ROCKINGHAM – The magic number for the 2018 Lady Raiders softball team is seven.
Only seven more wins separate the 12 players from etching their names in Richmond Senior High School’s record books to win the first state title in the program’s history.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association released its official 4A playoff brackets earlier this week, and for the first time in the modern format (which began in 2014), Richmond (21-3) earned not only the No. 1 seed in the Western bracket, but it also nabbed the No. 1 overall seed for the tournament out of the 48 teams that earned a spot.
Playing leapfrog with fellow 4A competitor Fuquay-Varina High School (which is seeded as the No. 1 team in the Eastern bracket) the second half of the season for the one and two spots in the state, Richmond snatched the No. 1 ranking in final regular season rankings last week.
With the top ranking, head coach Wendy Wallace’s squad was rewarded with a first round bye and a week off to prepare after winning the inaugural Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament over Jack Britt High School last Friday. That win solidified a perfect 17-0 record against SAC opponents this season, and gave Richmond some much wanted momentum heading into the state playoffs.
Currently, the Lady Raiders are riding a 10-game winning streak. Their last loss came on April 4 at the Beach Diamond Invitational, a 3-2 eight-inning affair against host West Brunswick High School.
At the onset of the season, Wallace was adamant that her team accomplish three major goals for itself: to go undefeated in regular season conference play, to win the conference championship, and the most important, to win the state championship.
“Our No. 1 goal is to win the state championship,” Wallace explained after practice Thursday. “We’ve said that to ourselves all year. The girls know that we have to take it one game at a time, and that we can’t overlook lower-seeded teams. That oversight can come back and bite you.
“Winning a state championship has been the light at the end of our tunnel all year,” she continued. “And now that light is getting a little bit closer.”
The Lady Raiders are “fairly new” to the Western bracket, as Wallace noted they’ve only played in it for the last four seasons before usually playing in the Eastern bracket. The road to the Western regional finals will run through Rockingham, as the girls in green and gold will host every game they play in during rounds two, three and four. Wallace called this a “luxury,” and is looking forward to a lot of “hometown support” throughout the tournament.
The Western regional finals, as well as the state championship, are the best-of-three game series.
Having to wait for the opening round to wrap up Tuesday night to see who it would play, Richmond found out it will face No. 17 Independence High School (Charlotte, N.C.). The Lady Patriots (15-8), who are coached by Amanda Larry, upset No. 16 Hough High School in Cornelius, N.C., Tuesday by a 12-1 mercy-rule score.
Richmond will host Independence on Friday with first pitch set for 6 p.m. According to Wallace, this is the first time the softball team will face the Lady Patriots during her 12-year coaching tenure.
The journey to get to this point in the season has been fairly smooth sailing for the Lady Raiders, who have proven to be a power-hitting team which has raked, according to Maxpreps, a 4A-best 43 home runs this season. Richmond is sending a ball over the fence once in every 19.3 at-bats, and is currently ranked as the No. 10 team in 4A in batting average at .407, with every starter hitting at least .338 or better on the season.
The success has also come on the reliability of dominant pitching by junior ace Greyson Way, who has pitched every one of the 146.1 defensive innings the Lady Raiders have played in 2018. She’s racked up a 21-3 overall record, and also according to Maxpreps, leads the 4A competition in strikeouts, having tallied 212 total Ks, which equates to 1.45 strikeouts per inning. Way’s earned run average of 1.91 is ninth best in her classification, and is No. 1 for pitchers who have thrown 110 innings or more.
“We definitely started out the season with some big competition against Marlboro Academy (Bennettsville, S.C.),” Wallace recalled of the 4-0 loss in the season opener at home on February 28. “We saw some good pitching early, which helped us, and then we got on a hot streak and played well for a while.
“We lost to West Stanly right before Easter break, and had a disappointing loss to West Brunswick (in the Beach Diamond Invitational championship),” Wallace added. “You never like to lose, but those were quality losses to quality teams and we learned from them. After that, we got back on track and played a strong second half of the season.”
When asked about the team’s thoughts on being ranked as the No. 1 overall seed, Wallace smiled and said it’s a mixture of pressure and confidence, and she knows there’s a target on their back.
“The girls worked hard to get here, and they wanted to prove a point by getting the No. 1 seed,” Wallace said. “Of course, teams will want to knock you off. Anybody can win on any given night, so we just have to come out ready to play.”
Though the pressure is warranted and a part of being the best team in 4A classification, Wallace still expects her players to continue to do what they’ve done all season. In order to complete Richmond’s run for a state championship, Wallace explained there are three x-factors that can help get the job done: timely hitting, consistent pitching and sound defense.
In order to do that, Wallace said her lineup needs to hit the ball “top to bottom,” as well as Way needing to “hit her spots” and the defense needs to “not commit errors.” Wallace also said she hopes her team will “hit the way it’s supposed to” and would “love to score 10 runs every game.”
Over the three previous state playoff runs, Richmond has continued to make it deeper and deeper in contention before being eliminated. In 2015 and 2016, the Lady Raiders were ranked as the No. 2 and No. 6 seeds, respectively, and were bounced in the fourth round by No. 1 South Caldwell (2015) and No. 10 West Forsyth (2016). Last season, Richmond made it all the way to the Western regional finals before losing two games to No. 3, and eventual state champion, North Davidson. The Lady Knights have since dropped into the 3A classification.
To get past last year’s semifinal round hiccup, Wallace said she knows her players will remember how close they were to going going all the way.
“The girls who were on last year’s team know what it feels like to lose late (in the tournament),” Wallace commented. “The series against North Davidson slipped away from us — we had some opportunities where we could have made a difference. But we lost at home in the first game and it was hard playing down. The girls were mad after losing, so I expect them to be fired up this year.
“It’s going to take all 12 of us to step up to win it,” Wallace continued. “Every girl has a different role, whether it’s pitching, hitting or running the bases. To win it all, we need to hit consistently one through nine, and that’s something that this year’s team has that we haven’t had before. With every starter batting above .300, that takes the pressure off our one through four hitters.”
While she’s not overly concerned heading into Friday’s game against Independence, Wallace did express how getting into a series could cause some closer competition down the road. With Way being the only Richmond pitcher to throw a live pitch from the circle all season, Wallace said that could affect how they approach a three-game series.
She also hopes to have all 12 girls stay healthy throughout the playoffs, as having a limited roster could “change the dynamics” if something were to occur. But Wallace said she also has “some flexibility to move players” around in the field, noting she’s got three or four relief pitchers to turn to if Way gets in trouble.
Teams Richmond will keep an eye on are South Caldwell, Mooresville and Lake Norman, which are the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 8 teams in the Western bracket, respectively. Wallace said all three schools have “quality teams” and that the Western bracket is “solid all the way around.”
Four other SAC schools made the state playoffs, and all four are playing in the second round. The only other SAC team in the Western bracket is No. 14 Purnell Swett, which beat No. 19 Andrey Kell 9-4 in the opening round. On the Eastern side, No. 8 Jack Britt earned a bye, while No. 15 Lumberton beat No. 18 Rolesville 8-7, and No. 16 Hoke County squeaked by No. 17 Holly Springs 6-4.
If Richmond were to win Friday, it would host the winner of the No. 8 Lake Norman and No. 9 David W. Butler matchup early next week.
