ROCKINGHAM – The first four rounds of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s 4A state playoffs can be cruel. Each round is a win-or-go-home situation, and fortunately for the Richmond Lady Raiders’ softball team, those four rounds have all resulted in advancing closer to the program’s first state title.
After an opening round bye, the top-seeded Lady Raiders have bruised their way past three opponents, outscoring them 29-2 along the way. They shut out their last two opponents in convincing fashion, first dismantling No. 8 Lake Norman 17-0 in the third round, before junior ace Greyson Way threw a no-hitter against No. 13 Hickory Ridge en route to a 7-0 victory Saturday night in the fourth round.
And back again, for the second consecutive season, are the Lady Raiders in the Western Regional Finals. And with their success comes a little bit of reprieve, as the Lady Raiders will enter a best-of-three game series in the final four matchup. But head coach Wendy Wallace isn’t going to let her team let its foot off the gas.
“We won’t breathe easier (in a series) because we want to win the first game,” Wallace said. “Winning game one sets the tone. We don’t want to change anything — we want to jump out early and score runs to take the pressure off of our pitching.”
This time around in the Western Regional Finals, it won’t be North Davidson Richmond will face (which bumped them from 2017’s semifinal round) — instead it will be No. 2 South Caldwell High School (26-2), which is coming off a momentous win in the fourth round.
The last time Richmond played South Caldwell in the playoffs was in the fourth round of the 2015 tournament, when No. 1 South Caldwell eliminated No. 5 Richmond 5-2.
The Lady Spartans from Hudson, N.C., clinched their spot in the semifinal round to face Richmond Monday night when they won in dramatic fashion in the fourth round over No. 3 Mooresville High School (22-5).
Both teams were scoreless heading into the seventh inning, but Mooresville took a slim 1-0 lead when Hailey Lane slapped a two-out RBI single to right field to score Caitlyn Mann from third (who had led off the inning with a double to right-center field).
But South Caldwell would walk it off in home run fashion to win 2-1 when senior Graclyn Green launched a full count pitch to dead center field, scoring fellow teammate Ciara Hanson (who led off the inning with a walk). It was just Green’s second home run of the 2018 season.
The No. 1 Lady Raiders will welcome in No. 2 South Caldwell Wednesday at 7 p.m. for the first of the best-of-three games series. Game two will be played at South Caldwell at 6 p.m. on Thursday, and if necessary, the rubber match will be held at Richmond Saturday with a 7 p.m. start.
Casey Justice’s team, which finished in first place in the regular season in the Northwestern 3A/4A Conference with a 13-1 record, has won 23 straight games. The last time South Caldwell lost was on March 9 to fellow Northwestern foe Alexander Central High School by a score of 7-1. The Lady Spartans went on to defeat Alexander Central twice more this season, once in the regular season (11-9 on April 10), and nabbed the conference title game from the Lady Cougars 7-6 on May 3.
From the circle, the Lady Spartans have used a tandem of pitchers all season in junior Jenna Pittman (13-0) and sophomore Anna King (13-2). King pitched all seven innings in the win over Mooresville, so at this point, it’s uncertain which of the two pitchers Wallace and company will face come Wednesday.
On the season, King has taken a slight edge over Pittman in the amount of time spent dealing, as she’s pitched 88.1 innings and has racked up a 1.98 earned run average. She has struck out 121 batters, but has given a free pass to 50 batters on walks. Also, King has allowed just 39 runs (25 earned), and only given up two home runs on the year, which has become the forte of Richmond’s bats as they seek to break the NCHSAA all-time single-season home run record (need two more to surpass Madison High School’s 55 from 2014).
If Richmond were to see Pittman in game one or two, it can expect similar numbers. Pittman is No. 2 in almost every category behind King, and has pitched 75.2 total innings this season. She’s not as strong with her strikeout pitch, only collecting 83 on the year, but has allowed far fewer walks (17) than King, and has a slightly higher ERA with a 2.13. Of the nine total home runs that South Caldwell has allowed defensively this year, Pittman’s name is attached to seven of them.
According to scouting reports, King throws in the upper 50s to low 60s. Combined, King and Pittman have a 2.06 ERA.
“South Caldwell is a well-coached, and very disciplined team, and I don’t expect anything less from them,” Wallace said. “I know they play tough competition in their conference, so they’ll be tough and we’ll have to be ready.”
Offensively, the Lady Spartans are batting .385 as a team, which is significantly lower than Richmond’s team average of .411. South Caldwell has seven batters who have played at least 23 games who are currently batting above the .380 mark — Richmond has nine players with a .358 average or better. For South Caldwell, of those seven players, junior Logan Kelly leads the way with a .643 average, but has only made 36 plate appearances in 23 games.
Other notable offensive playmakers for South Caldwell are: senior Cydney Combs (.516, 47 hits, 13 RBIs, nine doubles), freshman Reagan Weisner (.446, 33 hits, 38 RBIs, five home runs), freshman Jasmine Hall (.410, 32 hits, 34 RBIs, 11 doubles) and Hanson (.383, 31 hits, 37 RBIs, nine doubles and a club-best six home runs).
The Lady Spartans have scored 262 total runs this season in 28 games (9.36 runs per game), while Richmond supersedes them by a longshot, scoring 317 runs in 26 games (12.19 runs per game).
The Lady Raiders’ bats have exploded in the postseason, especially that of senior catcher Owen Bowers. In the last four games dating back to the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament championship, she’s belted six home runs and 14 RBIs. Other Lady Raiders to hit postseason homers are: Taylor Parrish (1), Greyson Way (1), Kayla Hawkins (2) and Paige Ransom (2).
But Wallace and many from her merry band of longball players have experienced disappointment at this stage before. But this year could be different.
“We’re going in (to the Western Regional Finals) hungry,” Wallace concluded. “We need to keep doing what we’ve been doing. I don’t even have to tell the girls to come ready to play — they’re ready to do that every day. That’s been their mindset all season, but specifically since the playoffs have started. We’ve been laser focused and are looking to put things away early.”
