Month: May 2021

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is senior Kayla Brooks. On Thursday in her senior day meet at Auman Stadium, Brooks had two first place finishes against Northern Durham and Vance County. In the discuss, Brooks finished with a new personal best of 65 feet, one inch. In the shot put, Brooks had a throw of 29 feet, two inches. It was her third first place finish of the season. In the opening meet of the year against Cedar Ridge and Southern Durham on April 29, Brooks finished first in the shot put. Her throw of 29 feet, two inches was a new personal best for Brooks. Kayla comes from a family of Panthers. Her father was a football player under head coaches Greg Gentry and Tom Eanes. Kayla’s final meet happened inside the very stadium where her father played football. She is also a cheerleader who rooted on the Panthers during the chilly, early days of spring. When Kayla graduates next month, she plans on attending Baylor University in Waco, Texas. First, Kayla has more track meets to focus on, starting this Thursday at Northwood High in Pittsboro in a tri-meet that will also include Cedar Ridge. She aims to qualify for next month’s 3A Mideast Regionals at Southern Lee High School. Away from the athletic fields, Kayla has also spoken to freshman at Orange who have had difficulty making the transition from middle school to high school. As she moves forward, Kayla will continue to serve as a positive influence, be in the Tar Heel State or the Lone Star State.

As crowds start to fill sports arenas and restrictions created by COVID-19 are eased back, it appears the pandemic may be showing signs of finally fading.

Its prolonged impact on high school sports, however, will continue to be felt for the remainder of this academic year.

Ordinarily, the Orange wrestling team would have already clinched a spot in the State Dual Team Tournament, which the Panthers have won five times in two different classifications.

But the North Carolina High School Athletic Association isn’t sanctioning a team tournament this year.

While individual champions will be crowned at the regional and state levels, the closest thing to a team championship Orange can earn this year will be this week.

And if there’s one thing that hasn’t changed in a pandemic world, it is Orange and Chapel Hill dueling for the Big 8 Conference Wrestling championship.

On Tuesday night, Orange and Chapel Hill will meet for the Big 8 title at Tiger Gymnasium for all the marbles. For the first time in 18 years, Orange will be looking to beat the team, as opposed to its unusual spot of being THE team.

Last January, Chapel Hill ended Orange’s streak of 16 consecutive conference championships in three different classifications with a stunning 32-30 win. It happened on Orange’s senior night.

Chapel Hill’s Porter Brice, then a freshman who was three years shy of being born the last time Orange didn’t win a conference title, scored a pin in the final match to send the Chapel Hill bench into a frenzy. It was the first time Chapel Hill wrestling defeated Orange in 32 years.

It was also Orange’s first conference loss since 2003.

Obviously, there’s nothing ordinary about that. Nor is there anything ordinary about wrestling in the spring, usually a sport contested in the dead of winter.

Third-year head coach Spencer Poteat, whose experience with Orange wrestling dates back to 1990 as a freshman under a young first-year head coach brand new from Chapel Hill named Bobby Shriner, doesn’t have his usual full allotment of wrestlers. Some are competing in track and field. A few are playing baseball.

For the first time possibly ever, Orange has had to forfeit every match at 106-pounds in all eleven of its dual matches this year.

The cherished wrestling room, where Poteat honed his skills in the 1990s en route to 102 career wins, isn’t even available right now. That’s sort of like the Pope being thrown out of Rome.

“We have maintenance going on right now in both of our rooms,” Poteat said. “They’re working on some air ducts. We have to practice in the gym. Everybody just has to adjust and keep moving.”

The Panthers have moved on. They’re 11-0, 6-0 in the Big 8 Conference. Senior Kessel Summers, a 132 pounds, is 11-0. He clinched his 100th career win after a forfeit win over Vance County on May 4.

Matthew Smith-Breeden is 9-2 with six pins. On May 13, Smith-Breeden pinned Riverside’s Ethan Louesy in 2:24, then claimed a forfeit win against Hillside. Smith-Breeden, who had 30 wins as a sophomore, also defeated Northwood’s Ian Morrison 10-2 in the Panthers’ 60-9 win over the Chargers on May 11.

At heavyweight, Tyler Larkin is 9-2 with six pins. Brendon Worsham, who finished with football season just in time for the wrestling season opener against East Chapel Hill on April 27, is 9-1.

