Matt Harrelson
ROCKINGHAM - Not to be outdone by counterpart Jonathan Lee's perfect game against Hoke County before entering spring break, Raiders' starting pitcher Trey Watkins put up some zeros of his own Tuesday night when he threw a shutout no-hitter for six and two thirds innings against Lumberton High School.
The Raider baseball team restarted Sandhills Athlete Conference play the same way they left it - by not giving up any runs. The owner of the no-hitter perhaps can be disputed with Drew Loving coming in for the final out, which was tallied when catcher Gordon Pihl threw out a Pirates runner trying to steal second.
Regardless, for Watkins, it was a successful night either way.
"It feels good," said Watkins. "We got another win and pitching and defense played really well."
It indeed was another win. The seventh in a row to be exact, as the Raiders (12-5, 5-4 SAC) had won two games prior to heading down to Hilton Head, S.C., for the Seahawk Invitational, where they proceeded to win the tournament with four more wins in a row. Tuesday's win marks the first time the Raiders have won seven games in a row since their epic run in 2014 to get to the 4A state title series. Ironically enough, Richmond's season turned around that year during the spring break tournament.
The Raiders only managed to scrape together two hits in the win, but it was enough. In the bottom of the second inning, Loving recorded an infield hit, then stole second and reached third on a passed ball. Zack Hinson got on base thanks to a walk, then immediately took second when the Pirates' defense failed to pay attention to him. Tyler Bass then came through with a sacrifice bunt to score Loving and put the Raiders up 1-0.
The score would remain that way for a couple of innings until the fourth, when Loving again got things going with a walk. He then stole second and third base and scored on another passed ball by Pirates catcher Kelvin Ortega.
After a Hinson and Justin Ingram walk and steal by Ingram, a sacrifice fly by center fielder Alex Anderson scored Hinson to run the score up to 3-0. A bad pick-off move by Lumberton pitcher Parks Ledwell allowed Ingram to score and put the Raiders up by four runs.
Richmond would pick up their fifth and final run in the bottom of the fifth inning when first baseman Jake Ransom walked. Nolan Allen came in to pinch run and stole second base. Garet Weigman pinch hit and recorded an RBI double to center field to score Allen.
"We did what we talk about our identity is," said head coach Ricky Young after his team's second no-hitter in two weeks. "We run the bases, bunt, try to create havoc on the base paths, and we were able to do that tonight."
The Raiders used the bunt very effectively throughout the night, and also had nine total stolen bases against an over-matched Lumberton defense.
From the mound, Watkins said he was able to navigate through the Pirates' lineup by hitting his spots and using his fastball to set up his curveball.
"I had a couple walks and that kind of ran my pitch count up unfortunately towards the end, but the defense made some good plays on the ground balls, and I got some strikeouts."
Watkins had 13 strikeouts to be exact and "dominated the game from the mound like he needed to do," according to Young. The head coach also noted that Watkins was pulled from the game due to the pitch-count rule, which Watkins has reached 105 on the night. Loving only threw two pitches in the final third of an inning, but because he made at least one pitch, the no-hitter was recorded as a combined effort.
"That's where the pitch count sucks, and I know we have to have it because some teams abuse it," Young went on to say. "We don't abuse it, but unfortunately it cost him (Watkins) a chance at an (individual) no-hitter."
The Raiders will be off until Friday night when they will travel to Lumberton for the second part of the home-and-home against the Pirates. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. After Tuesday's game, Richmond remained in fifth place in the SAC standings, and trail Scotland High School, which is in fourth place, by one game.
"We've got to swing the bats a little better," Young said about getting the sweep over Lumberton (3-10, 1-7 SAC). "We were lucky to score five runs on two hits, so we've definitely gotta swing the bat a little better."
