SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. - For the first time in three games this summer, the Richmond Rattlers came out victorious Tuesday, defeating Pinecrest’s summer league team 10-7 on the road.
Competing in the Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League, the senior Rattlers team picked itself up after dropping its first two contests of the summer during the first week of play last week. Head coach Ricky Young has had to piece together a team without some key players, but all but three were present Tuesday, and helped ice the cake for win No. 1 on the campaign.
Trailing 2-0 after the top of the first inning, the Rattlers’ bats would explode in the top half of the third inning when they plated eight of their 10 total runs.
Rising junior Blake Hall led off the top of the third with a walk, and advanced to second when rising senior Jahan Jones reached on a bunt single. A sacrifice bunt by rising senior Evan Hudson moved Hall and Jones to third base and second base, respectively, allowing rising senior Brett Young to tie the game with a one-out, two-RBI single.
Young would make his way to third base by way of a couple of wild pitches, while rising senior Jake Ransom drew the Rattlers’ second walk of the inning. Rising senior Cameron Carraway, who like Ransom, was playing his first game since returning from the Powerade State Games in Greensboro, N.C., singled in Young. A bad throw allowed Ransom to move to third, while Carraway trotted safely into second.
Fellow rising senior Garret Richardson got in on the hitting action, as he roped the team’s second one-out, two-RBI single of the inning. Richardson would be thrown out trying to advance to second, but rising senior Hunter Parris kept the two-out rally going with an infield single. Parris (who was pitching for Richmond at the time) was replaced by courtesy runner and rising junior Gavin Russell. Thanks to another Pinecrest wild pitch, Russell moved to second base.
Digging into the plate next for Richmond was rising senior Nolan Allen, and he brought in Russell on an RBI single. Allen made it to second safely on the throw home, and would later score the inning’s final run when Hall blasted a two-out RBI double.
“We had three starters out tonight,” Young said, noting that seniors Alex Anderson, Tyler Bass and Garet Weigman were not present. “But I thought we swung the bats really well tonight, and gave ourselves some scoring opportunities to drive people in. We executed early to get runs in, and we got some bunts down when we needed to. We just had a lot of big hits with runners in scoring position.”
Through their first two games, the Rattlers had only managed to score two runs, both of which came against Holly Springs in a season-opening 3-2 loss. Richmond was mercy-ruled by Fuquay-Varina 10-0 a night later in five innings. So for Young, it was nice to see that bats come alive against a Pinecrest team that finished first in the Sandhills Athletic Conference standings this spring in high school ball.
Ransom would add onto the lead with a solo home run in the fifth inning, his first of the summer. In the seventh inning, Young would reach on a single, advance to second base on a wild pitch, and score on a Ransom RBI single.
Allen, Ransom and Young would all finish the night with two hits each, with Ransom, Richardson and Young leading the way with a team-high two RBIs apiece.
On the mound, Young went with Parris, who started the season opener against Holly Springs. The head coach noted that Parris “threw the ball well” into the fourth inning, and was replaced by rising junior left-hander Mitchell Paul. Inheriting a situation with the bases-loaded and just one out, Paul pitched his way out of a jam by only allowing one run to score, keeping the damage to a minimum and heading into the fifth inning up 8-5.
Paul would pitch the fifth and sixth innings before Jones, who is not a usual pitcher in the Rattlers’ rotation, came in for the seventh inning and shut the door for the win.
“It was a good team effort, and we were able to get everybody in and they contributed,” Young concluded. “It was a good team win tonight.”
The Rattlers will be back in action Wednesday, as they’ll finish off the home-and-home series against Pinecrest. The junior team will play at 4:30 p.m., followed by the senior team at 7 p.m.
