HOPE MILLS — Scrimmaging for the second time in three days, the Richmond Raider baseball team finished ahead on the scoreboard again on Friday.
Traveling to Gray’s Creek High School to compete in part of a jamboree hosted by Terry Sanford High School, the Raiders led the Bears 8-6 after nine innings of exhibition play.
Just 48 hours after four pitchers combined to no-hit St. Pauls High School, it was the Raiders’ bats that came to play against Gray’s Creek.
“We did swing the bat a little better,” head coach Rob Ransom said. “We got some big hits out of James (Eason) and Isaac (Hinshaw), and that was huge for us.
“Ethan (Locklear) had two hits and we had 10 hits in nine innings, which is encouraging. But we are striking out too much and not putting the ball in play with runners in scoring position.”
Eason, a junior pitcher and infielder, went a perfect 3-for-3 at the dish with a double and one run batted in. Hinshaw, also a junior infielder, finished the day 2-for-2 with a pair of singles and two RBIs.
Locklear belted two base hits in his three trips to the plate, while senior outfielder Ashton Phifer matched Hinshaw with the team lead with two RBIs and a base knock.
Other players to record a hit were senior Ethan Clayton and junior Cain Hunsucker, both singles.
Richmond tallied four runs through the first three innings, starting with two in the top of the first. A hard ground ball single to right field from Hinshaw scored Clayton (walk), and Phifer lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to plate Eason (single).
Gray’s Creek answered with a run in the home half of the first off starting sophomore pitcher Allen Taylor (2.0 innings, 4 runs, 4 hits, 1 strikeout), who pitched for the first time this spring.
A one-out bases-loaded walk to sophomore Landon Taylor brought in sophomore Mason Murray, who led off the inning with a base on balls to make it 3-1 in the top of the second.
With runners on second and third, Gray’s Creek used a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly to knot the score in the bottom half. A passed ball later in the inning gave the Bears a 4-3 lead.
Junior Camron Seagraves evened the score in the top of the third, recording an RBI groundout to second base. Racing in from third was Hunsucker (walk).
Segraves and Locklear each pitched one inning, the third and fourth frames, respectively. In the third, Seagraves stranded a pair of runners and struck out the side, while Locklear allowed an unearned run and picked up two Ks.
Trailing 5-4 entering the top of the seventh inning, Eason drew a leadoff walk and stole second and third base. That let Hinshaw record another RBI when he hit a sacrifice fly to left field in the next at-bat to tie the game.
One of six pitchers used in the scrimmage, Eason threw just eight pitches in the bottom of the fifth to four batters. He struck out the side in order on 14 pitches in the sixth, finishing with four punchouts in two innings of work.
Murray was next up on the hill for the Raiders, also striking out three batters in the bottom of the seventh. But a hit-by-pitch and a wild pitch gave the Bears a 6-5 lead.
Richmond stranded two runners on base in the eighth inning before taking the lead for good in the top of the ninth.
Hunsucker hit a one-out infield single and scored when Seagraves (walk) stole second base and forced an error by the catcher. Eason stepped in and roped an RBI double to left for his final hit and RBI to make it 7-6.
In the next at-bat, Phifer recorded an RBI base knock to left field to cap the Raiders’ scoring.
Freshman Caden Nolan rounded out Richmond’s pitching efforts, tossing the final two frames. He allowed two hits and recorded three strikeouts, all of which came in the eighth.
In the ninth, a good relay got a Bears base runner out trying to stretch a double to a triple and Richmond’s defense turned a game-inning double play.
“Allen didn’t get a chance to pitch against St. Pauls and I wanted him to get some innings,” Ransom explained. “With a short turnaround, we didn’t want to extend some guys so we limited Camron, James, Ethan and Mason to just an inning or two.”
Ransom added that it was also good to get Nolan on the mound for the first time this spring, deepening the Raiders’ depth on the pitching staff.
“I feel pretty good about our guys,” Ransom said after 16 innings worth of scrimmaging. “We’re going to have to pitch and play defense really well because runs may be at a premium.”
“Butler is a good team and we’ve played some close games against them,” Ransom noted. “Purnell Swett has matched up with us competitively the last few years.
“It’ll be a challenging week to start the season, but we’ll know where we stand going into conference play. Next week will be a good measuring stick for us.”
