Baseball: Orange 9, Southwestern Randolph 1: With four scheduled games remaining in the regular season, the Orange baseball team remains on pace for its most successful regular season since 2015.
The Panthers improved to 17-2 as they pulled away late against Southwestern Randolph in Asheboro with seven runs in the seventh inning.
Senior Joey Pounds, who has committed to play at Barton College, earned his second win of the season. Pounds struck out a season-high seven batters over five innings, allowing only three hits. The game remained scoreless through three innings.
In the top of the fourth, senior David Waitt, Orange’s leading hitter, singled to left field. Connor Nordan sent a fly ball that went over the head of the right fielder, which allowed Waitt to score for the opening run. Cameron Guentensberger reached on an infield single and junior Ryan Honeycutt loaded the bases off a walk. Wyatt Hedrick sent a sacrifice fly to right field, which was deep enough to allow Nordan to score and increase the Panther lead to 2-0.
Southwestern Randolph (9-10) scored its only run in the bottom of the fourth. Tyler Parks reached on an error. Easton Clapp sent a line drive to left field to score Parks, who advanced to second earlier in the at-bat on a wild pitch.
The Cougars used eight different pitchers. Orange broke through against the final one. The Panthers sent eleven batters to the plate in the final inning, starting with Ryan Horton getting walked. Elijah Santos was hit by a pitch and Jackson Berini drew another walk to load the bases. With Waitt at the plate, Neo Best, running for Horton, scored off a wild pitch.
After Waitt walked, Nordan also reached on a base on balls to bring in Santos. Guentensberger lined a double to left field, scoring Berini and Waitt. Honeycutt sent a line drive to right field to bring in Guentensberger. Neo reached on an infield single, scoring courtesy runner Ty Walker.
Garrett Sawyer earned his first save for Orange. He threw two perfect innings with two strikeouts.
Softball: Orange 12, Northern Durham 1: Junior Caden Robinson celebrated her 100th strikeout of the season, striking out the side in the first inning as Orange cruised to an easy victory at Knights Softball Field.
Senior Breezy Foster earned the win in the circle for Orange. She threw four innings and allowed only five hits.
Senior Serenity McPherson hit her third home run of the season with a two-run blast to centerfield in the second inning. Carson Bradsher knocked in the first run with a line drive to left field, scoring Sadie Cecil. Freshman Katie Carden sent a bouncing ball up the middle for a base hit. Bradsher motored in from second to make it 2-0.
The Lady Panthers added three more runs in the third. Carden and Delaney Shaffer reached on errors. Foster sent a line drive double to right field to score both runners. Foster would eventually score off a wild pitch.
McPherson led off the fourth inning with a double to left field. McPherson stole third and scored off a sacrifice fly by Cecil to centerfield. Bradsher, who finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored, singled to centerfield. Robinson, who remained in the game in right field, also singled to right field. Carden sent a line drive to right field to score Bradsher and Robinson. Foster singled to centerfield, scoring Carden.
Orange is 9-4 and currently ranked #7 in the 3A East RPI rankings, the highest of any team in the region that isn’t leading their conference.
Carden finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Foster finished 2-for-2 with three RBIs.
It was Orange’s final game at Northern Durham’s softball field. Northern will move to a new location in August.