File Photo Richmond Senior’s Daniel Long missed the final four games of the season after breaking his hand against Scotland.

Chase Haywood

ROCKINGHAM — Seeing a left-handed batter in a lineup isn’t unusual, but Richmond Senior had more than its fair share last season.

Richmond coach Ricky Young penciled in at least three — Joseph Griffith, Chase Haywood and Cody Leviner — every game. At the end of the season, Young added a fourth to his lineup, Daniel Long.

The lefty-leaning lineup closed out the season with a 17-8 record, a second-place finish in the Southeastern Conference regular season, an SEC tournament title and advanced to the second round of the state 4A playoffs.

With all-SEC selections Griffith and Leviner moving on to college, Young will count on Haywood and Long next spring. In addition to his bat, Long is expected to contribute on the mound.

Young said when he elected to bring Haywood up to varsity and plug him in as the starting left fielder, he didn’t want to put any additional pressure on the rising junior.

“We were just expecting him to be himself. He is a good contact hitter, he has some pop,” Young said. “He’s a good baseball player, he did what we expected him to do. We knew we didn’t have the prototypical leadoff hitter, we knew he was a good contact hitter, very coachable and would do what we wanted him to do.

“I thought he had a good year especially toward the middle and end of the year. Experience started to take over and he started to do a lot better. We’re expecting big things out of him next year. We’re going to hit him in the middle of the lineup and we expect big things from him.”

Haywood added that he was surprised that he even made the varsity team and then he was thrust into the lineup as the No. 2 hitter before moving up to leadoff later in the year.

“I was a little nervous about it,” Haywood said. “First of all, it shocked me to be pulled up. Overall, I think I did decent, pretty good. I was satisfied with myself after every game. I didn’t expect it, I’m not complaining, but I really didn’t expect it.”

Long didn’t see much time as a hitter in the beginning of the season, but worked his way into the lineup as the starting designated hitter. Young thought Long was starting to come into his own as a hitter until the final game of the regular season at Scotland. After striking out, Long punched his bat and broke his hand.

“Early in the year we expected to get some big innings out of him and he threw some important innings for us,” Young said. “We expected him to contribute at the plate and I think he was really starting to find his stride at the plate. He really came along and had a couple of big games for us in big situations.

“He made a not very smart move and hopefully he will learn from it. That was a big loss for us late in the year. His bat was very important for us and that was a huge loss for us late in the year.”

Long knows he made a silly mistake.

“I knew my performance would keep going up and going up,” Long said. “I made that one stupid mistake and that messed up everything.”

Long is expected to stay and make his summer pitching debut tonight when he takes to the mound against the Southern Lee squad. Young added he is going to keep an eye on Long to make sure he doesn’t injure himself because he will be a vital cog in next spring’s pitching staff.

“We are going to rely on him a lot,” Young said. “Hopefully we will see him on the mound tomorrow. He threw a little bullpen yesterday and didn’t have any discomfort, so we are going to try to get two or three innings out of him tomorrow to see how he feels. We are expecting big things out of him.”

Long added he knows he has a long way to go to get his throwing arm back into shape.

“I threw a bullpen and I lost my velocity and I got to work back into it,” Long said. “It was bad…frustrating.”

Haywood thinks the upcoming season will be a good one for the Raiders. He thought last year’s team may have left some wins on the table, but is confident Richmond will rebound.

“I really do feel a lot better about this team because I grew up with them and played with them…I know what they got,” Haywood said. “Last year, I get pulled up to varsity, I really didn’t grow up with any of those kids so I didn’t know what we had or could do. We did pretty good, but this year I’m expecting a lot. I have high standards for me and the team.

“As long as we come together. It’s more about we and not me. I think we will do a lot better than last year.”

Reach managing editor Shawn Stinson at 910-817-2671 and follow him on Twitter @scgolfer.