ROCKINGHAM – It wasn’t the most high-powered offensive performance for the Lady Raiders softball team this season, but Tuesday’s 17-0 five-inning mercy-rule victory over Sandhills Athletic Conference opponent Seventy-First High School did have two momentous occasions.
The first was that 4A No. 1-ranked Richmond (14-3, 11-0 SAC) clinched at least a part of the 2018 SAC regular season title, and has the opportunity to win its conference crown outright for the sixth straight year on the road Friday when it will face the Lady Falcons for the second time this week (finished second in the Southeastern Conference in 2012, one game behind Purnell Swett High School).
And the other accolade from Friday’s action was junior ace Greyson Way’s dominant performance, as she earned her third five-inning no-hitter of the season through 17 starts. She had no-hitters against Pinecrest High School on March 13 and 16. Efficient all night long, in a game that lasted only 55 minutes from first pitch to team handshakes, Way faced just one batter over the minimum (a third-inning walk to Mattison Smith) and struck out 11 of the 16 total batters she faced off against.
Starting the game by striking out the first eight Lady Falcons batters, Way tossed just 55 pitches on the night, and only 12 of which were outside the strike zone. According to MaxPreps, Way leads all 4A pitchers with 146 total strikeouts on the season, having thrown 105.2 innings (an average of 1.39 strikeouts per inning). She is also tied with South Central High School’s Isabel Moore for the most 4A wins with 14, and is fourth in ERA (1.66).
The Lady Raiders got a little help from Seventy-First’s starting pitcher Unique Nash, who struggled from the start. Nash hit five Richmond batters with a pitch, walked two more, and behind her, the Lady Falcons defense committed four errors. Nash only surrendered 10 hits to the Lady Raiders, but they were enough for the home team to do significant damage.
In the bottom of the first inning, junior shortstop Savannah Lampley led off with a perfectly-placed bunt single. Two batters later, with two outs, senior Brianna Baysek hit a line drive triple to the left field corner, scoring Lampley for the game’s first run. After Kayla Hawkins was hit by a pitch, Nash’s first of the night, Taylor Parrish delivered with a two-out, two-RBI single to score Baysek and Hawkins.
On the season, Parrish has delivered in clutch situations, and bumped her batting average up to .314. She also led all players in the game with four RBIs, giving her a total of 19 on the season, which is tied with Baysek and Way for the third-best on the team.
Richmond would add four more runs in the bottom of the second to make the score 7-0 in its favor. Freshman Payton Chappell, who reached on an error, dashed home on a passed ball, and Baysek stayed hot at the dish when she hit a two-out, two-RBI single to left field. Following another Seventy-First error on a Hawkins fly ball, Baysek crossed the plate to end the inning’s scoring.
The Lady Raiders did the most damage on the scoreboard in the home half of the fourth inning after being held off the board in the third. Sending 14 batters to the plate, the home team would score 10 runs on six hits, three walks and two errors. Parrish delivered again with a two-RBI double to center field, scoring Baysek (reached on an error) and Hawkins (drew a walk).
After another error and a walk to load the bases, Chappell crushed a bases-clearing triple to give Richmond a 12-0 lead. In the next at-bat, Lampley lasered a triple (tying her with Chappell for the team lead with two on the season), and scoring the freshman third baseman from third.
Lampley would show off her speed by tagging up and racing home when Owen Bowers flied a sacrifice pop up to shallow right field in the next at-bat. The game’s scoring ended when Hawkins hit an opposite field beeline three-run home run that just cleared the right field fence. Her dinger tied her with freshman Paige Ransom with seven on the year, the most of any Richmond player, and scored Way and Baysek, who had reached on back-to-back singles.
Baysek led all batters by going 3-for-4 at the dish, including two singles and a triple, and scored a game-high four runs. Lampley and Chappell each had two hits in the win, as Parrish led with four RBIs, the second time this season she’s tallied that many in a game. Also adding to their season RBI totals with three each were Baysek (19), Hawkins (18) and Chappell (16).
One bright spot for Seventy-First was its shortstop, Jayla Speaks. She came up big several times, flashing the leather by snagging two line drives to rob a hit, as well as getting two ground ball putouts to first base.
Head coach Wendy Wallace noted that Seventy-First’s (1-12, 0-11 SAC) pitching wasn’t to the level of some of the other competition Richmond has faced this year. And with big matchups and tough pitching looming ahead against Marlboro Academy and Scotland High School to close out the regular season, Wallace explained that her team has to remain focused at the plate.
“We’re looking to stay disciplined at the plate and hit strikes,” Wallace said. “Our focus will be to hit the ball up the middle. We’ll have practice on Saturday to reload and get ready for Jenna (Greene; Marlboro Academy). Tomorrow will be a better game for us (against Anson).
“Right now, we need to make sure nobody gets hurt,” Wallace continued. “And make sure we make good plays on defense. Tonight, Greyson tried some different pitches in different situations to get ready for later in the season.”
Richmond will hit the road Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. for a non-conference matchup against Anson High School (7-7) and its ace Cydney Livingston. It will close out the week on the road again, this time at Seventy-First, with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m.
