ROCKINGHAM — Entering Wednesday’s Sandhills Athletic Conference game against Lumberton High School, the Lady Raider softball team knew it needed a win to keep its postseason hopes alive.
Despite comeback attempts in the final two innings, Richmond fell to Lumberton 9-5.
“The problem has become we’ve gotten too focused on particular games,” head coach Mike Way said. “Our goal has been one game at a time, but it’s hard to continuously get up for the games that will get us to where we want to be.
“We haven’t overlooked anybody,” he added. “But it’s been hard to keep a positive attitude and Lumberton is a good team that has beaten us and Jack Britt. We just didn’t play very well tonight.”
Richmond trailed 2-0 after the first two innings, but answered with single runs in the home half of the third and fourth frames.
Junior outfielder Maylyn Wallace barreled up a pitch from Halona Sampson for a solo homer to center in the bottom of the third, her first longball of the spring.
Sophomore Quston Leviner tied the game in the fourth with an RBI single to left, plating senior Payton Chappell, who led off the inning with a base knock.
After Richmond stranded two runners in the bottom of the fifth, the Lady Pirates (6-4) added four runs in the top of the sixth. Lumberton collected RBIs on a double, a pair of singles and a sacrifice fly.
The Lady Raiders responded with a three-spot in the bottom of the sixth, starting with a leadoff double from freshman Katie Way and a single by Paige Ransom in the next at-bat.
Way scored on an error, and Ransom scored when Leviner roped a double to right field. On Leviner’s double, Lumberton made a series of throwing errors that allowed Leviner to cross home safely and make it a one-run game, 6-5.
With two outs in the top of the seventh, Lumberton pulled away for good with three more runs, using a two-run homer by Anna Mercer and a wild pitch.
“There were some good things that we did tonight, especially with Quston pitching a good game,” Way said. “We had a couple of mistakes that turned a six-run game into a nine-run game, but Quston pitched well.
“There were two particular pitches I’d like to have back that were both home runs,” he continued. “The strike zone was kind of tight and we were trying to get ahead in the count, so we tried to slip two pitches past them.”
Leviner pitched a complete game, struck out nine batters and only walked one Lady Pirate. She also led Richmond at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and two RBIs.
The Lady Raiders collected 11 hits, with Chappell contributing two of them. Ransom, Way, Wallace, Allyiah Swiney, Macy Steen and Addy Hollingsworth each had one hit.
Chappell, Way, Wallace, Ransom and Leviner accounted for Richmond’s five runs.
Following Wednesday’s conference games, Richmond now sits in fifth place. The team will return to the field Monday for a non-conference game and senior night against Uwharrie Charter Academy at 6 p.m.
That will be followed by the regular-season finale on the road at Scotland High School on Wednesday, set for a 7 p.m. start.
“The good thing is that playing Scotland always means something, no matter what our record is,” Way closed. “This loss hurt our playoff chances, but they were slim this year anyway because of the new format.”
JV Lady Raiders win second straight game Wednesday
Fresh off a shutout win over Hoke County on Monday, the junior varsity Lady Raiders added another win to their record with an 11-10 victory over Lumberton.
Early in the game, sophomore Chaslie Holden laid down a bunt single that moved over a runner that helped get the scoring going. She later came across the plate to score and reached base safely in all of her at bats.
Holden was also a big part of the Lady Raiders’ defensive efforts, including “two big defensive stops,” one of which ended an inning. She tagged out a runner at third base to thwart a Lumberton scoring chance.
With the game tied 3-3 at the start of the third inning, Richmond pulled ahead on a home run by Ashton Alexander. That started a rally by the Lady Raiders, who used a double by Christi Jacobs and a Lumberton error to put Erin Fields on base.
Both Jacobs and Fields scored on passed balls to put Richmond ahead 6-3. Lumberton answered with one more run in the top of the fourth to make it a two-run game.
Head coach Jordan Fortune said the Lady Raiders took advantage of “being aggressive on the bases and using a couple of walks” to ignite another rally in the bottom of the fourth. Richmond jumped ahead 11-4.
The Lady Pirates made it interesting by scoring six runs late in the game, including four with two outs in the fifth inning. The game ended when sophomore pitcher Sydney Smith recorded a strikeout and the time limit was reached.
Fortune and the JV Lady Raiders are now 5-1-1 on the season and will wrap regular-season play up with a road trip to Scotland next Wednesday.
