BENNETTSVILLE, S.C. — Lady Raider head softball coach Wendy Wallace took her team’s first loss of the season Thursday and called it a “learning experience” for later down the road.
After starting the season with nine-straight wins, Richmond’s streak came to an end on the road at Marlboro Academy. Behind a complete game no-hitter by senior pitcher Jenna Greene, the Lady Dragons shutout Richmond 9-0.
It was the first time Richmond was held scoreless in a game since falling to Marlboro Academy in last season’s opener.
“It’s a learning experience for us,” Wallace commented. “I told the girls after the game we need to re-focus and re-energize on what we’ve been doing. When we’re scoring a lot of runs, we’ve been able to get away with a couple of things.
“I think the biggest thing we take away from this game is we faced good pitching,” she added. “We got no-hit, and it’s a good estimate of where we’re going to be later in the playoffs. But that makes us better — seeing this type of pitching early in the season will help us against Lumberton next week. We’ll just learn from tonight.”
Richmond managed to reach base safely three times via walks, two of which came in the opening inning. Greene collected 16 strikeouts on the night, while limiting the Lady Raiders to just three balls in play.
The Lady Raiders’ struggles at the plate saw them go down in order in five of the game’s seven innings, with Greene striking out the side in order four times.
Senior pitcher Greyson Way suffered her first lost since last year in the Western Regional Finals, and saw her innings-pitched streak come to an end. In 2018, Way threw every one of Richmond’s 177.1 innings played, and was replaced with senior Taylor Parrish after three innings of work Thursday.
During that span, Way had thrown 236.1 straight innings for the Lady Raiders. Against the Lady Dragons, Way’s line was five earned runs on eight hits, with five strikeouts.
Marlboro Academy broke the game open in the bottom of the third, scoring five runs. A pair or RBI doubles by Ragan Liles and Sara Bryant, as well as a run-scoring base knock by Greene scored three runs.
Abigail Ridge had a bunt single and an infield single in the inning, plating a run both times.
With Parrish making her Richmond debut in the circle, Sara White ended the night’s scoring with a two-out grand slam to center field in the bottom of the fourth.
Parrish threw three innings and gave up four runs on three hits with four strikeouts. Combined, Way and Parrish walked nine batters. The Lady Raider defense also had an uncharacteristic night, committing two errors after only having 10 in the previous nine games combined.
“I felt like we were a little flat on defense,” Wallace said. “It’s easy to play when you’re up, but I thought we were timid on defense. We’re not usually that way. There were several balls we didn’t go after like we usually do.”
The Lady Raiders (9-1) will turn around and look to continue their Sandhills Athletic Conference regular-season winning streak of 36 games Friday at Hoke County High School. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. in Raeford.
