CHAPEL HILL — The Richmond Senior High School baseball and softball programs are headed back to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4A state playoffs.
On Monday, the NCHSAA released its finalized postseason brackets, and the Raiders and Lady Raiders are both making their first playoff appearance since 2019.
In the 4A East bracket, the Lady Raiders secured the No. 8 seed and the Raiders were tabbed as the No. 15 seed, and both will play at home in the first round.
Formula used for playoff seeding
The playoff seeding process used a new formula this school year that seeds teams based on their rating percentage index (RPI).
According to the NCHSAA’s website, RPI is calculated by using the following formula: RPI = (0.3 x WP) + (0.4 x OWP) + (0.3 x OOWP).
WP stands for a team’s “winning percentage” (divide the number of wins by the number of total games played).
OWP is the “opponents’ winning percentage” (average the winning percentages of a team’s opponents) and OOWP is the “opponents’ opponents winning percentage” (the same process but for the opponents of a team’s opponents).
The softball team received an automatic playoff bid for earning the top Sandhills Athletic Conference 4A spot, while the Raiders earned a spot as the second-place 4A finisher in the split conference.
The NCHSAA 4A East playoffs will begin on Tuesday, with both games starting at 7 p.m.
No. 8 Lady Raiders to host familiar foe No. 25 Hoke County
If seeing SAC opponent Hoke County High School three times during the regular season wasn’t enough, the Lady Raiders and head coach Mike Way will welcome the Lady Bucks during the first round.
Richmond finished the regular season with an RPI of 0.563009, which was ranked 16th out of 51 teams in the 4A East. The Lady Raiders were second place in the overall SAC standings and were the top 4A team ahead of Hoke County and Pinecrest.
Richmond (14-5) had a winning percentage of 0.736842, an OWP of 0.464565 and an OOWP of 0.563009.
No. 25 Hoke County (15-11) defeated Richmond in two of the three meetings this spring and finished third in the SAC standings. The Lady Bucks, coached by Heather Glass, had the 25th-best RPI in the 4A East (0.537948).
The Lady Raiders are averaging 8.7 runs per game and allowing 3.2 runs against, while Hoke County scores 6.8 runs per game and gives up 4.9 runs against.
A win would see the Lady Raiders host the winner of No. 9 Cardinal Gibbons and No. 24 Holly Springs in the second round.
LINK: NCHSAA softball playoff brackets
No. 15 Raiders welcome in No.18 Cleveland
Heading into playoff seeding, the Raiders and head coach Rob Ransom weren’t sure which side of the fence they would fall on. But as fortune would have it, the Raiders get at least one more home game this season.
Finishing fourth overall in the SAC standings, the Raiders ended the regular season with a 13-8 overall record and an RPI of 0.581311. That RPI was ranked 12th in the 4A East out of 52 teams.
Also helping secure a home game was a winning percentage of 0.619048, an OWP of 0.567290 and an OOWP of 0.562269.
Cleveland, which is in Clayton, N.C., had a 16-7 overall record and took fifth place in the Greater Neuse River Conference.
The Rams, coached by Jamie Lee, earned the 4A East’s 17th-best RPI (0.566482). Cleveland enters the playoffs on a four-game winning streak and is averaging 6.6 runs per game and allowing 3.1 runs per game.
Richmond has averaged 5.6 runs per contest, while giving up 4.9 runs a game. According to MaxPreps, this will be the first ever meeting between the Raiders and Rams on the baseball diamond.
With a win, the Raiders would advance to play the winner of No. 2 Pinecrest and No. 31 South View.
LINK: NCHSAA baseball playoff brackets
Follow The Richmond Observer sports department on Twitter @ROSports_ for live, in-game updates and coverage of postseason athletics.