For a program that relied on emotional balance regardless of the dozens of conference championships and regional titles it won across three decades, how does Orange respond after finishing second? It’s a question that all sports dynasties, from the Boston Celtics of the 1960s to UNC women’s soccer of the 1990s, had to answer at some point.

On Tuesday, Orange will have to find its own response if it wants to win the only championship it can this year as a team.

“This senior class, as juniors, they experienced something that this team hadn’t experienced in a long time,” Poteat said. “Chapel Hill did a great job last year in winning the conference championship. Our goal is to come and win it this year.”

Robert Jones: After capturing the gold medal at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Championships in the high jump, former Cedar Ridge Red Wolf Robert Jones earned his third victory of the season. Last weekend, Jones finished first in the men’s high jump at the Aggie Classic Twilight at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. Jones’ winning jump was 2.05 meters. This season, Jones has not finished outside the top-five in any of the events he’s competed in. He now heads to the NCAA Eastern Regional Championships, which will start Thursday inside Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida.

Mia Davidson: The Mississippi State softball team’s season came to an end over the weekend in the Stillwater Regional of the NCAA Softball Tournament. The Bulldogs opened play with a 3-1 win over Boston University on Friday afternoon at Cowgirl Stadium in Stillwater, OK. On Saturday afternoon, #5 Oklahoma State defeated Mississippi State 9-3. In the elimination game on Saturday night, Mississippi State easily defeated Campbell 12-0 in five innings. Oklahoma State eliminated the Bulldogs 10-2 in five innings on Sunday afternoon. Mia Davidson opened the tournament going 1-for-3 against the Terriers. She had an RBI fielder’s choice to score Aquana Brownlee in the fifth inning. In the first game against the Cowgirls, Mia went 1-for-3. Against Campbell, Davidson hit the 69th home run of her career. That moved her into sole possession of 2nd place all-time in Southeastern Conference history. It was also her third home run in the NCAA Tournament for Mississippi State, another school record. Mississippi State broke a school record with four home runs in an NCAA Tournament game. In the third inning, Mia tagged out Campbell’s Katelyn Chisholm at the plate. Davidson went 1-for-2 in her final game of the season. Mississippi State took a 1-0 lead in the opening inning after Davidson drove in a run with a single up the middle. It was her seventh career RBI in the NCAA Tournament, which is third in school history. She also reached base for the 20th straight game, a new career-high. Mia ended the year with a .311 batting average after starting all 60 of the Bulldogs’ games. She was second on the team with 17 home runs. She also registered 42 RBIs. Davidson, who was accepted into graduate’s school last month, will enter her senior season only two home runs shy of the SEC record, held by Florida’s Lauren Haeger.

Montana Davidson: Montana started all four of Mississippi State’s games at third base in the NCAA Tournament. Against Boston University, she singled up the middle in the sixth to knock in Christian Quinn for the game’s final run. Montana finished 1-for-3 against the Terriers. She went 0-for-3 against Oklahoma State. Later in the day against Campbell, Montana finished 1-for-3. She scored in the 3rd inning off a Carter Spexarth. On Sunday, Davidson drove in the final Mississippi State run of the year with a single in the 2nd inning. For the season, Montana finished with a .252 batting average in 58 games. She had three home runs and 21 RBIs. Mississippi State finished the year 34-23, which included an 8-game winning streak down the stretch. Montana is a senior, but can opt for another year of eligibility after the COVID-19 pandemic ended the 2020 season before the NCAA Tournament started.

Tori Dalehite: After winning the Southern Conference Championship for the first time, the UNC Greensboro softball team participated in the NCAA Tournament for the first time this weekend. Duke defeated the Spartans 2-0 in the opening game of the Athens, Georgia regional at the University of Georgia. Western Kentucky ended the Spartans season 8-4 in the elimination game at Jack Turner Stadium. Dalehite, a freshman, didn’t play in either game. This year, Dalehite appeared in 12 games, almost exclusively as a pinch runner. She had one at-bat, walked once and scored six runs. UNCG finished 34-17, 14-4 in the Southern Conference.

Shuttling between the Gwinnett Stripers of Triple-A East and the Atlanta Braves hasn’t shaken Bryse Wilson in his sixth professional season.

