Considering only 13 miles separate Orange and Eastern Alamance High Schools, it’s somewhat surprising that the last time they played in baseball was 2015.
Back then, Bryse Wilson and Brad Debo were sophomores and Jordan Toney was winding down his stint at Orange en route to pitching at UNC Pembroke.
On Wednesday night, the Panthers made up for lost time in Mebane.
Coming off a disappointing nine-inning loss to Western Alamance in the season opener, Orange jumped out to a 6-0 lead and went on to defeat the Eagles 6-2.
In his first start of the season, Orange starter Jordan Underwood went three innings for the win. Underwood didn’t allow any hits and surrendered two hits, striking out three.
Orange, which didn’t have a hit until the fifth inning against Western Alamance, had five of its six hits in the opening three innings against the Eagles.
Senior shortstop Joey Berini and first baseman Will Walker each finished 1-for-3 with a double.
Orange put the leadoff batter aboard in all seven innings. In the second, sophomore right fielder Connor Funk singled to right field and took second off a error. After catcher Ethan Guentensberger bunted Funk over to third on a sacrifice, Funk scored off a wild pitch while Tucker Miller was at bat.
With two out in the second, Jaren Sikes doubled to right field. In the subsequent at-bat, Bryce Clark sent a bloop to centerfield to bring in Sikes. Later, Sikes advanced to third in the middle of Berini’s second plate appearance, which ended in a walk. Sikes scored off a wild pitch as Cooper Hench was at the plate to put Orange’s lead at 3-0.
Walker opened the third with a double to the left field fence. Underwood, batting cleanup for the first time in his career, knocked in Walker with a sacrifice fly to right field. Underwood, who had only three plate appearances in his varsity career going into Wednesday, picked up his first RBI as a Panther.
Orange broke the game open with two runs in the fourth. Berini drew a leadoff walk and went to second as Hench grounded out to Eastern second baseman Gavin Hughes. Walker was hit by a pitch. With one out, Underwood sent a bouncer back to pitcher Kasen McCawley, who tried but failed to throw Walker out at second. With the bases loaded, Funk was hit by a pitch, which scored Berini. Walker advanced to third and eventually scored off another Eastern wild pitch.
Eastern’s only runs came in the sixth inning. Trevor Moore, who started on the mount. sent a one-out double to left field. Joey Teixeira singled in Moore and eventually wound up a third after an error in the outfield. Eastern’s Wes Barrow singled in Teixeira with a liner to left field.
Orange sophomore Mason Thompson replaced Underwood in the top of the fourth inning. He allowed three hits and two runs with two strikeouts and no walks.
Freshman Ryan Hench threw the final one-and-two-thirds innings. He surrendered only one hit with one strikeout.
Orange will host Northern Guilford on Saturday afternoon at 1 o’clock. You can hear the game on Hillsboroughsports.com starting at 12:55.