ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond Rattlers’ junior varsity baseball team finished its second week of the Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League with its second-straight loss.
Hosting Southern Lee High School Thursday, it would be the visiting Cavaliers who took the first game of the two-game set by a final score of 19-7 in five innings. It marked the second time in as many nights that the Rattlers were sent home early.
Using a committee of pitchers on the mound, Richmond would see five different players throw from the hill. Rising left-handed sophomore Matthew Walker got the start and went two innings and gave up just one run on one hit, with the lone run being unearned.
Also pitching for Richmond were rising sophomore David O’Neal (one inning), rising freshman Ashton Phifer (one-third of an inning), rising sophomore Jude Howard (one-and-a-third innings) and rising freshman Thomas Lampley (one-third of an inning).
The final four pitchers combined to give up 18 runs in the final three innings of play. Southern Lee scored four runs in the second and tacked on seven runs in both the fourth and fifth innings.
The Rattlers would jump out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. O’Neal drew a walk and later scored on a bases-loaded walk, while rising freshman Shoan Hodges also crossed the plate safely in the top half.
After stranding runners on base in both the second and third innings, the Rattlers plated four runs in the top of the fourth. Phifer, Hodges, rising freshman Emmanuel Gilliam and rising sophomore Caleb Talton would all touch home plate, with two of those runs coming on a two-RBI single by rising freshman Ethan Locklear.
To end the Rattlers’ scoring in the top of the fifth inning, rising freshman Ethan Clayton knocked an RBI base hit that scored Howard, who hit a one-out single earlier in the frame.
Richmond will take the weekend off before traveling to Southern Lee on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. That will be the final game ahead of a week-long break for the Fourth of July.
