LUMBERTON — Walking off the mound after getting out of the disastrous top of the fifth inning, Lumberton starter Evan Odum looked up to the sky in disbelief while walking back to the dugout.

After he retired Richmond in order over the first three innings, the Raiders strung together hits and capitalized on the Pirates’ errors to claim an 8-2 Southeastern Conference win on Wednesday. The win gives the Raiders a two-game cushion in the SEC standings.

“They just came out and swung the bats well,” Lumberton coach Jeff McLamb said. “I feel like earlier in the game when we had the bases loaded and we didn’t score, they got the momentum from that.”

Odum pitched six innings and surrendered four earned runs on eight hits and struck out eight batters.

“I thought he struggled with his command there in a couple innings, but other than that, they just came out and hit it,” McLamb said.

Lumberton (10-7, 3-2 SEC) took a 1-0 lead in the first when Odum doubled to left field and his pinch runner, Josh Smith, scored when Daniel Carter reached on an error by Myles Rohleder at shortstop.

The Pirates’ bats never were unable to consistently hit Richmond (15-3, 5-0 SEC) starter Nick Honeycutt who cruised to the win after getting run support in the middle innings. He pitched a complete game and allowed four hits and fanned five Pirate batters.

“He’s not an overpowering pitcher, but he’s a good pitcher. He’s got a lot of movement and he hits his spots and he did exactly what we needed him to do tonight,” Richmond coach Ricky Young said.

After seeing Odum one time through the order, the Raiders flourished at the plate and put the pressure on the Lumberton defense while putting the ball in play.

Richmond hung five runs in the fourth inning with three runs coming early in the inning on errors once its bats started to heat up against Odum. Nick Locklear plated two runs later in the frame with a double to center to put the Raiders up 5-1.

“We only had three errors, but two of them were big,” McLamb said. “We told them coming in that we had to pretty much play flawless… Against a good team like Richmond, you make mistakes like that and it’s going to open up the gates.”

In the next inning, Richmond came back to stretch the lead to 7-1 in the top of the fifth inning with a RBI single from Chase Haywood and a sacrifice fly from Dalton Leviner.

“I thought the first time through we didn’t do a good job of sticking to the plan. We kind of chased some pitches out of the zone and weren’t very disciplined,” Young said. “Once we got through the lineup one time and got the nerves out, I feel like we did a really good job of executing.”

Richmond was led at the plate by Jonathan Lee who went 3-for-4.

Carter grounded out to first base in the fifth inning to score AJ Brooks and make it a 7-2 game. Carter, Odum, Nolan Locklear and Kris Allen each registered a hit for Lumberton.

Both teams finish out the series tomorrow in Rockingham with a 7 p.m. first pitch. With a win, the Raiders can lengthen their lead in the SEC regular season title race.

“We’ve just got to come out and swing the bats better on Friday,” McLamb said. “I’d like to get up early on them and put some pressure on them and see what happens.

“If we can split with them, I feel like we are right back in the driver’s seat.”

Jonathan Bym | The Robesonian Lumberton’s Daniel Carter dives back to first and gets under the tag after reaching on a single against Richmond on Wednesday.
https://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_Daniel.jpgJonathan Bym | The Robesonian Lumberton’s Daniel Carter dives back to first and gets under the tag after reaching on a single against Richmond on Wednesday.
Richmond beats Lumberton 8-2 to maintain SEC lead

By Jonathan Bym

[email protected]

Jonathan Bym can be reached at 910-816-1977. Follow him on Twitter @Jonathan_Bym.