SHALLOTTE, N.C. — Similar to the day before, the Richmond Senior High School baseball team ran out of innings to try and erase an early deficit.
Continuing play in the Beach Diamond Invitational hosted by West Brunswick High School, the Raiders tried to rally for the second straight day.
Playing as the visitors against Southern Nash High School, Richmond fell by a final score of 4-3.
Falling behind by three runs after the first inning, and allowing another run in the third, the Raiders scored all three of their runs in the top of the sixth frame.
Starting on the bump against the Firebirds was junior Caden Nolan. In an uncharacteristic start, Nolan surrendered four earned runs on four hits through 2.1 innings.
Shutting out Southern Nash through his 3.2 innings of relief was sophomore lefty Collin Hill. He limited opposing batters to just one hit and canned five Firebirds via the strikeout.
Four straight base hits with two outs in the bottom of the first inning plated the first three runs for Southern Nash.
Nolan hit the leadoff batter with a pitch to start the third inning, who later scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-0 with one away.
Hill entered the game following that run and got a groundout and a strikeout to the next two hitters.
The Raiders’ bats broke into the hit column in the top of the fourth to break up starting pitcher Landon Brown’s perfecto. Senior Landon Taylor, who entered the day as the Sandhills Athletic Conference’s leading batter with a .431 average, smoked a line drive single to center.
Nolan drew a two-out walk to put runners on first and second, but a fly out kept Richmond scoreless.
Hill retired the Firebirds in order in the home half, and senior Jason Walker reached on a base hit in the fifth but was stranded.
Working out of a two-on, two-out jam in the bottom of the fifth, Hill got a fly out to junior Jake Veach in center to keep it a four-run game.
Starting their three-run sixth, the Raiders got runners on second and third with no outs when senior Jabari Douglas hit a single and an error on a Taylor grounder allowed both runners to advance into scoring position.
Junior Evan Hodges drove in both runners for his team-leading third and fourth runs batted in of the tournament. His line drive base hit to right field made it 4-2.
Swiping second, Hodges scored in the next at-bat when Nolan lined an RBI single to center to cut Southern Nash’s lead to a run.
Hill did a job by sacrifice bunting Nolan to third base, but Nolan was thrown out a batter later when he tried to score from third base on a grounder by sophomore Drew Gause to short.
The potentially big inning ended with Gause still at first when a pop out was tracked down in foul territory.
Giving Richmond a chance, Hill sat the Firebirds down in order on 14 pitches in the bottom half. But Richmond’s bats went quietly in the top of the seventh.
Richmond (13-9) will play its final game at the Beach Diamond Invitational Tuesday against North Brunswick High School. First pitch is at 11 a.m.
