The clutch play bug is running rampant across the Cedar Ridge baseball team.
A week after coming back from a 5-1 deficit with six runs in the 7th inning to beat Eastern Alamance, the Red Wolves nearly blew a big lead themselves against Western Alamance in Hillsborough on Friday night. After the Warriors trailed 7-2 going into the sixth inning, Western scored five unanswered runs, capped by a three-run seventh when senior Owen Bynum lined a single to score Shepard Goodwin to even the game at 7-7.
Last season, the Red Wolves had two games just like this where they lost the lead in the 7th inning and didn’t recover. Seven players from that Red Wolves team were on the field on Friday night and proved that they had learned from their mistakes from 2021.
Yet the hero was a first-year varsity player.
Junior Will Tippin lined a walkoff single to centerfield to score Cristian Macias for the game-winning run, setting off a frenzy in the Red Wolves dugout. Cedar Ridge, playing its first home game since March 30 after six straight road games, prevailed 8-7 for its sixth straight victory.
Cedar Ridge (11-6, 6-3 in the Central Carolina Conference) is in sole possession of second place in the CCC. The Red Wolves are two games behind crosstown rival Orange for first place. The Panthers will face Cedar Ridge next week in a two-game series, with the opener set for Tuesday night at 7 at Red Wolves Stadium.
Cedar Ridge is one game ahead of Eastern Alamance for the 2nd automatic playoff birth in the CCC. The Red Wolves control the tiebreaker against the Eagles after they swept a doubleheader in Mebane last Friday.
It’s the longest winning streak for Cedar Ridge since the 2018 squad, which won 13 in a row. That was also the last Cedar Ridge baseball team to make the state playoffs.
Tippin came up to bat after Nick Nolan drew a walk to load the bases. Before the hit, Tippin was 0-for-3 on the night. After the Warriors rallied for three in the seventh, Macias led off the bottom-of-the-seventh with a bloop fly to left field for a single. Sophomore catcher Efrain Morales was hit by a pitch immediately afterwards.
“It was a great team win,” said Cedar Ridge coach Bryson Massey. “I couldn’t be happier for Will Tippin. He comes in and works hard every day. He came up in a big spot and got the big hit. Our guys could have put their heads down after them tying it in the 7th, but our guys have been in that situation so many times over the past two years that they stayed calm and had the confidence to battle and get it done in the bottom of the 7th. I’m just so happy for our guys.”
Senior Aidan McAllister went 3-for-4, nearly hitting for the cycle, lacking only a home run. Garrett Ray finished 2-for-4 with a triple.
Cedar Ridge starting pitcher Brian Flores fell two outs short of earning his fourth win of the season. B.J. Thornton, who picked up a save in a 4-1 win over Western Alamance on Tuesday night in Elon, got the final two outs in the seventh to improve to 3-1.
Western Alamance opened with a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Kaden Wilborn, who led off with a single, scored off a line drive by Ty Belles. Wilborn crossed home plate off an error in left field. Belles scored when Flores was called for a balk.
The Red Wolves scored six straight runs. In the second, Mason Cates led off with a single to centerfield. Garrett Ray then lined an 0-1 fastball to the deepest centerfield for a triple, scoring Cates.
Cedar Ridge scored four runs in the third inning. Thornton, who started at third base, opened with a single, followed by a double by McAllister. Macias knocked in Thornton off a grounder that bounced off the mound into centerfield. Following a single by Ray with two out, Nolan reached on an infield single to second base, scoring Macias.
In the fourth, McAllister lined another triple to centerfield to score Thornton, who reached after getting hit by a pitch.
Flores threw six-and-one-thirds innings in a no decision for the Red Wolves.
“They just believe in themselves,” Massey said. “When you have been in those situations so many times, you know how to slow the game down and execute.”