ROCKINGHAM – Just like all good things must come to an end, the Richmond Rattlers senior team’s summer league season and 11-game winning streak ended Thursday night at home.
Just 24 hours after battling wet conditions and blasting the Lee County Spinners for a season-high 23 runs and a win, Richmond lost a closely contested ball game Thursday, falling 4-3 to the boys from Sanford.
The loss was the Rattlers’ first since June 14, when it dropped back-to-back games to open the season, the latter being a 13-3 loss to reigning 4A state champion Fuquay-Varina. But since that loss, and prior to Thursday’s season finale, the Rattlers went on an 11-game shredding of their Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League opponents.
In that span, Richmond (11-3) picked up two-game sweeps against rival Scotland and Southern Lee, while picking up three-win series over Pinecrest and Union Pines. The 11th win was Wednesday’s performance against Lee County.
Also during that time, the Rattlers outscored their opponents 114-40, collecting three mercy-rule wins in the process. Richmond scored 10 runs or more in six of those contests, and held its opponents to one run or less in four games. Rising senior right-hander Hunter Parris notched four wins from the hill, while fellow rising senior Cameron Carraway and rising junior Mitchell Paul added three wins each. Rising senior Evan Hudson tallied the other two wins.
The team’s best series was a three-game set against Union Pines, as it racked up 33 runs to the Vikings’ five, and mercy-ruled them twice.
In Thursday’s action, head coach Ricky Young and starting second baseman Brett Young were away from the team, so assistant coach David Lee acted as the skipper. From the get go, he noted that his players didn’t have “the same focus” that they’d had during the 11-game winning streak. But he still thought the 14-game summer league season was a “success” in developing Richmond’s baseball program.
“I think this year was absolutely a success,” Lee said. “Our streak was at 11 games going into tonight, and sure it would have been wonderful to win, but I think overall, we showed our possible depth in the spring.
“We had several kids away vacationing or at showcase tournaments this summer,” he continued. “And we had to plug guys into some unusual spots, and even tonight we had some guys playing in different roles — but we had the winning run on second base in the bottom of the seventh, and I think that’s a testament to our depth and our pitching staff.”
The low-scoring affair saw the Spinners jump out to a 2-0 in the top of the first inning. Parris got the nod on the mound, his first appearance since coming in as relief against Southern Lee last week, and threw a solid 6 1/3 innings, giving up four runs on nine hits and striking out five batters.
After sitting down the game’s opening two batters, Parris allowed a double and back-to-back singles, giving the Spinners an early lead. He’d keep them off the board in the second and third innings, as he faced just seven batters to record the six outs, picking up three of his strikeouts in that span.
The Rattlers’ bats didn’t have their usual pop, as they went down in order during their first two innings of play. They also went in succession quietly in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively.
They did find some spark, however, to tie the game at two in the home half of the third inning. Hudson knocked a one-out single and raced to third base an at-bat later when rising junior Luke Preslar’s shot to center field was dropped. Hudson scored on a wild pitch, and Preslar trotted home when rising senior Tyler Bass slapped an RBI single, the team’s only legitimate RBI on the night. Despite only having one out, the Rattlers would strand runners with the bases loaded on back-to-back strikeouts.
Tyler Bass slaps an RBI single in the bottom of the third inning.
Richmond was threatening to score again in the bottom of fourth after the Spinners added two more runs in the top half, but the rally was ended by an unlucky double play. Parris smoked a line drive to second base which was caught, and fellow rising senior Garret Richardson, who was on second base, was doubled off when he couldn’t get back to the back in time.
Things remained quiet for both clubs until the top of the seventh inning as Parris allowed back-to-back one-out walks. Due to his pitch count, he was replaced with Paul, and Lee said what happened next is exactly what they’d “drawn up.”
With a walk, Paul loaded the bases, but in the next at-bat, Paul got a full count dribbler back to the mound, and started a successful 1-2-3 double play. Paul fired it home to catcher Garret Weigman for the force out, who then lasered a dart to Jake Ransom at first for a bang-bang inning-ending double play.
Down to their final three outs, the Rattlers made things interesting. Richardson led off the seventh with a single to right-center, and scored two batters and two outs later when Hudson’s single to right field skipped past the right fielder and all the way to the wall, also allowing Hudson to advance to second on the error. Preslar drew a two-out walk, and Hudson stole third to put men on the corners.
Rising senior Jahan Jones replaced Preslar as a courtesy runner and moved to second on a catcher’s indifference. With the tying run 90 feet away and the winning run on second, rising senior Christopher Austin struck out to end the game and the season.
“Their pitcher threw outstanding and you can’t take that away from them,” Lee said of Lee County’s pitcher. “I think it came down to three bunt plays, two on defense that we let go for infield singles, and the one bunt we didn’t get down to advance runners in fourth inning. Those plays came back to haunt us.
“Hunter pitched great, and if you take away the two innings they scored, and it’s a different game,” he concluded. “It would have been great to finish out with a win, but overall, our summer was successful for our program.”
In 2017, the Rattlers won the CCSSL championship tournament, but the league decided not to have one this summer, so Richmond won’t get the opportunity to defend its title.
