LAURINBURG — Tuesday's series finale didn’t end in favor of the Richmond Senior High School baseball team, but it wasn’t without ample scoring opportunities.
Making the trip east across the county line, the Raiders finished their two-game non-conference series with rival Scotland High School.
In a game that drew a lot of parallels with Saturday’s win over the Fighting Scots, the biggest difference was the final score for Richmond.
An early deficit was nearly erased by the Raiders, who ultimately came up short 3-2. Richmond and Scotland split the series with each home team winning by the same score.
Plating both of their runs in the top of the fifth inning to make it a one-run deficit, the Raiders couldn’t capitalize with runners in scoring position throughout the game.
Richmond stranded a total of 11 runners in the loss, including eight runners on either second or third base.
Battling until the final out, the Raiders had a solid chance in the top of the seventh of scoring more runs, but they left their last two base runners in scoring position when a strikeout ended the game.
Head coach Eric Brown said a flat start by the Raiders and a hodgepodge of mental mistakes and a season-high five errors were some of the reasons Richmond couldn’t complete the sweep of Scotland (1-2).
“From the start of the game, I thought we didn't have enough energy in the dugout or on the field,” Brown said. “Falling behind by three runs early is always tough to try and erase, especially on the road at your rival. I think if we approached the game a little differently from the first inning, the result would have been different.
“We rely on our pitching and defense to keep us in ball games, and even with the errors we had, we still gave ourselves plenty of chances to get ahead,” he added. “There wasn’t that timely hit when we needed it tonight, and to leave so many runners on base is something we need to correct if we want to win games against quality opponents.”
Senior Maddox Locklear became the first runner left on base in the top of the first inning. He had a leadoff single, the first of his team-high three hits, and later moved to third base. Scotland escaped by retiring the next three batters.
The Fighting Scots jumped ahead 2-0 in the home half off senior starting pitcher Caden Nolan. A wild pitch and an error following a single to left field accounted for both runs.
Nolan, who made his second start of the season, pitched four innings and allowed all three runs. Only one of those runs was earned, and he gave up four hits with five strikeouts.
Richmond’s bats went down in order in the second and Nolan worked out of a two-on, two-out jam in the bottom half. Making the second of his two athletic putouts in the inning for the final out was junior second baseman Drew Guase.
Senior Jake Veach drew a one-out walk in third and moved to second following another base knock by Locklear. Both were left on base, however, following a pair of fly outs.
The Fighting Scots’ final run of the game came in the third. A pair of errors put the first two batters on base, the second of which resulted in the leadoff runner scoring to make it 3-0.
Two more runners were stranded in the fourth for the Raiders, including freshman Noah Stubbs (walk) at second. Nolan kept the game in check with a four-batter inning to maintain the three-run deficit.
With one gone in the top of the fifth, Locklear beat out an infield single to third base and raced to second when the late throw scooted to the fence. Slashing a single to right field in the next at-bat, Gause reached safely and moved Locklear to third.
Gause stole second base and senior catcher Evan Hodges delivered just four pitches into his at-bat. Hitting a hard grounder to third base, Hodges recorded an RBI groundout when Locklear timed his dash to the plate.
Hodges also moved Gause to third on the second out of the inning, which proved to help Richmond score its final run. A wild pitch to the backstop allowed Gause to cross home plate safely and make it 3-2.
Despite a walk drawn by Nolan and an error on a Stubbs grounder, Richmond left both runners on the base paths, including Nolan at third.
Taking over on the mound in the bottom of the fifth after Nolan walked the leadoff batter was sophomore Devin Haynes. He pitched two innings, didn’t allow any runs, gave up one hit and struck out one batter.
Using a 1-3 putout, the Raiders got the first out but the leadoff runner raced to third.
Helping end the threat was a 9-2 double play started by sophomore right fielder Drew McCaskill. He made a routine catch for the second out and then fired home and hit Hodges on the fly, who made an athletic catch and turned to tag out the runner well short of the plate.
In the sixth, freshman Julius Bowden (hit-by-pitch) and Veach (single) both got into scoring position with one out. However, the Scots kept them there with a strikeout and a groundout to the next two batters.
Richmond’s defense kept the score a one-run game thanks to another inning-ending double play in the bottom of the sixth. With two on, Locklear fielded a grounder at third and stepped on the bag and fired to Gause at second base for the 5-4 twin killing.
Down to their final three outs, the Raiders saw Hodges connect for a base hit to leadoff the seventh. He was retired on a Stubbs fielder’s choice, but a single and a stolen base by Haynes moved the tying and go-ahead runners into scoring position with two outs.
The game came to an end when Scotland recorded a strikeout for the final out.
Following a three-game non-conference stint to start the season, the Raiders (2-1) will officially open Mid-South Conference action Friday.
Richmond will travel to Pine Forest High School (0-1) and begin at 7 p.m. The Richmond junior varsity baseball team will make its season debut at Pine Forest and start at 4:30 p.m.
