ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond Senior High School junior varsity baseball team opened its season with a loss Tuesday.
In Anthony Hailey’s head coaching debut, the JV Raiders fell 10-3 to Southern Lee High School in six innings (time limit). It was also the team’s first Sandhills Athletic Conference game.
The JV Raiders erased a 1-0 deficit with two runs in the bottom of the first inning, and scored their other run in the home half of the third.
Southern Lee scored a run in the first, four in the second, two more in the third and added three runs in the sixth.
“With this being the first game of the season I expected some mistakes,” Hailey shared. “There were a few situations where we should have gotten out of the inning and we had some mental errors which gave Southern Lee extra outs, which eventually led to runs.
“When looking at the pitching, we also have to do a better job with getting ahead in the count and limiting the amount of walks,” he added. “I give Southern Lee credit, they hit the ball well.”
Starting on the mound for Richmond was freshman Steve James, who threw four innings. He allowed seven runs (three earned) on seven hits, five walks and had four strikeouts.
Fellow freshman Graham Odom tossed two innings of relief, and gave up three runs (two earned) on four hits, four walks with two Ks.
Richmond tallied seven hits in the game, including two each from James and sophomore Preston Fann (including a double). Sophomore Jason Gainey and freshman Andrae Streeter each had a single and freshman Drew Gause belted a double.
Southern Lee scored its first run in the top half of the first, using an RBI fielder’s choice to take a one-run lead.
Sending seven batters to the dish in the home half, Richmond flipped the script to take a 2-1 lead.
A one-out double by Gause led to an RBI single from Gainey in the next at-bat to left field to tie the game. On the next pitch, Fann launched an RBI double to the gap in center, giving Gainey time to turn on the jets and score.
The JV Cavs scored all four of their runs in the second inning with two outs. Southern Lee capitalized on an error, a wild pitch, and a pair of RBI base knocks.
Trailing 7-2 heading to the bottom of the third, Richmond started the frame with a leadoff single by Fann. He moved to third after an error.
In the next at-bat, freshman Tristan Chavis skied a sacrifice fly to right field and recorded an RBI when Fann tagged up.
The JV Raiders stranded a pair of base runners in the fourth and fifth innings and went down in order in the bottom of the sixth before the game was called.
“Hitting, I think we did okay,” Hailey closed. “We just need to be more aggressive early in the count and we have to capitalize when we have runners in scoring position.
“I am proud of them for continuing to battle even though we came up short. But we will get back after it in practice the next two days and prepare for Friday.”
Richmond (0-1) will travel to Southern Lee (3-0) to close out the season series Friday. The game will start at 4 p.m.
Below are photos of the JV Raider baseball team’s season opener taken by sports editor Kyle Pillar.
