CHAPEL HILL — The Richmond Senior High School baseball and softball teams are postseason bound for the second consecutive spring.
On Monday, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association finalized its brackets, with Richmond’s programs qualifying for the 4A East tournament.
Similar to last season’s seeding, the Lady Raiders earned the No. 7 seed and the Raiders got the No. 18 seed.
Lady Raiders secure home game in first round
Head coach Mike Way and the Lady Raider softball team will get a chance to play in front of their home crowd at least one more time this season.
Earning the No. 7 seed as a result of finishing first out of the three 4A schools in the Sandhills Athletic Conference, Richmond will host No. 26 Jordan High School in the first round.
A seed better than last year’s bracket, Richmond finished its 19-game regular season with a final adjusted MaxPreps RPI of 0.586184, which was the 12th best RPI in the 4A East out of 52 teams.
The Lady Raiders (12-7) had a winning percentage of 0.631579, an opponent’s winning percentage of 0.589483 and an opponents’ opponent winning percentage of 0.536391.
Jordan, which is coached by Jeremy Penny, will visit Rockingham as the 24th-best RPI ranked team in the 4A East (0.714286). The Lady Falcons tied for second in the DAC-VII Conference, posting a 15-6 overall record.
The Lady Raiders have averaged 7.1 runs per game this season, while allowing 5.9 runs against. In its 21 games, Jordan averaged 12.8 runs per game and 7.2 runs against.
The likely pitching matchup will be Quston Leviner for Richmond (10-5, 4.40 ERA, 126 Ks) against Gabby Penny for the Lady Falcons (7-5, 7.24 ERA, 33 Ks)
First pitch between No. 7 Richmond and No. 26 Jordan is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
If the Lady Raiders advance, they would host the winner of No. 10 Pine Forest and No. 22 Holly Springs in the second round.
Link: NCHSAA softball brackets
Raiders on the road to open postseason
The Richmond Raider baseball team ended up in the same area of the bracket as last season, but flip-flopped and will take to the road in the first round on Tuesday.
Making the postseason as the No. 18 seed, the Raiders and head coach Rob Ransom will try to complete the early upset against No. 15 Millbrook (18-7). During the regular season, Richmond had a 14-10 overall record.
In the NCHSAA’s final RPI listing, the Raiders had the 15th-best percentage in the 4A East with a 0.578559, also out of 52 teams. Their WP was 0.583333, they had an OWP of 0.594416 and an OOWP of 0.552641.
Richmond finished in fourth place in the SAC standings, but was the second-place 4A program behind Pinecrest. Millbrook, which competes in the Northern Athletic Conference, was second overall behind Wake Forest.
The Wildcats and head coach Ty Norwood enter the postseason with an RPI of 0.584536, which was 12th in the 4A East. This spring, Millbrook is averaging 5.8 runs per game and allowing 2.8 runs against.
Richmond is scoring at a clip of 6.3 runs per night, while surrendering 4.6 runs per game. The Raiders could throw Ethan Locklear, James Eason or Camron Seagraves to start, while Millbrook’s options are Cowan Myers, Will Turner or Pierson McCallum on the hill.
First-round action between the No. 18 Raiders and No. 15 Wildcats will begin at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
With a win, Richmond would face the winner of No. 2 Pinecrest and No. 31 Laney in the second round.
Link: NCHSAA baseball brackets
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