ROCKINGHAM — A night after shelling Lumberton High School in the opening round of the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament, the No. 2 Raider baseball team saw its run come to an end.
Hosting No. 6 Hoke County High School in the semifinal round, Richmond nealy overcame a five-run deficit late, but fell to the Bucks 6-5.
Senior starting pitcher Hunter Parris got the nod on the hill, and allowed five runs (two earned) in 4.2 innings on three hits. The Raider defense had an uncharacteristic night, committing eight errors in the field.
Fellow senior Evan Hudson pitched the final 2.1 innings of relief, giving up just one unearned run on one hit. Parris had five strikeouts, while Hudson added one.
Richmond out-hit the Bucks nine to four, including a 3-for-4 night from Tyler Bass. The senior shortstop and Raider leadoff hitter collected three singles and added an RBI. Senior second baseman Brett Young kept his RBI streak going, plating a team-high two runs.
Both teams played a scoreless first three innings of baseball, and Hoke County scored a combined five runs in the fourth and fifth frames to jump ahead 5-0.
After a leadoff walk in the fourth, Ben Chavis hit an RBI double to open the scoring, bringing in Logan Goins. An RBI single from Keegan Hair a couple at-bats later made it 2-0.
Hoke County scored three more runs in the fifth, using an error, a fielder’s choice and a steal of home plate to extend its lead.
The Raiders wouldn’t go quietly, as they used four singles to plate five runs and hang a five spot in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game. Senior Cameron Carraway hit a one-out double, and scored when senior catcher Garet Weigman hit a single to center.
Following a single by senior Nolan Allen and a strikeout, the Raider rally continued with an RBI infield single to shortstop by senior Garret Richardson. That brought home Weigman and moved Allen to second.
Junior Dallas Cowick beat out an infield single to second to load the bases, and Bass followed suit with an infield single to short, scoring Allen. Young would bring in a pair of runs with a two-RBI base knock to right, but was called out advancing to second.
Hoke County’s Cinderella run would be extended thanks to a pair of Richmond errors to start the top of the seventh. Brandon Wilkes would plate Will Bryant on a sacrifice fly to left to score the go-ahead run.
Goins came in to pitch the seventh, and struck out the side in order.
With its elimination, Richmond (18-8) will now await the outcome of the tournament championship between the Bucks and No. 4 Scotland High School (13-9). The next step for the Raiders is the NCHSAA 4A state playoffs, which will be announced in the coming week.
According to the NCHSAA’s adjusted Maxpreps rankings, Richmond is the No. 18 team in 4A play out of 78 total teams.
