ROCKINGHAM — Home-field advantage will be at the disposal of the Richmond Senior High School baseball and softball teams during the opening round of the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament.
With the regular season now in the books for the Raiders and Lady Raiders, both programs will host their first opponent on Monday.
This is the first time since the 2019 season that a single-elimination conference tournament will be held prior to playoff seeding.
Lady Raiders clinch No. 2 seed
Following a walk-off win in the bottom of the seventh inning on Friday against rival Scotland High School, the Lady Raiders cemented themselves as the No. 2 seed in this year’s tournament.
Richmond (12-4, 9-3 SAC) is also the top-seeded 4A team in the split conference. Scotland (18-4, 11-1 SAC), a 3A team, is the No. 1 seed and will receive a first-round bye.
That sets up a meeting with No. 7 Lee County High School (0-12, 0-12 SAC) in the first round for the Lady Raiders. First pitch is scheduled for Monday at 6 p.m.
During the teams’ two regular-season meetings, Richmond won both games and outscored the Lady Yellow Jackets 23-2.
In the first game on March 21, junior pitcher Quston Leviner threw her first career high school no-hitter in a 13-0 mercy-rule win.
Other seeds in the tournament include No. 3 Hoke County, No. 4 Union Pines, No. 5 Pinecrest and No. 6 Southern Lee.
A win would see the Lady Raiders play the winner of No. 3 Hoke County and No. 6 Southern Lee. That game would also be played at home on Tuesday.
Raiders win coin toss, earn No. 4 seed
In the final regular-season standings, the Raider baseball team finished with a matching SAC record with Southern Lee High School.
Both teams had a 5-7 mark against conference opponents and split the regular-season series.
Head coach Rob Ransom said a coin toss was used to decide the higher seed, which Richmond won and will host the Cavaliers on Monday at 7 p.m.
Entering the tournament as the No. 4 seed, the Raiders (13-7, 5-7 SAC) will look to defeat Southern Lee (14-8-1, 5-7 SAC) for the second straight meeting, and for the first time at home this spring.
Richmond lost a 14-1 decision in the second week of the season at home, before defeating the Cavaliers 4-3 on the road on March 30.
Pinecrest High School and Scotland High School also used a coin toss to determine the No. 1 seed, which went to the Patriots (17-5, 10-2 SAC), who got a first-round bye.
A win over Southern Lee would send the Raiders to Pinecrest for the second round on Tuesday.
The bracket in this year’s tournament also consists of No. 2 Scotland, No. 3 Lee County, No. 6 Union Pines and No. 7 Hoke County.
The championship games for both baseball and softball will be played on Thursday at the higher seed’s field.
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