Like all other local baseball seniors, Brian Flores hasn’t had a traditional season since he started at Cedar Ridge.
The pandemic ended his sophomore season to only three games. Last season, the Red Wolves was limited to eleven games because of a reduced schedule mandated by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.
So when Coach Bryson Massey texted Flores that he was starting against Northwood in Pittsboro last Tuesday, no one knew what to expect. Certainly not Massey and Flores. Not to mention that Northwood may be the most hitter-friendly ballpark in the Central Carolina Conference.
Flores had a few relief appearances this season, the most recent coming against Person on March 15. Yet he had never started a game.
No one could have imagined that Flores would throw a complete game two-hitter against the Chargers. Or that he would take a no-hitter into the sixth inning after he walked Northwood’s Seth Davis to open the game. The Chargers’ Walker Johnson broke up the no-hitter with a double to left field, ending a string of 15 consecutive batters retired by Flores.
By that point, Cedar Ridge had largely put the game away, leading 6-0. Flores would finish with his first career complete game, conceding only one run and two hits in seven innings. He struck out four with one walk in a 6-1 Cedar Ridge win.
“He did more than I could have expected,” Massey said. “I told him to go out there and win us a ballgame and he did. He beat a gritty Northwood team that gives you a lot of troubles. He kept them off balance and gave us a chance to win the ballgame.”
It was the second straight year that the Red Wolves won at Northwood. Last season, Cedar Ridge won in Pittsboro 8-2, Massey’s first conference win as the Red Wolves’ coach.
Cedar Ridge jumped on top of the Chargers with a run in the opening inning. Following a leadoff single by third baseman B.J. Thornton, senior Aidan McAllister reached on an infield hit. McAllister stole second, which led to an RBI single from Garrett Ray.
The Red Wolves struck for two runs in the third inning, once again generated by McAllister’s base running. McAllister, who has committed to play at Hofstra, reached on an infield single. The ball was thrown away by a Charger fielder and wound up going up a steep hill behind first base, which doesn’t have a fence behind it. After McAllister took second, Efrain Morales lined a fastball to right to plate McAllister. Right field Nick Nolan moved Morales to second with another hit, while Carlo Garay would knock Nolan in with an RBI groundout.
In the fourth inning, Morales drove in McAllister with a double to right field. Braedyn Jacobson, who reached on an error to start the frame, scored off another error. B.J. Thornton added another run.
Thornton finished 3-for-4, while McAllister, Ray and Morales were each 2-for-4.
“I love this team,” Massey said. “They’re going to fight and they’ve been through it together. There’s a lot of seniors and they’ve gone through the battles. They’ve suffered some tough losses and this year they’ve won some games. I couldn’t be more happy with the first half of the season.”
On Friday, Northwood defeated Cedar Ridge 5-2 to split the two-game series in Hillsborough. Northwood coach David Miller started Salvador Delgado, who also started Tuesday’s game. This time, Delgado keep the Cedar Ridge bats quiet through two-and-two-thirds innings, conceding only a triple by Morales in the first and a single by McAllister in the third.
Northwood jumped out to a 5-0 lead at the end of three innings. In just the second at-bat of the game, Charger third baseman Zach Barnes doubled to right field to score Mason Bae, who drew a leadoff walk. Luke Smith would knock in Barnes on a sacrifice fly.
Morales went 3-for-3 for the Red Wolves on Friday
Cedar Ridge will start play in the Hilltop Invitational against Holly Springs on Wednesday night at 6PM. The Red Wolves are scheduled to host Chapel Hill on Thursday at 6, then will travel to East Chapel Hill Friday afternoon at 4PM.
The Red Wolves (6-4 overall, 3-3 in the CCC) will return to conference play against Eastern Alamance on April 5 in Hillsborough.