WILMINGTON — The Richmond Senior High School baseball team packed up and headed east Saturday, competing in an early-season tournament between two Wilmington-based high schools, which also saw fellow Sandhills Athletic Conference opponent Scotland High School join in on the action.
Head coach Ricky Young and the Raiders started their day at Emsley A. Laney High School, before traveling to Eugene Ashley High School 15 miles south. The game against Laney was originally scheduled for Friday in Rockingham, but was rescheduled due to wet weather.
Despite a strong pitching performance by senior Cameron Carraway against the Buccaneers, a slow afternoon at the plate cost the Raiders a 2-0 decision.
Richmond (1-1) managed to collect just four hits against Chase Hall, and saw just two runners reach scoring position in the loss. It was the Bucs’ and head coach Eric Brown’s, a RSHS graduate, first win of the 2019 campaign.
One thing that Young noted about the loss was his team going 0-for-7 to lead off innings. The Raiders only saw their second batter of the inning reach base safely twice, and also saw their leadoff batter, senior Alex Anderson, leave the game with an apparent ankle injury in the top of the third.
“I thought we competed hard,” Young said. “We just hit the ball right at (Laney). We played well defensively, and Cameron and Luke (Preslar) pitched well. It was just one of those games where we had hard hit balls that had they been a foot either way, the outcome is probably different.
“I was happy to see us hold them to two runs.” he added. “It’s just time to get the bats going.”
Another thing that plagued the Raiders, aside from balls hit right at defenders, was popping hits in the air. The Raiders flew out or line out 10 times, while also leave six runners stranded.
Carraway got his first start on the hill this spring, and put together a line of five innings pitched, five hits, two runs (one earned), and three base on balls. Junior lefty Luke Preslar worked an inning of relief, sitting the Bucs down in order with two pop outs and a fly out to center.
Laney’s two runs came in the bottom of the third, which started with a Chris Konrady single to right field. Konrady used a stolen base, a Carraway balk and a passed ball to plate the game’s first run.
A walk by Brooks Byers in the next at-bat put him on with no outs, and teammate Jared Peterson moved him to third with a double. A Matt Adam flyout to right, followed by a Jake Ettefagh grounder back to the mound, gave Carraway two outs.
The Bucs would capitalize and score their final run when Garrett Wolff sent a hard grounder to third base, and reached on an error. Byers would trot home safely on the play.
Defensively, the Raiders had a couple of nice plays to keep the game close despite struggling at the plate. In the home half of the second inning, right fielder Garret Richardson started a 9-4 double play by catching a liner by Grayson Irwin, before roping the ball to Brett Young at second to pickoff a napping Toby Stone.
Two innings later, with two on and two outs, Carraway spun his way out of the jam by catching Konrady napping at second base. Senior shortstop Tyler Bass applied the tag to end the inning.
Collecting the four hits for Richmond was a foursome of seniors in Bass, Carraway, Hunter Parris and Jake Ransom.
“However long Alex is out, that’s a huge loss for us,” Young concluded about his Johns Hopkins baseball commit. “I hope he can come back soon, it just depends on what the diagnosis is. It will be hard to replace him in the lineup, in center and on the mound.”
Scotland would also fall to the Bucs later in the afternoon by a score of 7-5.
