ROCKINGHAM — For the second time in the past week, the baseball field at Richmond Senior High School was the site of live action.
The Raiders and head coach Eric Brown hosted their second scrimmage of the preseason Tuesday, welcoming West Stanly High School in for a 10-inning outing.
Richmond also hosted Wakefield High School over the weekend as a part of its preseason tune up.
Brown said Tuesday’s scrimmage started much better than Saturday’s game, citing a strong start by senior right-hander Jason Walker and live bats in the bottom of the first inning.
“Overall, it was a much better day for us,” Brown said. “Jason set the tone for us in the first inning by throwing a lot of strikes, which got us off to a good start. That really helped us.
“And then Landon (Taylor) had a first-pitch base hit,” he added. “That’s always a good thing offensively and we capitalized off that. I think the energy was better today and the guys were more focused.”
Using the 10-inning affair to put its pitching to the test, Richmond threw 10 different pitchers, all of whom completed one inning of work — Walker, sophomore Collin Hill, freshman Devin Haynes, junior Evan Hodges, junior Caden Nolan and seniors Jeremiah Ritter, Conner Phifer, Jabari Douglas, Landon Taylor and Riley Brown.
The Raiders combined for 13 strikeouts against Colts batters, led by Ritter’s three Ks. Hill, Hodges and Phifer each sat down two batters via the punchout.
Richmond’s pitching staff was also pretty effective Tuesday, recording seven innings with just four or fewer batters coming to the plate. Through the first two innings, Walker and Hill each stranded a runner.
In the third, fourth and fifth frames, Haynes, Hodges and Nolan sat the Colts down in order. Phifer and Brown had 1-2-3 innings on the bump in the seventh and 10th innings, respectively.
Richmond took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, which started when Taylor knocked a base hit through the right side of the infield on the first offering. In the next at-bat, Hodges burnt the right fielder with a double to the wall, allowing Taylor to hustle in from first base.
After Hodges moved up to third on the throw, Phifer entered as a courtesy runner. An error allowed him to score to make it 2-0.
A four-run bottom of the fifth inning began when Taylor (single), Hodges (walk) and Hill (single) loaded the bases with one out. Nolan recorded a run batted in with a bases-loaded walk in the next plate appearance.
Hodges made it 4-0 when he raced in from third on an error following a fly ball to right field by Brown. Haynes smoked a two-RBI double to right field a couple pitches later to plate Hill and Nolan to boost Richmond’s lead to six runs.
The Raiders capped their scoring an inning later thanks to a two-out, two-RBI base knock to left field by Hodges. That scored sophomore Drew Guase (single) and Taylor (walk).
West Stanly’s two runs were scored in the top of the eighth inning with Douglas on the mound. A sacrifice bunt and an RBI double made it 8-2.
Taylor, Hodges and Gause each had two hits in Richmond’s nine-hit effort. Hill, Nolan and Haynes had the other hits.
Hodges’ three RBI led the team, with Haynes (2) and Nolan (1) also driving in runs. Defensively, Richmond committed just one error, another bright spot on the day for Brown.
“Hopefully we can get on the field depending on the weather,” Brown said. “We’re going to shore up some things like our starting lineup and put some finishing touches on a few other things.
“We’ll work on a lot of the little fundamentals we haven’t gotten to yet,” he closed. “We’ll focus on team defense and getting the guys as many reps as possible before we start next week.”
The Raiders will officially open the 2025 season on the road at Marvin Ridge High School next Wednesday. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.
