Month: April 2018

Two years of being a quality utility player has paid off for Orange senior Caige Clayton, who signed with Division II Barton College last week. This season, Clayton leads Orange with 18 RBIs. He’s second on the team with a .361 average. In addition to playing 3rd base, Clayton is also a relief pitcher for the Panthers. He earned the first save of his career last week in Orange’s 4-3 win over defending Big 8 Champion Northwood. In 2017, Clayton joined the varsity team and hit .224 with two homes runs, 17 RBIs and five doubles. Clayton was a starter on an Orange team that went to the 3rd round of the 3A state playoffs.

A starter at 2nd base since his sophomore year, Orange’s Jason Slaughter signed with Division II Belmont Abbey last week. Slaughter hit .292 in his sophomore season with 19 hits and 12 RBI. Also in his sophomore season, Slaughter went 2-for-3 against South Johnston in the 3rd round of the state playoffs. Slaughter will play for the Crusaders, which won 27 of its last 32 games in 2017 and plays in Conference Carolinas.

With every passing week of the Big 8 Conference baseball season, it’s clear that the race for the league’s four state playoff spots may not be decided until the final day of the season.

That would appear to be good news for Cedar Ridge, who has the toughest part of its schedule in the rear view mirror.

On Friday, the Red Wolves completed a two-game sweep of Northern Durham with a 9-1 win at Knights Stadium. Cedar Ridge starter Phil Berger earned the win, throwing his 2nd complete game of the season to improve to 4-2. Berger is 3-1 in Big 8 starts this season and is the only pitcher in the league to beat Chapel Hill in 2018.

Berger also homered in the first inning. In the third, Berger put Cedar Ridge ahead 2-0 after an RBI double to center that scored Matthew Kahn.

After the Knights scored its only run in the 2nd, Cedar Ridge responded with three in the 4th. Chris Cox hit a leadoff infield single, went to second on a balk by Northern pitcher Jordan Snow, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Cooper Lamb.

After Kahn doubled to center, Adam Chnupa ripped a two-run home run over the left field wall. It was Chnupa’s 2nd home run of the season.

Cedar Ridge put the game on ice in the seventh inning with four runs. Jake DeFranco led off with a walk and scored on a sacrifice fly by his younger brother Dante DeFranco. Sailor Ramos and Cox hit back-to-back singles, followed by a walk by Lamb. With Eric Zehnder at bat, Ramos scored on a passed ball. Zehnder then singled to plate Cox and advance Cox to third. Kahn hit an infield single to score Kahn.

Cedar Ridge is now 8-5, 5-3 in the Big 8 with a critical two-game series against East Chapel Hill starting Tuesday. The Red Wolves travel to Burlington to face Walter Williams on Monday, then head to Wildcat Stadium to face the Wildcats on Tuesday.

Going into the East Chapel Hill series, Cedar Ridge is tied for 3rd in the Big 8 with Orange at 5-3. After sweeping Hillside last week, East Chapel Hill is tied with Chapel Hill for 1st place at 7-1. Northwood is tied with Northern Durham for 5th at 4-4. Those two teams start their. Own two-game series on Thursday in Pittsboro.

From not competing in his freshman season to wrestling for the 3A state championship at 195 pounds as a senior, Braden Homsey’s rise through the wrestling ranks for fast, but not without obstacles. Homsey won the 3A Mideast Regional Championship at 195 pounds. He finished 2nd in the state championship meet. Homsey led Orange with 41 victories this season with his only loss coming in the state championship match at the Greensboro Coliseum. On Friday, Homsey officially signed with Ferrum College, where his roommate will be his teammate, fellow Orange wrestler Bailey Hawkins.

After 135 wins over a 4-year career at Orange, Bailey Hawkins signed with Division III Ferrum College on Friday. Hawkins finished 4th in the 3A state tournament at 132 pounds in the Greensboro Coliseum in February. In his senior season, Hawkins went 135-45 with 75 pins in four full seasons as a starter, beginning his freshman season when he wrestled at 113 pounds. He finished in fourth place in the 3A Mideast Regionals at Chapel Hill High and was a member of two regional championship teams and four Big 8 Conference title squads that didn’t lose a regular season dual match in 2016 and 2017. 

In a rivalry game, usually the more desperate team wins.

On Friday, the Northwood Chargers were coming off a 4-3 loss to Orange that put them in sixth place in the Big 8 Conference at 3-4, ahead of only Southern Durham and Hillside. Only the top four finishers in the Big 8 are assured spots in the state playoffs.

It’s a long fall for a Northwood team that returned six starters, including its top pitcher, from a squad that won the Big 8 Championship and advanced to the 3A state quarterfinals in 2017.

Needless to say, Northwood was the more desperate team Friday night. And they won despite being held to four hits and just one run batted in.

The Chargers defeated Orange 5-2 at Ronald Horton Baseball Complex in Pittsboro. Northwood starter Tyler Johnson, who threw the final two-and-two-thirds innings on Tuesday night against Orange, earned the win going four-and-two-third innings, allowing one earned runs and four hits.

Orange (7-9 overall) falls into a tie for third place in the Big 8 with Cedar Ridge at 5-3. East Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill remain tied for first at 7–1 after sweeping Hillside and Southern Durham, respectively, this week.