Wilson had the longest start of his Major League career on Saturday afternoon as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-1 at Truist Park. In six-and-two-thirds innings, Wilson surrendered only one run on five hits. He struck out four and conceded two walks, as well as a home run to Pittsburgh catcher Michael Perez. Wilson improved to 2-2 on the year.

For the cherry on top of the sundae, Wilson added his first hit of the season with a line drive to right field. In his first plate appearance, Pittsburgh starter Mitch Keller nearly hit Wilson in the face with a fastball. Wilson barely eluded it and it struck his right hand.

As was the case with his first win of the season against the Chicago Cubs on April 18, Wilson received plenty of run support. Home run support, that is.

Atlanta Manager Brian Snitker, a former player with the Durham Bulls during their days in the Carolina League, praised Wilson’s variety of pitches.

“When he had his debut against the Pirates [in 2018] that was the one thing that stood out, was that changeup,” Snitker said. “Personally I think he started messing with the slider so much that he lost feel of his changeup a little bit. Two starts ago in [Triple-A] Gwinnett, he broke out his changeup really well and it’s a really good pitch for him. The fact that he throws strikes is huge. I’m just glad when he got hit that it didn’t affect him.”

Third baseman Ozzie Albies slammed two home runs, one from each side of the plate, to propel the Braves to a 5-1 lead at the end of five innings. Ronald Acuna Jr. led off the first with a dinger against Keller, who fell to 2-6.

“Fastball command was good,” Wilson said. “We were able to keep them on their heels between the four-seam and the two-seam, and the changeup was really good today. Really I was just able to pound the zone and throw a lot of strikes.”

Wilson’s best start in a Braves uniform came six days after his franchise-record streak of winning seven consecutive starts for the Gwinnett Stripers of Triple-A East came to an end. Last Sunday, Wilson had a no decision after he surrendered four runs off ten hits in six innings against the Louisville Bats at Coolray Field. He struck out three and walked none.

Though it had been known by local friends and family for several days, the Braves formally called Wilson up from Gwinnett on Saturday morning after optioning Jacob Webb back to Triple-A following the Braves 20-1 mauling of the Pirates on Friday night.

It was the second straight start where Wilson went six innings. On May 11 against Toronto, Wilson left the game with Atlanta leading 3-2. Against the Blue Jays, Wilson struck out five in six innings. He yielded two runs off six hits with no walks on 84 pitches.

Wilson now has a career Major League mark of 5-3. This season, he is 2-2 with a 4.38 ERA. He has 15 strikeouts and seven walks.

Atlanta is 22-24, two-and-a-half games behind the New York Mets for first place in the National League East. The Braves have a two-game series against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park starting Tuesday night. Next weekend, they face the Mets at Citi Field.

WIlson is a 2016 Orange High graduate who signed with Atlanta immediately after marching in the Smith Center. He is the first Orange High product to reach the Major Leagues. Josh Horton and Chris Maples reached the Triple-A level with the Oakland and Detroit organizations, respectively.

It was another big day for Orange runner Spencer Hampton on Thursday. Competing against Vance County and Northern Durham, Hampton won the 1,600 meters and the 3,200 meters at Auman Stadium in the final home meet of the year. Hampton finished the 1,600 in 4:32.10, a full nine seconds ahead of runner-up Gabe Schmidt. In the 3,200 meters, Hampton finished at 10:25.50, over 40 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Hampton has six first-place finishes this season. On May 6, Hampton won the 1,600 meters and 3,200 meters against East Chapel Hill. In Orange’s season-opening track event against Southern Durham and Cedar Ridge on April 29, Hampton finished the 1,600 meters in 4:27.80, then completed the 3,200 meters in 10:27.50. Hampton has already qualified for the 3A Mideast Regional Championships in the 1,600 meters, which will be held at Southern Lee High School in Sanford on June 19. Hampton is aiming to qualify for the state championships, but first he has a meet coming up on Thursday at Northwood High in Pittsboro that will also include Cedar Ridge.

