CHARLOTTE — A late-game rally attempt ended with the tying run at the plate for the Richmond Senior High School baseball team Friday.
Kicking off the 2024 Jack Sink Baseball Classic, a tournament hosted by Myers Park featuring 20 teams from around the state, the Raiders couldn’t extend their season-long five-game winning streak.
Despite having several chances to score throughout all seven innings, Richmond lost 6-4 to East Mecklenburg High School.
Four runs by the Eagles in the second inning, coupled with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth, were enough to hold off the Raiders.
Richmond answered with three runs in the top of the third and another in the sixth. The Raiders stranded 12 runners on base, including eight in scoring position.
“We had base runners on every inning, which is good, we just struggled to get that big hit,” head coach Eric Brown said. “We’ve been able to do that in the past. Today it all comes down to not being sharp on the mound to start the game.
“Defensively, we made too many mistakes. We had the pop up bunt in the second inning that we could have taken advantage of and turned two, and that turned into a four-run inning. Then in the sixth, there were back-to-back errors to start and they ended up scoring.
“(East Mecklenburg) did what they were supposed to do,” he continued. “Our guys know what happened and we’re not going to beat them up over it. Hopefully we learn from it.”
Richmond out hit the Eagles 7-5 but committed three errors to East Mecklenburg’s two.
Junior right-hander Jeremiah Ritter started on the hill for Richmond and threw two innings. He yielded four earned runs on three hits and four walks, while striking out one batter.
Fellow junior Jason Walker, who Brown noted he couldn’t “say enough about what (Walker) did, he gave us a chance,” threw the final four innings of relief. Walker gave up two unearned runs on two hits and no free passes and sat four batters down on strikes.
The Eagles loaded the bases in the bottom of the second with one out and used a bases-loaded walk to score the first run of the game. That was followed by an RBI single, a sacrifice fly and another RBI single.
On the final hit, senior center fielder James Eason nabbed a would-be run with a strike to the plate. Eason’s outfield assist was applied by sophomore catcher Evan Hodges, who tagged out Gabriel Johnson at the plate to end the inning.
Answering by cutting their deficit to one run, 4-3, the Raiders plated three runs in the top half of the next inning. Freshman Collin Hill and junior Landon Taylor both singled through the right side of the infield to lead things off.
A base on balls to Hodges with one away loaded the bases. Junior Riley Brown started the scoring in the next at-bat with an RBI groundout to third base, scoring Hill.
Sophomore Caden Nolan delivered two pitches later when he powered a two-RBI double to the warning track in right-center field. That timely hit scored Taylor and courtesy runner Conner Phifer (running for Hodges).
Despite back-to-back two-out walks to reload the bases, Richmond’s inning came to an end on a pop out to second base.
Walker started his performance with a 1-2-3 bottom half and followed with a four-batter inning in the fourth. Hodges preserved the one-run deficit by hosing Sam Thompson trying to steal second base, who was tagged out by Eason for the third out.
Richmond left two runners on base in the fifth. East Mecklenburg (9-3) capitalized on a throwing error and a sacrifice bunt to plate its final two runs.
Taylor, who matched Nolan with a team-high two hits, singled to right field to start the sixth inning. After advancing to second on a grounder and third by tagging up, Taylor scored Richmond’s final run when Brown skied a fly ball to shallow right field and reached on an error.
Nolan kept the inning alive with his second two-bagger of the game to put two runners in scoring position and two outs.
Senior Isaac Hinshaw appeared to tie the game with a two-RBI line drive single in the next at-bat, but was called out on the lineout.
Brown argued that the ball hit the ground, one of several meetings he had with the umpire crew during the game, but the call stood and the half inning ended with Richmond trailing by two runs.
Another four-batter inning by Walker set up the rally attempt for Richmond in the seventh. Eason drew a leadoff walk and moved to second and third on a dropped third strike and a ground out. A flyout with the tying run at the dish ended the game.
“We’re looking forward to playing some really good competition,” Brown said. “(Saturday) night will be a great atmosphere for them playing at Jack Sink, that’s traditionally a very good program. It’ll be a playoff-type atmosphere, which is what we want experience in.
“We have to be ready to play,” he closed. “(Myers Park) is a good team, we’re a good team. We just have to play our brand of baseball and see what happens.”
The Raiders (8-3) will continue the Jack Sink Baseball Classic over the next several days. Up next, Richmond will face Myers Park High School (8-2) at Myers Park Saturday beginning at 7 p.m.
That will be followed by games against Charlotte Christian Monday (6:30 p.m.) and Caldwell Academy Wednesday (1 p.m.). Both games will be played at East Mecklenburg.
