ROCKINGHAM — Summer break is quickly approaching, and with it another full slate of summer baseball for local players.
The Richmond Renegade baseball program, which is based out of Richmond Senior High School, is set to carry over its momentum from the state playoffs through the dog days of summer.
Aimed at developing the high school program from top to bottom, the Renegades will play a summer schedule in the Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League.
The CCSSL is designed to give local middle school and high school players a competitive edge leading into next school year. Richmond will play other area teams in Lee, Moore and Scotland counties.
Like previous years, the Renegades will be broken into a junior varsity and varsity team. Rising high school seniors and juniors will play on the varsity team, while rising eighth, ninth and 10th graders will play on JV.
Richmond head baseball coach Rob Ransom, along with varsity assistant Corey Wallace and head JV coach Ryan Mercer will combine to coach both teams.
The Renegades will hold their one-day tryout on Wednesday, June 7, at the Raiders’ ballpark. The cost for each player is $200 and full payment is required before the teams’ first game of the season.
Players must also provide their own gray pants and arrange their own travel to and from games.
Varsity tryouts will be from 3:30 to 5 p.m., followed by junior varsity tryouts from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
Ahead of tryouts, players must complete a registration form, which can be found by clicking here.
“This gives the players an opportunity to play during the summer,” Ransom said. “It allows the coaches to get to know the players and for the players to experience baseball at a high school level.
“It also gets our players accustomed to playing on larger fields, and most importantly, it builds team chemistry which we can use going into the high school season.”
A season ago, the varsity Renegades posted an 8-2 overall record. The JV Renegades finished the summer with a 9-3-1 overall record.
Ransom said an official schedule for both teams will be released soon. The Richmond Observer will publish that information when it’s made available.
