Statesmen lose to Raiders

Published 4:27 pm Thursday, April 14, 2022

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The Randolph-Henry (R-H) Statesmen were busy over Spring Break playing two non-district baseball games.

On Monday, April 4, the Statesmen hosted the Raiders of Appomattox. The Statesmen were held scoreless throughout this contest. The Raiders capitalized off of three big innings scoring three runs in the second, five runs in the third and seven runs in the sixth inning. The Raiders would take a 15-0 victory at Bankston Field.

On Wednesday, April 6, the Statesmen traveled to South Hill to take on the Dragons of Park View. This would be the very last meeting between these two programs as next year Bluestone and Park View will merge to form one high school called Mecklenburg High School. The game lasted 11 innings. Park View got things started in the bottom of the first scoring two runs off of four hits. R-H would get on the board in the top of the third, but the Dragons would score another run themselves in the bottom half making the score 3-1 with Park View leading. The Statesmen would have a huge fourth inning scoring five runs off of six hits, but Park View would answer by scoring two runs of their own to bring the game to a 6-5 Statesmen lead. Both teams would put a pair of zeros up on the scoreboard until the bottom of the seventh when Park View tied the game up at 6-6. Both teams would continue to make great plays preventing the other from scoring. Ben Gibbs made a diving catch at shortstop with zero outs and runners at first and second. He was able to secure the catch and double up the runner at second, killing Park View’s chances of scoring. Camden Tucker saved the game by catching a fly ball in center field and throwing out a tagging up runner at the plate. Eventually, in the top of the 11th Jayden Gee would score on a wild pitch by Jake Brame to bring the score to 7-6 with Statesmen leading. Gibbs would close the game out on the mound in the bottom of the 11th to give the Statesmen a 7-6 victory. The Statesmen would rack up 18 hits in this game. Gibbs had a four hit game, while Tucker Webb, Jayden Gee and Lucas Skelton had three hits apiece in the contest.

The Statesmen have a busy week ahead of them as they will play two straight games. On Wednesday, April 13, the Statesmen will host Amelia with a game time of 5 p.m. On Thursday, April 14, the Statesmen will host Bluestone with a game time of 5 p.m.