Orange junior Jeffrey Faulkner set his personal best in the 400 meters during the senior day meet at Auman Stadium in Hillsborough. Competing against Northern Durham and Vance County, Faulkner finished the 400 in 52.04 seconds. Later, Faulkner finished 3rd in the 200 meters at 24.84, finishing just behind teammate Gasiah Drewery, who came in second. Since track and field season has been extended this year, Faulkner is focused on qualifying for the 3A State Championships. First, he and the rest of his Orange teammates will have to qualify through the 3A Mideast Regionals. That will be held at Southern Lee High School in Sanford on June 19. The 3A State Championships will be held on June 26. Next week, Orange will compete in a meet at Northwood High School in Pittsboro.

There’s something about playing Northwood that has brought out the best in Cedar Ridge baseball this year.

After a string of one-run losses and seven-inning rallies that fell short, Cedar Ridge cut a path to a surprisingly decisive 6-1 win over the Chargers at Red Wolves Territory on Friday night. Junior pitcher Cristian Macias earned his second win of the year on the mound as the Red Wolves (3-5, 3-4 in the Big 8 Conference) swept the season series from the Chargers for the first time ever in a rivalry that dates back to 2009.

“I credit our guys because they come out here every day and they work for one goal,” said Cedar Ridge Coach Bryson Massey. “We just try to get better every day. We can’t do anything about what’s happened the first half of the season. We’re just trying to play better each time we play.”

Northwood (5-3 overall, 4-3 in the Big 8 Conference) came into the game with wins in five of its last seven games, including a victory over Northern Durham last week. Northern captured a share of the Big 8 Conference Championship on Tuesday with a 4-0 win over Orange.

Sophomore Cedar Ridge shortstop B.J. Thornton set the right tone early with an RBI double to score junior first baseman Aidan McAllister in the 1st inning. It started a three-run opening frame for the Red Wolves that continued when Bryce Clark reached on an infield single. Thornton wound up scoring off a double steal when Clark raced for second. Garrett Ray doubled down the left field line to plate Clark.

“B.J. stepped up,” Massey said. “He’s a young guy in our lineup. We know he’s a ball player. He’s growing and maturing and we know he’s going to great things at Cedar Ridge.”

The top of the lineup pushed across three more runs for Cedar Ridge in the third inning. After Thornton took second off a dropped fly ball to start the frame, Clark lined an RBI single to left field. Macias sent a grounder to third base, which was fumbled and led to Clark scoring.

Catcher Tucker Cothran, on his senior night, lined a single to right to move Macias to third base. With Trent Kirby at bat, Northwood pitcher Zach Barnes was called for a balk, which allowed Macias to score.

After Macias was replaced as pitcher in the fourth inning, junior Will Berger had easily his best performance of the season. Berger, the younger brother of former Cedar Ridge All-Conference pitcher Phillip Berger, threw two-and-one-thirds innings of shutout baseball with three strikeouts. Senior Matt Hughes struck out the side in the seventh to conclude the Red Wolves’ most impressive game under Massey.

This season, Massey has used four different starting pitchers in seven contested games (Vance County and Southern Durham were forfeit wins). He’s coming closer to finding the top man in the rotation.

“As a coaching staff, we’ve talked about what gives us our best chance,” Massey said. “We’re going to roll out somebody every game that can compete in the first three innings. That’s where we’ve struggled. Keeping it close after three innings. We have shown that we can score runs late. But we just need to shut them down from the start. Tonight, we did that.”

Northwood scored its only run in the second inning when Jackson Shaner knocked in Walker Johnson with a sacrifice fly to left field, which was caught by Grady Ray. Johnson reached on a double to left field with one out, then moved to third off an error.

Cedar Ridge (4-5, 4-4) now ventures into an interesting stretch where they travel to Chapel Hill on Tuesday before hosting archival Orange next Friday.

Before the game, the Red Wolves held a ceremony to honor seniors Clark, Cothran, Kirby, Hughes, Grady Ray, Marco Velasquez and Hunter Shingleton.

There are errors that a defense commits in baseball that turn out to be only as big as a minnow in the sea.

Orange, on the other hand, made errors against East Chapel Hill the size of great white sharks.

The Panthers, who led 5-0 at the end of three innings, registered five errors in an 8-7 loss to East Chapel Hill at Wildcats Stadium on a steamy Friday afternoon. Trailing 7-5 going into the bottom-of-the-sixth inning, East scored three runs to win it. East’s Ben Smith scored the game-winning run as he advanced to third base off a wild pitch, and the subsequent pickoff throw ended up in left field.

