While it was Senior Night for the Orange baseball team on Friday night, a junior grabbed the spotlight with his first pitching start of the season.
One year to the day of his last mound appearance, Oliver Van Tiem threw the opening inning on Friday night. Van Tiem, who has committed to North Carolina, has played in all 18 games for Orange this season but hasn’t pitched due to an injury to his right arm.
Van Tiem struck out the side in his first and only inning against Durham School of the Arts, then went to centerfield. Senior Cam Brown took the ball and the win as the Panthers rolled to a 13-0 victory in five innings.
Orange scored eight runs in the first inning, sending 14 batters to the plate. Junior J.P. Rodio laced a double that slammed off the left field fence to score Kayden Bradsher for the opening run.
Five of Orange’s six seniors scored. First baseman Wren Hash hit a triple to right field to score Van Tiem. Brown lifted a double to right field in the opening frame to score Hash. Jackson Nobles was hit by a pitch and eventually scored when Gary Miller lifted a double down the left field line.
Ryan Sawyer, starting in right field, singled in just his third plate appearance on the season. Sawyer scored twice, added a run in the third inning off an RBI single from Bradsher.
Wyatt Nobles, another senior who will attend the ROTC program at Virginia Tech next fall, scored his first run of the season in the fourth inning off a bases-loaded walk by Hash. Brown supplied an RBI single to score Rodio.
Brown, a week after earning his first save in a win over South Granville, threw four shutout innings without conceding a hit. Durham School of the Arts’ Maurici Di Bona got the Bulldogs only hit of the game with a leadoff double down the left field line off Van Tiem
The Panthers (12-7 overall, 5-3 in the Big 7 Conference) will host J.F. Webb in Hillsborough on Tuesday.
Softball: Orange 15, Carrboro 0, three innings:
Katie Carden, Natalie Roberson, Hayleigh Hammond, Addison Guentensberger and Mariah Cook were honored on Senior Night at Orange Softball Field before the Lady Panthers win over the Jaguars on Saturday night.
Orange (6-9, 5-2) got three runs from Carden. The Lady Panthers drew eleven walks.
Malynne Roemmich threw a no-hitter in three innings, walking just one batter in 52 pitches. She struck out five.
Guentensberger knocked in Hammond off a sacrifice bunt for the opening run. Roberson scored after Payton Adams was hit by a pitch. Sophomore Kylee Allen delivers a bunt that plated Roberson. Cook, who was hit by a pitch earlier in the inning, put Orange ahead 4-0 off a throwing error.
Adams would tack on another run on another run off a wild pitch. Allen scored off a sacrifice fly off a fly ball to centerfield hit by Valentina Rodriguez that was caught by Claire O’Brien.
The Lady Panthers added eight more runs in the second inning. Orange loaded the bases when Carden reached on an error, Roberson lined a single to left field and Cook got on board off a fielder’s choice. With Payton Adams at the plate, Carden would score off a wild pitch to increase the lead to 7-0. Roberson also came in off a wild pitch. After Allen walked, Roemmich sent a sacrifice fly that was caught by O’Brien, allowed Cook to touch the plate. Adams scored off another wild pitch to put Orange ahead 10-0. Carden drew a bases-loaded walk to score Allen. Hammond added another run off a bases-loaded walk by Roberson.
Carrboro (3-11, 1-6) got its only baserunner off a walk from junior Vivian Martin.
