ROCKINGHAM — Although the 2019 campaign didn’t end with the state championship trophy in hand, the Richmond softball team has a lot to celebrate when looking back on its seventh consecutive 20-plus win season.
Not many teams can say they swept their conference’s regular season and tournament titles, earned the No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs, went on a winning streak of nine games or more twice and led the state in home runs all in the same year.
But the Lady Raiders can.
They can also brag on the fact that they shut out nearly half of their opponents on their way to a 25-3 overall record (one of the best win percentages in the state) and brought home the Beach Diamond Invitational championship.
“We accomplished a lot of our goals,” head coach Wendy Wallace said. “Obviously we wanted to go deeper into the playoffs, but we still had a great season. There were still a lot of positives throughout.”
The driving force behind a lot of those positive moments was a few hard-to-replace leaders in Savannah Lampley, Taylor Parrish and Greyson Way — who ended their careers as one of the most winningest senior classes in program history.
Lampley was a threat all around (48 runs scored, 37 stolen bases, 36 hits, 27 RBI, 4 HRs) and Parrish swung the bat with some of the best in the state (49 RBI, 42 hits, 13 HRs, 1.044 slugging percentage, .467 batting average) while Way made her presence felt at the plate (29 RBI, 26 hits, 10 HRs) and in the circle (219 strikeouts, 23 wins, 2.01 ERA).
“They were a special group,” Wallace said of the senior trio. “They’re going to be hard to replace leadership wise and state wise, both offensively and defensively, but I think they left the girls who will return with an idea of what’s expected.”
The Lady Raiders kicked off the season with a slippery win over Anson and then ran off eight in a row to be land at a perfect 9-0 after the first month of play. During that stretch, they hit at least one home run in seven straight games and came within one homer of tying the program record for most in a single game on two separate occasions.
Richmond split its next four games — one of the two losses being to Lumberton, which was its first regular-season loss to a conference opponent since 2016 — before winning the next 14 to propel itself to the 25-win mark.
Freshmen Kenleigh Frye and Allyiah Swiney helped the team bounce back from the Lumberton loss with a couple of perfect nights at the plate at Seventy-First; junior Kayla Hawkins and sophomore Payton Chappell each a home run in a shutout win over Piedmont the following night; sophomore Paige Ransom hit a three-run shot at the Beach Diamond Invitational a couple of weeks later; junior Madison Jordan brought in two runs with a longball in the conference tournament title game; and freshman Maylyn Wallace contributed each time she came in to run the bases.
That kind of production from everyone in the lineup, from the seniors all the way down to the freshmen, is a trend that started within the program nearly a decade ago and continues to set the Lady Raiders apart from the competition.
“I’m very blessed that players come to me ready to compete at a high level,” Wallace said. “With them playing so much travel ball and having great community coaches, they have the ability to step right in. We’ve been lucky to have two or three (freshmen) every year … and that just helps build our program because of the experience they get early on.”
Richmond used its balanced attack to crush Ardrey Kell 15-3 in the second round of the state playoffs before suffering a 6-5 defeat at the hands of Providence in the third — which ended its two-year streak of making it to the regional finals.
The Lady Raiders reluctantly say goodbye to their three seniors as they look forward to next season.
Wallace says she knows the 2020 group will be ready to go offensively. The biggest question mark, however, is is going to be who takes over throwing duties. She went away from a having two pitchers share the circle once Way became a junior, but that approach will more than likely make its way back into the gameplan as the team tries to reload.
“We’ll have a great group that will be able to score runs and I know they’re going to come out and compete,” she said, “but somebody is going to have to step into that role and consistently throw strikes and allow us to play defense.”
NOTES: Lampley, Parrish and Way make up the first senior class in Wallace’s tenure to have each member sign up to play softball at the next level … Lampley will spend the next four years enjoying the beach at UNC-Wilmington … Parrish will be taking her talents to Pfeiffer University … Way is looking forward to becoming a Spartan at UNC-Greensboro.
Richmond’s Savannah Lampley (12) gives a high-five to Taylor Parrish (3) during a game against Jack Britt on March 19, 2019. Both seniors played a huge role in the Lady Raiders going 25-3, winning both the Sandhills Athletic Conference’s regular season and tournament titles and earning the No. 1 overall seed in the 4A NCHSAA State Playoffs this past season.