ROCKINGHAM — A hot start to conference play this season came to an end Friday when things didn’t go in favor of the Richmond Senior High School baseball team.
Hosting Pinecrest High School to wrap up the first round of Mid-South Conference action of the regular season, which was one game against each opponent, the Raiders struggled to get anything going.
After winning its first four MSC games of the spring, Richmond suffered its first conference loss to the Patriots, an 11-0 defeat in six innings.
Facing starting pitcher Will Chopping, the Raiders were held hitless. Chopping pitched a complete game and had eight strikeouts.
The Raiders managed to get four runners on base in the win, but all four were left stranded. Senior Jake Veach drew a walk with two outs in the bottom of the third inning for the team’s first base runner.
Junior Drew Gause reached via a base on balls to lead off the home half of the fourth, and sophomore Drew McCaskill trotted to first on a free pass with two gone in the fifth.
An error on a grounder by freshman Julius Bowden to the shortstop in the next at-bat after McCaskill’s walk accounted for Richmond’s final base runner in the game.
Pinecrest (8-1, 5-0 MSC) took the early lead in the conference standings with the win. The Patriots scored solo runs in the second and third innings, added two runs in both the fourth and fifth innings, and plated their final five runs in the top of the sixth.
Richmond used three pitchers in the game, starting with senior Evan Hodges. He allowed two earned runs on five hits with five Ks through 2.1 innings.
Sophomore Devin Haynes pitched 2.2 innings of relief and gave up four runs (one earned) on one hit. He struck out three Patriots.
Closing out the final inning of work, junior Tristan Chavis surrendered five unearned runs on two hits.
Set to begin a plethora of two-game MSC series, the Raiders (6-3, 4-1 MSC) will look to get back in the win column starting with Pine Forest High School next week.
Richmond will travel to Pine Forest (0-8, 0-5 MSC), a team it beat 19-0 earlier this month, Tuesday and host the Trojans Friday. Both games will start at 7 p.m.
