SOUTHERN PINES — Two nights after failing to register a hit, the Richmond Raider baseball team was much more competitive on Friday, according to head coach Rob Ransom.
The Raiders kept the Pinecrest Patriots on their heels in the later innings of the series finale, erasing a two-run deficit, but fell 5-4.
Pinecrest walked it off on a Colby Wallace RBI double to the right field corner in the bottom of the seventh.
“I’m proud of our effort, the kids fought really hard tonight,” Ransom said. “We kept climbing, fighting, scratching and clawing. We made it into a ball game but came up just a run short.
“Tonight we were focused on swinging at good pitches,” he added. “Pinecrest threw two really good pitchers against us this week, and we tried to adjust to be on time. We did a better job later in the game getting deeper into the pitch count, which is something we need to do earlier in the game.”
Junior pitcher Cameron Way got his first start on the mound this season and recorded six strikeouts through the first two innings, including striking out the side in order in the second. He went 4.1 innings, allowed four runs on nine hits and struck out seven Patriots.
Pinecrest took a 1-0 lead on a solo home run by J.D. Scarborough in the bottom of the third inning, but the Raiders made two big defensive plays to escape without any more damage.
With R.J. Sales on second, Wallace hit a double to center, but center fielder Tony Gathings started an 8-6-2 relay to nab Sales trying to slide into home. Gathings connected with Camron Seagraves at short, who fired home to catcher Colin Wheeler who applied the tag.
An at-bat later, Wallace got stuck in a rundown between second and third and Seagraves applied the tag to end the threat.
Richmond got on the board in the next half inning when junior Alston Johnson led off with a walk and stole second. With a 1-1 count, Way barreled up a Sales offering and lasered it over the center field fence for a two-run blast to put the Raiders up a run.
“We showed way more effort tonight than we have in any other game, and I think it showed on the scoreboard,” Way explained. “Pinecrest is a pretty good team and we gave them a fight tonight. It took all seven innings for them to beat us.
“I got ahead early in the counts, and it’s way easier to pitch when you’re up 0-1 or 0-2,” he added of his performance on the mound. “That let me throw more offspeed pitches early on. My curveball worked pretty good, and I had good control of it 0-2 in the dirt and they chased it a couple times.”
Of his first career varsity homer, Way said he put a good swing on a fastball down the middle. He added it “gave the whole team some energy” and showed the Raiders they could compete with the Patriots.
Junior Colin Wheeler rounds third after his solo home run in Friday’s game against Pinecrest. (Kyle Pillar)
To open the bottom of the fourth, Camden Bunker hit a solo shot to left field to tie the game.
After loading the bases, Way got out of the jam with a strikeout against Ryley Norton and an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
Starting it was Johnson at second who fielded a Scarborough grounder, flipped it to Seagraves, and in turn threaded it to Hunter Hancock at first to end the threat.
“We had a couple of nice defensive plays, like Camron’s (Seagraves) relay throw to the plate,” Ransom said. “Then we had a big double play to end an inning and Tony (Gathings) made a nice sliding grab late in the game.”
A one-out, two-RBI double by Bunker in the bottom of the fifth put the Patriots up 4-2. Following that scoring play, Ransom inserted junior Will Dawkins on the mound, who retired the first five batters he faced to end the fifth and get through the sixth.
Richmond chipped away at the lead in the top of the sixth when junior Colin Wheeler belted a two-out solo homer off Sales to right field, his team-leading second longball of the season.
Trailing 4-3 in the top of the seventh, Seagraves drew a one-out walk and Dawkins beat out an infield single to put two runners on. Sales’ night was finished (6.1 innings, four runs on three hits, 13 strikeouts), and was replaced with Skyler Mathis.
On Mathis’ first pitch, senior Tony Gathings roped a hard ground ball to right field for an RBI single, scoring Seagraves from second to tie the game at four runs.
Freshman Camron Seagraves claps after sliding headfirst into home to tie the game in the seventh. (Kyle Pillar)
Following a single from Johnson to load the bases, the Patriots turned a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. Just three batters into the bottom of the seventh, Wallace delivered the game-winning RBI.
Dawkins threw 1.2 innings, allowed one run on two hits and struck out three Patriots.
“Cameron competed on the mound, and that’s what we need out of him,” Ransom noted. “Will also had a couple of big innings for us.”
Recording Richmond’s five hits were Way and Wheeler (both homers), and singles from Dawkins, Gathings and Johnson.
Way had two RBIs, Gathings and Johnson added one each and four different players crossed home safely.
“We still need to have better at-bats earlier in the ball game,” Ransom explained. “And we had a couple of costly errors that hurt us, too. Baseball is a funny game, so we’re just going to keep coming out to practice and continue working hard.
“We’re trying to get better and improve,” he closed, “but we have a lot to build off of after tonight’s game. We’ll take the positives and try to get ready to go next week.”
The Raiders (0-4) will start a two-game series against Jack Britt High School (0-4) next Tuesday at home, followed by a road game on Friday. Both matchups are set for 7 p.m.
