ROCKINGHAM — An exciting season of Richmond Raider baseball, filled with program milestones and a campaign that saw the ends to several droughts, officially came to a close Tuesday.
Returning to the third round of the NCHSAA state playoffs for the first time in a decade, the Raiders and third-year head coach Eric Brown left it all out on the diamond.
Hosting No. 19 Ballantyne Ridge High School, the No. 6 Raiders took an early lead but saw their playoff run end in a 6-1 loss.
Richmond had its chances to bring the runs home in the 7A West matchup, but stranded a total of nine runners on base. Of those nine runners, six Raiders were left in scoring position.
Brown, who has played a large role in restoring the energy and excitement on the diamond, along with his coaching staff, noted the Raiders expected a challenge from the Wolves.
Despite having good at-bats, he explained Richmond couldn’t produce a timely hit to break the game open.
Tuesday’s playoff game was the final game in the careers of Richmond’s five senior players – Colton Brown, Evan Hodges, Maddox Locklear, Caden Nolan and Jake Veach.
Getting the nod on the mound, Hodges made his final high school start. The Lenoir Community College commit pitched four innings and allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits.
Striking out three batters, Hodges left two runners on base in the top of the first inning. Sophomore Devin Haynes, who pitched the remaining three innings of relief, made an athletic 6-3 putout to end the second inning and left another runner on base.
A 1-2-3 top of the third inning by Hodges featured a fly out, a strikeout and a diving catch by Veach in center field on a hard-hit liner.
Hodges’ final full inning of work in the top of the fourth saw the right-hander face four batters and leave the leadoff batter (error) at second base.
Haynes took over with the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the fifth inning with the game tied 1-1. He escaped the inning by leaving runners on the corners and Richmond down 3-1.
In his three innings of work, Haynes gave up three runs (one earned) on one hit and had three strikeouts.
A productive home half of the first resulted in Richmond’s run, which made it a 1-0 lead for the Raiders until the top of the fifth.
Veach hustled out a leadoff infield single and moved to third on a backside double to right field by Hodges with two outs.
The Wolves’ starting pitcher Cameron Lundgren (six innings, one run, seven hits) missiled a pitch to the backstop a few pitches later, allowing Veach to score with ease. Hodges moved to third base but was left onboard.
An inning later, Richmond loaded the bases but wasn’t able to do damage. Haynes lasered an infield single off Lundgren to lead off the inning, one of the Raiders’ seven hits in the game, and freshman Nate Culbreth followed with another infield single.
For the first of two times in the game, Veach was hit by a pitch to load the bases with two gone. A fly out, however, in the next at-bat ended the scoring threat.
Nolan singled to lead off the bottom of the third, but was left at second base. An inning later in the home half of the fourth, Richmond went down in order.
The Wolves (12-17) scored their first three runs in the top of the fifth. An RBI single to left with the bases loaded and no outs scored the first run.
After Haynes took over for Hodges, a passed ball and a wild pitch accounted for the other two runs. Haynes left runners on the corners to limit the damage.
A hustle double with one out by Locklear in the fifth that landed inside the right field line was left stranded by Richmond. The two-bagger by Locklear was the second of Richmond’s two extra-base hits.
Haynes kept Richmond in it with a 1-2-3 top of the sixth inning when he started with a strikeout and got groundouts to Locklear and Nolan on the left side of the infield.
The Raiders’ final hit of the game came with one gone in the bottom of the sixth when Haynes lined a base knock to center. He didn’t advance from first, however, when a pair of Ks ended the frame.
Ballantyne Ridge loaded the bases to start the sixth, which resulted in its final three runs. An infield single, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly made it 6-1.
Down to their final three outs, the Raiders attempted a rally. With one out, Veach reached safely when he was plunked by reliever Griffin O’Connell. That was followed by a free pass taken by Locklear, Richmond’s final base runner.
Unable to get anything going, a fly out and a ground out ended the Raiders’ hopeful run at a 7A state championship.
Senior Jake Veach rushes home to score on a Cameron Lundgren wild pitch in the bottom of the first inning.
Kyle A. Pillar - Sports Editor
A season of tremendous progress and high hopes ended with a 19-7 overall record for the Raiders. That was the most wins for the team in a single season since 2019 (19 wins).
Part of that success was winning the program’s first regular season conference title since 2016, which saw the team earn a 13-2 record against Mid-South Conference opponents and dethrone Pinecrest High School from a seven-year run.
The Raiders had a season-long winning streak of six games to start the second round of MSC play, which also spanned into spring break. During that same time, Richmond won 10 of 11 ball games.
At the plate, the Raiders were led in batting average by Nolan (.431), Locklear (.369), junior Drew Gause (.342) and Hodges (.333). Nolan and Locklear each led the team with 31 hits, Hodges had a team-high seven doubles, and Nolan cranked a team-leading five homers.
In run production, Richmond had six players record double-digit runs batted in – Hodges (26), Nolan (23), Haynes (20), Gause and freshman Noah Stubbs (15 RBI each), and Locklear (11).
A strong pitching staff of Nolan (57.1 innings), Haynes (40 innings) and Hodges (37.1 innings) carried the bulk of the season. Winning six games, Nolan struck out 111 batters (47 looking) to lead all 7A pitchers in the state and recorded a 0.97 earned run average.
Hodges had 60 strikeouts and a 2.81 ERA and Haynes notched a 2.27 ERA to go along with 42 punchouts.
The Richmond Observer will publish a photo gallery of Tuesday’s playoff game later in the week. An All-MSC team article will also be published when it’s released.
