ROCKINGHAM — It was a tough night at the ballpark for the Richmond Senior High School softball team Wednesday.
Closing out their regular season at home, the Lady Raiders lost 16-0 to Scotland High School in four innings.
Unlike the first Sandhills Athletic Conference meeting, a closer 4-0 loss on March 26, the Lady Raiders struggled to contain the first-place Lady Scots.
Scotland (15-1, 11-0 SAC) scored three runs in the first inning, six runs in the second and combined for seven runs in the third and fourth frames to end it early.
Junior Maddie Pearson (one inning) and freshman Emma Rusich (three innings) split the pitching duties for Richmond.
Pitching for Scotland, Avery Stutts allowed just one base runner in her four innings of work. Senior Katie Way, in her final regular-season at-bat at home, drew a leadoff walk to start the home half of the fourth to break up the perfect bid.
Stutts faced 13 batters in the game and recorded all 12 outs via the strikeout.
Richmond head coach Mike Way noted it was “just one of those nights” that everything worked against the Lady Raiders.
He did add that facing strong pitching has its benefit as the Lady Raiders gear up for the postseason.
With the regular season in the books, the Lady Raiders posted a 6-10 overall record and had a 5-7 campaign within the SAC.
Currently in fifth place in the SAC standings, Richmond will wait for the rest of the conference to finish the regular season this week to determine its final seeding for the SAC tournament next week.
JV Lady Raiders win season finale
Putting an exclamation point on its successful season, the Richmond junior varsity softball team rolled past Scotland Wednesday.
On their home diamond, the JV Lady Raiders defeated the JV Lady Scots 7-1, splitting the season series.
Richmond scored two runs in the bottom of the first, added a solo run in both the second and third frames and capped the victory with three more runs in the bottom of the fifth.
The JV Lady Scots scored their lone run of the game in the top of the first.
Macie King went the distance in the circle, throwing a complete game for Richmond. She allowed an earned run on four hits with 10 strikeouts.
Recording a dozen hits as a team, Richmond was led by Kinsie Lyerly, Madeline Carriker and Ashton Terry, who each had three hits.
Lyerly had one of the team’s three doubles and Carriker, who had a game-high three runs batted in, notched one of the Lady Raiders’ three triples. Terry had two extra-base hits with a double and a triple.
King had a double and Kaylan Parsons, who recorded two RBI, had the other three-bagger. Adding a single was Addison Raines and Terry had one RBI.
Carriker erased a one-run deficit in the bottom of the first with a two-RBI single to center field, scoring Lyerly and Raines.
An error in the second allowed Terry to score, and Carriker made it a 4-1 lead an inning later with an RBI triple.
In the bottom of the fifth, Parsons roped a two-RBI triple and scored Lyerly and Carriker. Richmond’s final run came on an RBI base knock by Terry in the next at-bat.
The JV Lady Raiders finished their season with an 8-2 overall record and a 6-2 posting against SAC teams.
