The rain finally came down late Thursday, but not before the Richmond Ninth Grade Academy Gold baseball team was able to outshine its opponent.

Behind Ryan Mercer’s two-hit, seven-strikeout complete game, the Gold team blanked Lumberton 9-0 to capture their first victory of the season at Memorial Park. The win snapped the team’s two-game losing streak.

“The hardest thing to do for a team is to learn how to win,” Gold team coach Sam Williams said. “Sometimes you’ve got to lose a few to see what you were doing wrong and what you need to change. We played better defense than we had before and we didn’t kick it around. Our infield did a great job of making plays on a wet field and our outfield did a good job of keeping the ball in front of them.”

Mercer had his no-hit bid broken up in the sixth when Connor Bridgeman led off with a single. The Pirates threatened to break up the shutout later in the inning after they loaded the bases with one out.

Mercer escaped without giving up a run after coaxing Evan Spaulding to hit a ground ball back to the mound. Mercer tossed to Lucas Newton for the force out at the plate and Newton fired to first to compete the double play and end the inning.

“It was good to keep them from scoring,” Mercer said. “I felt my fastball had good movement and good speed all game long. My breaking ball was moving well. The catchers (Jesse Cobb and Newton) were giving me good targets and I had a solid defense behind me the whole game.”

The Gold team (1-2) led 2-0 after the first inning. Austin Brower and Todd Bryant started the game with back-to-back singles. A pass ball allowed Brower and Bryant to advance to second and third. Mercer helped his owned caused with a sacrifice to score Brower giving Richmond a 1-0 lead. A Lumberton throwing error allowed Bryant to score the Gold team’s second run of the inning.

Richmond increased the advantage to 7-0 in the second as Bridgeman had trouble with his command. After Daniel Sweat’s one-out single, Bridgeman walked Tyler Brown and Brower to load the bases. After a strikeout, Bridgeman walked Mercer forcing Sweat home and pushing the advantage to 3-0. Bridgeman’s wild pitch allowed Brown to score to make it 4-0, then Alex Clark cleared the bases with a triple to extend the lead to 7-0.

The Gold tacked on single runs in the third and fourth to finish out the scoring.

“We came out hitting the ball, and we also got some timely hitting that helped us put up some runs,” Williams said. “Overall, it was a good all-around performance and hopefully we can build some momentum off this win.”

The Gold team next game is against Pinecrest at Memorial Park on Monday starting at 4:30 p.m.

n Contact sports reporter Corey Davis at 997-3111, ext. 44; e-mail cdavis@yourdailyjournal.com