Two wins over the Central Conference regular season champions and its first win at Orange since 2012 will be enough for the Cedar Ridge baseball team to host a state playoff game for the first time under head coach Bryson Massey.
On Monday, the Red Wolves received a 16-seed for the 3A State Playoffs from the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. Cedar Ridge, which finished in third place in the Central Conference with a 7-5 record, will face the Hunt Warriors from Wilson out of the Quad County Conference.
The Red Wolves last hosted a state playoff game in 2018, when they defeated Southern Alamance 10-2 in the opening round. At the time, Cedar Ridge was coached by Jamie Athas, who would leave for Walter Williams a month later. That was also the last time the Red Wolves won a state playoff game.
Hunt emerged on the short end of a tight battle for the Quad County Championship, wound up in a three-way tie with West Johnston and South Johnston for first place, all finishing at 11-3. South Johnston earned the top seed from the Quad County. Both of Hunt’s games against South Johnston were decided by one run. The Warriors defeated the Trojans 5-4 on April 29. South Johnston took the opening meeting 2-1.
Cedar Ridge won its final regular season game over Western Alamance 3-2 in Elon last week. Aidan Ryan earned the win for the Red Wolves, who scored all of its runs in the first inning. Noah Heckman, running for John rove, scored the game-winning run off a groundout by Austin Brown. Hudson Kelly earned the save by throwing two shutout innings, allowing just one hit.
The winner of Cedar Ridge-Hunt will face the winner of #1 seed J.H. Rose vs. #32 seed Walter Williams.
On the other end of town, Orange will face Central Conference rival Eastern Alamance in the opening round. Orange just swept the Eagles in a two-game series last week.
Orange finished the regular season 13-11, its fewest amount of wins for a regular season in a year not impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic since 2019. Counting Jordan, West Johnston, Grimsley and the two-game series against Southern Alamance, the Panthers’ RPI benefitted from playing five games against teams that won its conference championships.
It will be the sixth meeting between Eagles and the Panthers since last May. Since the two teams became conference rivals in 2022, Orange is 9-0 against Eastern Alamance. Last season, the Eagles stunned Southern Alamance 13-8 in the opening round of the state playoffs. Three nights later, Orange crushed the Eagles 19-1 in five innings.
It’s the 21st consecutive season that Orange has reached the state playoffs, not counting the pandemic year of 2020. It will be the seventh state playoff game that Orange has hosted since 2023.
Orange received a #15 seed. The winner of Orange-Eastern Alamance will face the winner of #2 Terry Sanford vs. #31 Dixon. Terry Sanford and Orange faced each other in the state playoffs in 2022 and 2024. Three years ago, the Panthers defeated the Bulldogs 8-5 in Hillsborough after Orange scored three runs in the sixth inning. Connor Funk, in his final game in Hillsborough, drove in Jackson Berini with an RBI single and added another off a sacrifice fly hit by Connor Nordan.
Last year, the Bulldogs defeated the Panthers 4-0 in the third round in Fayetteville.
Southern Alamance wound up winning the Central Conference after a bizarre final two weeks of the season. On April 14, the Patriots led Person by three games for first place with four games remaining. Southern Alamance lost three of its last four, including the two-game sweep by Cedar Ridge Remarkably, Person had a chance to tie Southern Alamance for a share of the conference title on Friday, the final night of the regular season. Yet Walter Williams, who came into the game 1-10 in conference play, upset the Rockets 4-3 in Roxboro.
That win was enough for the Bulldogs to leap frog Croatan for the 64th and final spot in the state playoffs.