It was a day of wayward throws by the Orange defense, which had been a consistently competent defensive unit in its opening five games. Until Friday, the Panthers hadn’t made more than two errors in a game.

That defensively ability seemed to wilt under the hot afternoon sun Friday, not long after the Panthers built a 5-0 lead. The Wildcats’ started its climb back when Finn Harris, who two on, blooped a single to left field. Patrick O’Connell, who led off the inning with a walk, raced for third base. The throw from left field wound up sailing over the Orange dugout and into the woods. O’Connell and Zack Wernoski, who singled to left field earlier, scored off the errant throw.

“We you have a five-run lead, you gotta bring it home,” said Orange Coach Jason Knapp. “We didn’t do that today. Credit (East Chapel Hill) Coach (Matt) Russell and East Chapel Hill. They continued to fight and fall and they got it done.”

After East’s Chris Horne walked, Nolan Parker hit a two-run single up the middle to bring in Harris and Horne and reduce Orange’s advantage to 5-4.

Ironically, defense helped Orange surge ahead early. In the first and third innings, East put its opening two batters on base with no outs, only to have the Panthers turn 6-4-3 doubles plays each time to keep the Wildcats scoreless.

The aforementioned errant throw in the fourth inning was typical on a weird day where the rawhide seemed to have the elasticity of a super bounce ball you could purchase for a quarter out of a 1980s gunball machine from the nearby A&P Grocery. In the first inning, Orange right field David Waitt scored from second base on a wild pitch. With Connor Funk batting, a fastball from Smith wound up in the dirt, sprung off catcher Ben Buchman’s shin guard and ricocheted halfway up the third base line. In an attempt to retrieve it, Smith booted the ball near the third-base coaches box, which allowed Waitt to race home. Jacob Jones, who was at first base, was tagged out by Smith in a race to third.

Jackson Berini scored off a sacrifice fly hit by Funk to shallow centerfield in the 3rd inning. Later, with the bases loaded, designated hitter Ryan Hench drilled a double to left field to score Waitt, Jones and Will Walker and increase Orange’s lead to 5-0.

After East scored four runs in the fourth, the Wildcats tied the game in the fifth inning. O’Connell led off with an infield single, moved over to second base on a sacrifice bunt from Zach Wernoski, went to third off a single from Harris and scored off an infield error on a ball hit by Noah Daniel.

Orange retook the lead with two runs in the sixth. After Walker and third baseman Cesar Lozano were each hit by pitches, Tyler Lloyd drilled a first-pitch fastball to centerfield that went over the head of Horne. Walker and Lozano scored to put Orange ahead 7-5.

Buchman drew a leadoff walk to start the bottom of the sixth. Ryder Jeske drilled a ground rule double that hopped over the left field wall to send Buchman to third. Smith reached on an infield error that brought in Buchman. O’Connell evened the game on an RBI groundout to Waitt, who had moved to second base after Funk was inserted as pitcher. Jeske came home on the groudout to tie the game.

It was a disappointment for Knapp and the rest of the Panthers, who defeated East 15-5 to start the season.

“We’re absolutely capable of being better than this,” Knapp said. “We have to correct some mental base running mistakes that have been sneaking up on us lately. And we have to shore up our defense.”

The Cedar Ridge baseball team had a memorable senior night on Friday. The Red Wolves rolled past Northwood 6-1 to complete a season sweep of the Chargers in Hillsborough. Senior Cather Tucker Cothran went 2-for-3, ending a week where he hit .428 over two games. Cothran had base hits in the first and third innings. In each frame, the Red Wolves scored three runs. First baseman Aidan McAllister, a junior, has been among the most consistent hitters for the Red Wolves this season. Against Orange, McAllister hit two home runs in as many innings. The win over Northwood was the first time ever that the Red Wolves swept the season series from the Chargers since they’ve been rivals in the Big 8 Conference. Though this year’s unusual format will keep the Red Wolves from making the state playoffs, Cothran and the rest of the Cedar Ridge seniors are set to make it a memorable finish to the season. Cedar Ridge will travel to Chapel Hill on Tuesday, then host Orange next Friday in a benefit for vs. Cancer. There will be lots of great baseball memorabilia that be raffled off, as well as great items from restaurants and shops from throughout Hillsborough.