Since losing to Cedar Ridge on March 19, the Tigers have won nine in a row. They host Orange on Tuesday night to start a huge two-game set next week.

The Panthers lack of hits with runners in scoring position was again a problem on Friday night. After going 0-for-9 with RISP last Friday against First Colonial in a 2-0 loss, Orange as 2-for-9 against the Chargers.

Yet Northwood was only 1-of-10 in the same category. But the Chargers scored four runs in the third inning off an assortment of Orange miscues.

Shortstop Bryce Davis, batting ninth, and Max Hundley drew walks to open the inning against Orange starter Dalton Brown. Catcher Jake McNeil sent a 1-2 grounder to shortstop Joey Berini that appeared to be a double play ball. After Hundley was retired at second, the relay throw got past first baseman Drew Clayton and went up the steep hill behind first base, allowing Davis to score and sending McNeil to third. Third baseman Trey Romel reached on an infield hit to second, pushing Northwood’s lead to 2-0 as McNeil scored.

Romel moved to second following a walk to left fielder Duece Powell, advanced to third on a fielder choice’s grounder by 1st baseman Davis Palermo, then scored on a wild pitch, sending Palermo to third. Palermo scored the final run of the inning off a balk by Brown.

Orange got on the board in the 5h inning after right fielder Colin Guentensberger opened with a walk. Guentensberger stole second and scored off an RBI single to right by Jason Slaughter. Johnson was replaced by Johnny Mazurek, but Orange sent the tying run to the plate after Caige Clayton and Cooper Porter loaded the bases. Mazurek got a strikeout to end the inning.

Orange left 12 men on base in the game.

In the 7th, Slaughter scored off a sacrifice fly to center by Mark Willms.

Orange had a chance to score first in the top of the 2nd inning. Porter doubled down the left field line in the 2nd, which was followed by Brown singling to right, sending Naz Powell (running for Porter) to third with one out. Johnson got out of the inning with a strikeout and a groundout to 2nd baseman Michael Posse.

Orange head coach Dean Dease is now at 498 career varsity victories.

In a stretch of three games in four days, the Cedar Ridge softball team hasn’t shown any signs of relenting from its dominant ways.

On Friday, the Red Wolves defeated Northern Durham 5-1 to remain atop the Big 8 Conference with a 5-1 win over the Knights in Durham. Cedar Ridge, now 8-1 overall and 7-0 in the Big 8. The Red Wolves are tied with East Chapel Hill for first place with a showdown series against the Wildcats set for next week, starting Tuesday at East.

Once again, Cedar Ridge senior pitcher Rivers Andrews overwhelmed batters over the course of a sweep of Northern Durham and a victory over 15-0 Chapel Hill on Wednesday.

In Tuesday’s 11-1 win over Northern, Andrews threw her second no-hitter of the season, striking out eight. Junior shortstop Tionna Carter laced two doubles, racking up two RBIs. Sophomore Tori Dalehite, hitting leadoff, went 2-for-4 with a double and a triple. Junior Taylor Ruhl set the pace with a home run in the first inning, her first dinger of the season.

Catcher Kymberlie Thacker ripped two triples and had two RBIs.

On Wednesday against Chapel Hill, Thacker belted two home runs, each two-run blasts. Dalehite scored three times, while Ruhl added another triple in a game shortened to three innings.

Friday’s 5-1 win over Northern was the closest anyone in the Big 8 has come to beating the Red Wolves. But Andrews was the common denominator, striking out 18 and throwing a two-hitter.

In the first, Dalehite drew a leadoff walk, and circled the bases during an at-bat by Ruhl. Dalehite stole 2nd, went to third on a passed ball and scored on a passed ball.

Carter followed with a triple to center, and scored on another passed ball as Andrews was at the plate. Northern came back in the bottom of the first with a solo homer from McKenzie McCullen, the first home run Andrews has surrendered this season.

The Red Wolves scored the final five runs of the game, starting in the third inning. After Dalehite drew a leadoff walk, Carter was hit by a pitch. With Andrews hitting, Dalehite and Carter each moved up a base after a passed ball. On the next pitch, Dalehite scored off another passed ball. With two out, Thacker plated Carter with an RBI double to put Cedar Ridge ahead 4-1.

In the top of the fourth, juniors Kara Wagoner and Taylor Barnes hit consecutive singles. Wagoner came in on a wild pitch.

After McCullen’s homer, Northern only had four batters reach base in the final six innings. The Knights had just one hit the rest of the way and no one touched third base.

Cedar Ridge plays at East Chapel Hill on Tuesday, then welcomes the Wildcats to Hillsborough on Friday. In addition, Cedar Ridge will play a nonconference game at Eastern Guilford on Wednesday.

There’s a small percentage of high school athletes who move on to play sports in college. Some make a mission from the time they leave elementary school. Bailey Lucas had no idea she could be a volleyball player in high school, much less one a college caliber player. Her friend and former Orange teammate Jordan Lloyd talked Lucas into playing at Stanford. Four years later, Lucas led Orange with 278 assists during her senior year. On Wednesday, she formally signed to play volleyball at Meredith College in Raleigh.