ROCKINGHAM — Brackets for the Sandhills Athletic Conference baseball and softball tournaments were finalized on Tuesday.
The Richmond Senior High School varsity baseball and softball teams, which have also qualified for the NCHSAA 4A state playoffs, will begin the tournament on Wednesday.
Lady Raiders enter as No. 3 seed
Looking to end a season-long four-game losing streak, the Lady Raiders will get a shot at redemption against the team that started the slide.
Richmond (11-6, 8-4 SAC) finished the regular season on Monday in third place in the standings, a game behind second-place Union Pines High School (12-7, 9-3 SAC).
Scotland High School (15-3, 12-0 SAC) finished undefeated in conference play and grabbed the No. 1 seed.
The softball tournament will see the top four seeds (Scotland, Union Pines, Richmond and No. 4 Lee County) square off in a four-team championship tournament.
The winner of No. 6 Southern Lee and No. 7 Hoke County will travel to No. 5 Pinecrest.
No. 3 Richmond will play at No. 2 Union Pines on Wednesday at 6 p.m. The winner will advance to the tournament title game to face the winner of No. 1 Scotland and No. 4 Lee County (6-9, 6-6 SAC).
During the regular season, the Lady Raiders and Lady Vikings split their two meetings.
At home on March 23, Richmond won a slugfest 13-10. At Union Pines, the Lady Vikings earned a 13-2 win on April 18.
Raiders clinch No. 4 seed following tiebreaker
A three-team tie for fourth place in the SAC standings following Monday’s final regular-season games resulted in the baseball tournament following a slightly different format.
The Raiders (12-10, 6-6 SAC) finished tied with Scotland and Union Pines for fourth, forcing a coaches meeting and a tiebreaker on Tuesday.
Head coach Rob Ransom reported the Raiders won the tiebreaker and earned the No. 4 seed.
As a result, the baseball tournament was split into a championship bracket and a consolation bracket. No. 1 Pinecrest, No. 2 Lee County and No. 3 Southern Lee will compete in the championship tournament.
That will leave No. 4 Richmond to host No. 7 Hoke County (1-18, 0-12 SAC) in the first round of the four-team consolation bracket on Wednesday.
The winner will move on to play the winner of No. 5 Scotland and No. 6 Union Pines in the consolation championship on Thursday.
The Raiders defeated Hoke County twice this season, outscoring the Bucks 33-0. First pitch for Wednesday’s game is set for 6 p.m. at Raider Stadium.
