home plate twice.
“It was good to get back to playing tonight after a few days off for spring break,” head coach Wendy Wallace said. “We have to come out ready to play tomorrow against a good hitting Purnell Swett team.”
Richmond (22-2) will return to the diamond on Wednesday, when it hosts No. 4 Purnell Swett High School (13-7) in the second round of the SAC tournament. First pitch is set for 7 p.m.
