Raiders drop series opener to rival Scotland, prepare for regular-season finale

LAURINBURG — Despite carrying over a lot of energy from a successful spring break, the Richmond Senior High School baseball team saw its four-game winning streak come to an end on Tuesday.

Opening a two-game series with rival Scotland High School on the road, the Raiders fell to the Fighting Scots 12-6.

Head coach Rob Ransom said the Raiders got off to a good start and remained competitive, but some mistakes in the later innings led to the loss.

“We swung the bat pretty well early, and Colin Wheeler kept scratching and clawing on the mound and kept us competitive,” Ransom said. “But we made a couple of mistakes, a couple throwing errors and gave them some extra outs and it snowballed on us from there in the fifth and sixth innings.

“I thought it was a much better game than the score indicated,” he added. “It was a much closer game, but that’s baseball. Sometimes it can get away from you. And hopefully we can rebound tomorrow.”

The Raiders jumped out to a 4-3 lead after the first two innings, and used a solo homer to right field by senior Matthew Walker in the top of the first to get things started. With two outs, Walker lasered his second longball of the season off the top of the fence and over the wall.

Senior Matthew Walker prepares to step on home plate following his home run on Wednesday. (Kyle Pillar/The Richmond Observer)

Wheeler, who pitched 4.1 innings and struck out five batters, allowed two runs in the bottom of the first. The Raiders managed to keep a couple of more runs off the board, starting with a force out at home on a grounder to senior Cameron Way at third.

Junior right fielder Ashton Phifer started an inning-ending double play by catching a fly ball, and fired the ball home on the fly to junior catcher Ethan Clayton, and tagged out Bryant Kimbrell, who was trying to tag.

The Raiders responded with three more runs in the top of the second off starting pitcher Parker Byrd (5.2 innings, 6 runs, 5 hits).

A leadoff single by Clayton and a walk drawn by sophomore James Eason put two runners on. A wild pitch from Byrd moved them into scoring position.

Senior Jude Howard put the ball in play in the next at-bat and reached when a throwing error by catcher Eli McCoy allowed both runs to score.

Junior Ethan Locklear scored the final run of the inning after advancing to third following a walk. Way, who was on first courtesy of a fielder’s choice, took off for second and was caught in a rundown long enough to allow Locklear to swipe home.

Scotland added a solo run in the bottom of the second and Wheeler worked his way out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam. Two groundouts to Eason at short maintained a 4-3 lead heading into the third.

The Fighting Scots tied the game 4-4 an inning later, but Wheeler limited the damage again by getting out of a bases-loaded situation.

Junior right fielder Ashton Phifer throws a relay throw to the plate for a double play to end the first inning. (Kyle Pillar/The Richmond Observer)

In the bottom of the fifth, Scotland took the lead for good by going ahead 7-4. Sophomore pitcher Camron Seagraves took over for Wheeler with one out in the inning.

Not going away, Richmond’s offense rattled off three straight two-out doubles in the top of the sixth to cut the deficit to one run, 7-6. Seagraves got it started with a double to center, and Clayton scored him with a double to the gap, ending Byrd’s night on the mound.

In the next at-bat off relief pitcher Dylan Tucker, Eason laced an RBI double down the right field line to score courtesy runner Jullian Cline.

Scotland secured the win with five runs in the bottom of the sixth. Both Eason and Way split time on the mound for the Raiders.

“I told the guys we need to try and control our emotions a little bit better than we did tonight,” Ransom closed. “We have to be a little bit more even-keeled and flush tonight away and come back with a fresh mindset tomorrow.”

Richmond (13-6, 5-6 SAC) will try to reenter the win column with a home game in the regular-season finale against Scotland (17-4, 9-2 SAC) at home on Thursday. 

The game will start at 7 p.m. and decide the final seeding for the SAC tournament next week.

JV Raiders roll Scotland in series opener

In Rockingham on Wednesday, a seven-run second inning helped the Richmond junior varsity baseball team earn a win over Scotland.

Using six innings from starting pitcher Alan Taylor, the JV Raiders defeated the JV Scots 11-3. Taylor allowed nine hits and struck out three batters, but only gave up three runs.

Jason Walker closed out the game in the seventh inning, allowing no runs on two hits.

Leading 2-1 after the first inning, the JV Raiders piled it on with seven runs in the bottom of the second. Richmond added two more runs in the third, and the JV Scots scored their other two runs in the top of the fourth.

Landon Taylor and Jeremiah Ritter both had two hits to lead the JV Raiders, each collecting a double in the process. Taylor drove in two RBIs and scored three runs from the leadoff spot, and Ritter also drove in a run and scored twice.

Walker added to the seven-hit performance by Richmond with a double and two RBIs, and Isaac Hinshaw also drove in two runs.

Cain Hunsucker and Sam Thompson both added a single for Richmond in the win, and combined to score three runs. Also crossing home plate were Riley Brown, Hinshaw and Alan Taylor.

“I thought we had a decent approach at the plate tonight,” head coach Ryan Mercer said. “We capitalized on some of their mistakes to give ourselves a cushion. Jason Walker and Jeremiah Ritter had some big, timely hits for us tonight. We also did a good job running the bases. 

“Alan Taylor did a good job of giving us six innings on the bump,” he added. “Jason came in and finished it out strong. We have to keep this same mentality going into tomorrow. Scotland will be ready to battle again especially at their place. So we have to come out focused and ready to go.”

The JV Raiders (11-4) will conclude their season on Thursday with a road game at Scotland, starting at 5 p.m.