ROCKINGHAM — After a rocky start to Friday’s Sandhills Athletic Conference baseball game against Lumberton High School, the Richmond Raiders settled in and responded to split the series with the Pirates.
Erasing an early five-run deficit with six runs in the bottom of the second inning, the Raiders added insurance runs in the final three innings to defeat Lumberton 10-8.
Head coach Rob Ransom went with a platoon of pitchers to get the Raiders back in the win column, starting with junior Cameron Way, followed by freshman Camron Seagraves and junior Jude Howard.
Seagraves tossed 3.2 innings of relief to collect the win, striking out six batters along the way. He allowed two runs (both unearned) on two hits after taking over for Way with two outs in the top of the second.
Howard entered the game in the top of the sixth and threw 1.2 innings to earn his second save of the season. With two on and one out in the seventh, Howard struck out the final two batters of the game to ice Richmond’s win.
“We had a slow start and we could have rolled over and quit right there,” Ransom said. “But the guys found a way in the second inning to get some runs on the board and put us in the lead. I thought we were really able to feed off that the rest of the night.
“Camron (Seagraves) pitched really well,” he added. “He gave us a chance to win and kept us in the game. Jude was a change of pace for us and we like to go with him at the end because he throws strikes. His ball has a natural sink to it and he showed a lot of confidence and poise to get out of a tough situation.”
Freshman pitcher Camron Seagraves delivers a pitch during the third inning of Friday’s win. (Kyle Pillar)
Lumberton took a 4-0 lead in the top of the first with a pair of sacrifice flies, an RBI single and a Richmond error. An inning later, the Pirates extended their lead to 5-0 with an RBI knock to left.
The Raiders flipped the switch for good by sending 11 batters to the plate in the bottom of the second. Lumberton starting pitcher Hayden Hunt walked the first four batters in the inning to score Richmond’s first run.
Following the bases-loaded walk, Hunt was replaced by Bobby Baxley, whose first pitch skipped to the backstop and allowed Seagraves to score. In the same at-bat junior Colin Wheeler laced an RBI double to the right center gap, scoring senior Michael Pettitt.
A base on balls to junior Harley Honeycutt loaded the bases again, and with one out, Way roped a two-RBI double to the left side to make it a tie game. Before the inning was over, Way scored on a Baxley wild pitch to put the Raiders up 6-5.
“We had to respond after I gave up a lot of hits early,” Way explained. “We kept the energy up and we came back and played offense. I did my part with the double and the whole team got pitches to hit. The guys were patient early in the inning to draw so many walks. It was a good team effort.”
Seagraves sat the Pirates down in order in the top of the third and got out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the fourth with back-to-back strikeouts against Jacob Scott and Baxley to maintain the one-run lead.
Honeycutt led off the bottom of the fourth with a single to right, and rounded the bases to score in the next at-bat when junior Alston Johnson lasered an RBI triple to the right field wall.
Lumberton started the fifth with a double and a walk, but Honeycutt made an athletic catch to start a double play. Lumberton’s Payne Stone popped a bunt up and Honeycutt charged from first and made a diving grab for the out, and threw the ball to Way at second to double off Stanley Scott.
With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, the Raiders added two more runs. Senior Hunter Hancock started the rally by reaching on an error and later scored on an infield single by Wheeler.
Johnson ripped a high chopper to second base two at-bats later and reached on an error, allowing courtesy runner Caleb Talton to score from second to give Richmond a 9-5 lead.
Junior Alston Johnson rounds second on his RBI triple to extend Richmond’s lead. (Kyle Pillar)
Seagraves loaded the bases with one out in the top of the six and was replaced by Howard. The Pirates put two runs on the board on a passed ball and a fielder’s choice ground out.
Richmond’s final run came in the bottom of the sixth when Seagraves hit a line drive single to right, scoring junior Matthew Walker (single).
After allowing a run in the top of the seventh to make it 10-8, Howard settled in and struck out Hunt and Samuel Beck to end the game.
“I knew I’ve been struggling with the strike zone, so I really tried to just throw strikes tonight,” Seagraves said of taking over in the second. “I was able to make (Lumberton) put the ball in play and our defense made some tough plays behind me to get the outs.
“We’re going to try and keep it rolling,” he added. “We’ve had some tough losses against teams we think we should have won against, so now we just want to win all that we can.”
The Raiders tallied seven hits in the win, including a team-high two hits from Wheeler. Way and Wheeler each knocked a double, Johnson had a triple and Honeycutt, Seagraves and Walker all had singles.
Way and Wheeler also led the team with two RBIs each, Honeycutt scored twice and Johnson, Seagraves and Hancock all had one RBI.
“We swung the bat a little better, especially in the early part of the game,” Ransom said. “We had hits when there were guys in scoring position, and we capitalized on a lot of walks in the second.
“Matthew, Cameron (Way), Colin and Alston all had some quality at-bats tonight,” he closed. “We shook the lineup up a little bit and that seemed to help us out.”
Richmond (4-6) will play its only non-conference series next week, welcoming in David W. Butler High School (3-7) on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
