By F.W. Manning II

Special to The Pilot

The Viking Senior team lost 3-0 to the Richmond Raiders in a Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League (CCSSL) baseball game Tuesday night at Union Pines.

The Vikings will face the Patriots at Pinecrest today (Thursday), with the game slated to begin at 7 p.m.

Adam Harward turned in a quality start on the mound for the Vikes despite being tagged with the loss. His curveball was really working wonders as he struck out six Raiders in five innings of work, while allowing just one run and four hits.

The game was scoreless through three innings of play, when Richmond's Jeremy Duten led off the top of the fourth with a homer to left-center. Richmond would score two unearned runs in the top of the sixth to stretch its lead to 3-0.

Union Pines had a tough day with the bats as it collected only one hit, a Harward single down the right-field line. The Vikes batted several hard balls in play, but the Raider defense was up to the task. On the night, Union Pines only had one runner reach second base and that was in the first inning. The Vikings did draw four walks, but they struck out 11 times.

With the loss, the Vikes are now 0-2 in the Southwest Division play and 1-3 on the year.

The Vike Junior team lost to Richmond on Monday, 16-3, making 12 errors in the process. After two innings Union Pines led 2-1, but then the Raiders blew the game open in the top of the third, scoring seven times on four errors and two balks.

Richmond added three earned runs in the top of the fourth on two walks, two hits and a sacrifice to take an 11-2 lead. The visitors scored five runs in the top of the sixth on three hits, four errors and two walks to lead 16-3. Union Pines then failed to score in the bottom of the sixth and the game ended via the 10-run mercy rule. The Junior team is now 1-1 in the division and 1-2 overall.

On Thursday, the Vike Junior squad travels to Lee Senior.