Photo by Joe Trojanowski
CARRBORO–“Somebody better hurry up and decide something!”
That’s a sentence that’s been said an awful lot over the last few days in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area.
It was no different at Carrboro Jaguars Baseball Field on Tuesday night. Except this time, it didn’t pertain to Hubert Davis or UNC basketball coaching search.
Instead, a fan made the directive as Orange baseball coach Jason Knapp and Carrboro head coach Rick Taylor huddled with the umpires along the third baseline to decide whether their teams should keep playing into the seventh inning.
By then, it was past 7 o’clock and the sun had set. Carrboro Jaguars Field doesn’t have lights and all the sunlight had been spent. The shadows that stretched only in corners of the outfield at first pitch at 5:08PM now covered the entire field.
Instead of starting the seventh, the game was stopped once both sides figured another full inning may take 20-30 minutes. Since it was past the fifth inning, it was an official contest and Orange was declared the winner leading 10-7.
(Davis was fired after the game.)
It wasn’t the most climactic way to earn its first conference win, but a young Orange team beset by injuries needed something to go its way.
Orange was the more advantageous squad on Tuesday, taking advantage of five Carrboro errors to score seven unearned runs. Junior J.P. Rodio notched three runs.
Orange (4-5, 1-2 in the Big 7) won in the first conference matchup with Carrboro since 2009.
Carrboro (2-8. 0-3) trailed 7-2 going into the bottom of the fourth before staging a rally. Parker Currin delivered a two-run single that rolled into left field to score Max Trojanowski and Josh Stewart, who was running for pitcher Evan Stowe, which reduced the Panthers lead to 7-6 in the fifth inning. Currin reached third base after Owen Rounsley grounded out to Rodio at shortstop. With the tying run 90 feet away, Orange starting pitcher Ryan Sawyer struck out Tennyson Litchfield for the third out on three pitches to end the frame.
Orange sent nine batters to the plate in the sixth inning, scoring three times. Cam Brown flew down the first base line on a ground ball to Currin at third base for a leadoff infield single. Rodio followed with a single to centerfield. Van Tiem delivered a single to the left field gap that brought in Brown. After Mason Bullard loaded the bases with a walk, first baseman Wren Hash grooved a single over the second base bag to score Rodio and Van Tiem.
Sophomore Cam Stone replaced Sawyer on the hill in the sixth inning. Carrboro shortstop Andrew Jones scored off a single by Evan Stowe to right field. With Max Trojanowski at second and Stowe at first, Carrboro’s Hiroki Hasegawa sent a grounder to Hash at first base. Hash got the ball to Stone at first to retire Hasegawa on a borderline call to end the inning and, as it turned out, the game.
With Carrboro leading 2-1, Orange scored twice in the second inning to take the lead permanently. Gavin Clayton rolled a ground ball into left field for an RBI single to score Gary Miller. Jackson Nobles, who reached on a dropped ball in left field earlier in the inning, scored off a wild pitch with Rodio at the plate.
Orange scored three times in the fourth to increase its lead to 7-2. Brown led off with a double down the left field line. Rodio reached on an infield hit sent to Jones at shortstop. As Jones made a desperation throw to first, it got bay from Trojanowski, the Carrboro first baseman. Brown scored off the errant throw. Van Tiem reached on another Carrboro error, which led to Rodio scoring. Against a drawn in Carrboro infield, Hash grounded a ball to Jones, who threw to the plate. Van Tiem moved around the tag from catcher Avery Cooney and was ruled safe.
