FAYETTEVILLE — Things couldn’t have worked out much better for the Richmond Senior High School baseball team in Friday’s first conference game of the season.
Behind a total team effort and a career night at the plate by senior Caden Nolan, the Raiders started Mid-South Conference action with a mercy-rule win on the road.
Richmond steamrolled Pine Forest High School 19-0 in five innings. Nolan finished the game with a single-game career-high six runs batted in, five of which were driven in on two home runs.
The Raiders scored two runs in the first inning, broke the game open with seven runs in the second inning and led 13-0 after the third. A solo run in the fourth frame was added to by the team’s final five runs in the fifth.
Scoring a season-high in runs, the Raiders matched their season-high with 10 hits against the Trojans (0-3, 0-1 MSC).
Aside from Nolan’s two trips around the bases, all of Richmond’s hits were singles. Seniors Evan Hodges and Maddox Lockler, along with sophomore Devin Haynes, each had two base knocks. Junior Drew Gause and sophomore Drew McCaskill had the other two hits.
Hodges and Haynes were also a big part of the run production, each driving in three RBI. Gause, McCaskill and freshman Noah Stubbs rounded out the 15-RBI performance by the team with one each.
Posing as a double-edged threat Friday, Hodges also did damage on the mound in his second start of the season. He pitched a complete game shutout (5.0 innings) and limited the Trojans to just two hits with nine punchouts.
Hodges was perfect through the first 3.2 innings, retiring all 11 Trojans in order. He struck out the side in order in the first, added another K in the second and sat two more batters down on strikes in the third.
With two outs in the fourth, a single and a walk accounted for Pine Forest’s first two base runners. Hodges faced just four batters in the fifth to end the game.
“The goal is to always win, but it’s especially important when you’re playing a conference opponent,” head coach Eric Brown said. “And tonight the guys put together a complete team performance to get the job done in our first conference game.
“I can’t say enough about Caden and Evan, who are our two veteran senior leaders,” he added. “Each of them brings so much to our program and tonight that was on full display. Caden hitting two home runs is a memory he’ll always have and Evan was effective on the mound and at the plate.”
Nolan wasted little time getting his bat going in the top of the first. He sent a 2-0 offering over the fence in center field for his first homer, which brought in Locklear (single) for the Raiders’ first two runs.
Errors to back-to-back batters in the box in the top of the second resulted in Haynes (single) and freshman Julius Bowden (walk) to double the score.
The remaining five runs scored in the second by Richmond all came with two outs, a common theme in the game. Hodges recorded his first RBI when he singled to left field, scoring Locklear (error).
Leading by five runs, Stubbs dug in two plate appearances later and drew a bases-loaded walk. Trotting home on the free pass to make it 6-0 was Gause (walk).
Batting around the order in the half-inning, Haynes stepped up and delivered with a two-RBI line drive single to center. Hodges scored from third and Nolan (walk) raced in from second base. Stubbs capped the big inning and extended the lead to 9-0 when he scored on a wild pitch.
Richmond’s offense struck again with two outs in the third, this time for four runs. Gause found a hole up the middle for an RBI base knock to score senior Jake Veach (walk), and Hodges drove in Gause in the following at-bat on a hard ground ball to center.
Haynes’ final RBI of the game came three batters later on a bases-loaded walk, which moved Hodges across the plate. Adding his hit and RBI two pitches later to make it 13-0 was McCaskill, who singled in Nolan (walk).
Nolan’s only RBI not via a home run came in the top of the fourth when he skied a sacrifice fly to center. Beating the relay home was Locklear (error).
Two-out lightning struck again in the fifth for Richmond, which took a 15-0 lead when Hodges was walked with the bases full of Raiders. Scoring that run was senior Colton Brown (walk).
Junior Tristan Chavis (walk) scored on a passed ball and Nolan put the exclamation point on the win when he powered his second home run, a three-run bomb, to center field.
The Raiders (3-1, 1-0 MSC) have another conference game Tuesday, this time at home against Jack Britt High School (1-3, 0-1 MSC). First pitch is slated for 7 p.m.
