LAURINBURG – The Richmond Senior High School bowling teams travelled to Laurinburg Lanes on Thursday for a pivotal position round in the Sandhills Athletic Conference Standings.
Despite rolling their best series of the season, the boys dropped a closely contested match to Hoke County High School before rebounding to sweep Purnell Swett High School. Led by senior Savannah Lampley in the anchor position with 10 marks on the day, the Lady Raiders went 2-0 against Hoke County and Purnell Swett.
“Hoke County is matching us almost pin for pin,” head coach Ralph Butler said prior to the matchup between the boys’ teams from Richmond and Hoke. “We are currently in fourth place and need to win to remain in the top four.”
The Raiders and Bucks entered the day with matching 134-pin averages. The Bucks came out swinging, connecting four strikes from the third through the sixth frames resulting in a season-high 197 in their opening game.
The Raiders were able to string together three strikes thanks to a strong finish by seniors Tyler Bass and anchor Evan Hudson to close some of the gap in total pins. Hoke took the first game 197-156.
The Bucks struggled in the second game, and the Raiders took advantage. Junior Luke Hawks, senior Cameron Carraway, Bass and Hudson each marked in four of the final five frames to not only earn a 165-121 game two victory, but the strong finish erased Hoke’s total pin advantage.
The Bucks took game three by a score of 121-119, but Richmond still held a one-pin advantage in total pins. This set up a winner-take-all game four.
In what seemed like déjà vu, the Bucks strung together four strikes early in the game en route to a 192-139 game four win and a 4-1 series victory over the Raiders. Richmond’s 579 was a season best, but just happened to run into the Bucks at the wrong time. Hoke’s 631 series score was also a program best.
The Raiders had little trouble taking down Purnell Swett in the second match of the day. Richmond won 5-0 and outscored the Rams 559-454. The Raiders took an early 62-pin lead with a 164-102 game one victory.
Richmond slipped past the Rams 136-125 and 126-122 in games two and three, giving them a 77-pin lead in the series. The Raiders completed the sweep with a convincing 133-105 win in game four.
For the Lady Raiders, the series points became even more important. After dropping the first game 117-109 to the Lady Bucks, the Lady Raiders found themselves trailing Hoke County by three pins at the midway point of game No. 2.
A strike by sophomore Autumn Hoffman in the sixth, followed later by back-to-back spares from sophomore Josie Standridge and Lampley, helped to move the Lady Raiders into the win column with a 130-117 game two victory.
The Lady Raiders pulled away in game three. Richmond marked in four of the first five frames to take an 83-53 lead into the back half. Richmond opened in frames six through eight, but a strike in the ninth and a spare-strike combo from Lampley in the tenth gave the Lady Raiders a commanding 148-93 win and pushed their total pins advantage to 58. Richmond dropped game four 119-106, but easily took the total pins tie breaker and earned a 3-2 victory over the Lady Bucks.
Like their male counterparts, the Lady Raiders did not have much trouble with Purnell Swett. Richmond blew past the Lady Rams 137-72 in game one and never looked back. The Lady Raiders defeated Swett 112-104, 164-117 and 130-112 in the remaining games to earn the 5-0 sweep.
The 164 pins in game three and the 543-pin series against Swett were both season highs for the Lady Raiders.
Richmond will be back in action Thursday, Dec. 20, at Sand Hills Bowling Center in Aberdeen, N.C. Matches begin at 4 p.m.
