The Richmond senior baseball team has enjoyed a successful summer season by winning 11 games in a row.

They hope their success will continue was head into the Central Carolina Scholastic Summer Baseball League tournament.

Richmond earned a first-round bye after capturing the Southwest division. The Raiders will play the winner of the Jack Britt-Middle Creek contest at Pine Forest High School on Thursday at 8 p.m.

If Richmond wins, the Raiders will move onto the semifinal round. The semifinals and finals will be played at Lee County High School on Friday and Saturday.

“ With us having a few days off, we’re definitely going to take some batting practicing, and let our pitchers throw some in the bull pen,” Richmond coach Kevin Wallace said. “We also going to work on fielding ground balls and catching fly balls on defense. I feel we’re going to be ready to play once the time comes.”

Wallace felt the Raiders were a little sluggish against rival Scotland Wednesday before coming back to win 8-4.

“Anytime we can beat Scotland, it’s always a huge win,” Wallace said. “We started out committing three errors in the first inning and were down 2-0. I think we were just a little too over-anxious going against our rivals, but we settled down and put runs on the board. Chandler stepped up at the plate and he also did an outstanding job on the mound of keeping them off-balance.”

Ace Ricky Holden pitched two scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh to earn the win. Wallace said Holden will continue to be on a pitch count during the Raiders stay in the tourney. Wallace added the Raiders will also continue to work in different pitchers on the mound.

“We want to win, but we aren’t going to change what we done in terms of getting some innings out of our pitchers,” Wallace said. “During this winning streak, we’ve gotten solid innings out of our guys. They’ve done a good job of throwing first-pitch strikes.”

Richmond’s strong play during the summer has caught the eye of new varsity baseball coach Ricky Young. According to Wallace, Young got a first-hand look at the team when the Raiders blanked Southern Lee 4-0 on July 9.

“He told me there were some good things that he witnessed,” Wallace said. “He feels like there is a lot of potential to work with.”

Before looking ahead to next spring’s high school season, Wallace wants the Raiders to concentrate on finishing out the summer strong.

“It would mean a lot to go through the tournament and win it,” Wallace said. “The baseball program has gone through a lot this summer with a coaching change and we also started out slow. But we’ve come together as a team, and we hope this will lead to us vying for the state championship next season.”

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