Orange sophomore Thomas Loch is a two-sport athlete. This season, he qualified for the 3A Mideast Regionals for the Orange golf team. Loch’s nine-hole average for the season was below 42, which made him one of only two Panthers to reach the regionals. The Mideast Championship will be held at Keith Hills Golf Course in Lillington on Monday. Orange senior Joshua Frank also qualified for regionals. Loch also played center for the Orange men’s basketball team this past winter. In fact, Loch made his varsity debut during the Panthers’ first win of the season against Vance County on February 6. Loch spoke to us on Saturday at Occoneechee Golf Course in Hillsborough, the home of Orange and Cedar Ridge golf. Loch has spent a substantial part of his young life on the links. His father, Chris, was a club pro in New Hampshire who taught his son. Thomas began taking the game seriously about three years ago. Loch and Frank will be on the course in Lillington on Monday with hopes of qualifying for the 3A State Championships, which will be held Longleaf Golf and Family Club in Southern Pines on May 9.

Throughout this shortened season, the Orange softball coach staff has tried to arrange a matchup against a team from the Mid-Piedmont Conference.

Now, they’ll get it. Just not against the one they thought.

Orange will face Southwestern Randolph in the opening round of the 3A State Playoffs on Monday night at 6PM in Hillsborough. The winner will face the victor of Southern Nash vs. Clayton, each of whom won their respective conferences.

The Lady Panthers, who became the first softball team in the history of the school to finish undefeated in the regular season after beating Northern Durham 12-0 on Thursday, are the #2 overall seed in the East. It’s the ninth straight time that Orange has made the 3A State Playoffs (not counting last year’s canceled tournament because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

Southwestern Randolph (8-4) tied for the Mid-Piedmont Conference Championship with Southern Alamance. The Cougars opened the season with a 5-4 win over the Patriots on March 27, which turned out to be the first of three meetings. Southern Alamance took the rematch 15-0 on April 8 in Graham. On Thursday night, they met again in a special one-game playoff to determine the #1 seed from the Mid-Piedmont in Asheboro, which the Patriots captured 5-0.

Orange didn’t play a nonconference game this year, despite the best efforts of head coach Johnny Barefoot. In early April, Barefoot had reached an agreement with Southern Alamance officials to play a game against the Patriots in Graham, which was scheduled for this past week. But it was delayed twice and ultimately canceled, due in part to the Patriot’s special playoff game against Southwestern Randolph.

Orange is one of five 3A teams to finish the regular season undefeated. The others are D.H. Conley, Piedmont, West Brunswick and Crest.

Usually a 64-team tournament, this year’s 3A State Championship was scaled back to 32 teams because of the pandemic, like almost all other team sports. Among the 16 teams in the East Region, the only other Big 8 Conference squad to make the field was Northern Durham. The Knights earned a #11 seed and will travel to Morehead City to face West Carteret, who captured the Coastal Conference championship for the third year in a row.

For the first time since 2017, Cedar Ridge will miss the playoffs. With a 9-5 overall record, the Red Wolves were denied one of the four wildcard spots from the Eastern Region. Cedar Ridge ended the season with four straight wins, ending with a doubleheader sweep of Southern Durham on Friday night at Red Wolves Softball Stadium. Cedar Ridge came the closest to beating Orange in the regular season after they scored seven runs in the seventh inning to send the game to extra innings. Orange won 11-9 in nine innings.

The size of the field wasn’t the only change created by the pandemic. The NCHSAA relied on a predetermined draw, rather than seeding from MaxPreps, to finalize the bracket. Orange, which ended the regular season ranked #3 in the state by MaxPreps among 3A teams, benefited greatly from this method. If they advance far enough, the Lady Panthers are guaranteed home games through the first three rounds.

With a reduced field, the Eastern Region shouldn’t lack for drama. Two teams from the Mid State Conference, including defending 3A State Champion Eastern Alamance, made the postseason. The Eagles, seeded fifth, open with Havelock. Western Alamance, the Mid State Runner-up, will travel to Hope Mills to face Gray’s Creek.

Topsail, which finished second in the 4A/3A Mideastern Conference (behind Hoggard, a 4A team), earned the #1 seed. The Pirates open with Franklinton. D.H. Conley, which is ranked #1 in the MaxPreps rankings, was seeded #8 and could potentially travel to Topsail for the second round on Wednesday.

The second round of the playoffs is slated for Wednesday. The 3rd round is scheduled for next Friday.

It was the final game for six very special Cedar Ridge softball seniors on Friday night. Marlee Rakouskas, ShiLi Quade, Alexandria Matthews, Reagan Ruhl, Emma-Rae Sharp and Lajoan Stuart finished out the year with a doubleheader sweep of Southern Durham at Cedar Ridge Softball Park. Rakouskas and Quade have played on the varsity for four years. In that time, Cedar Ridge went 50-11 and won the 2018 and 2019 Big 8 Conference Championships. They were the first team to win conference titles in softball in Cedar Ridge history. They also won four state playoff games, including consecutive trips to the 3rd round of the 3A State Playoffs in 2018 and 2019. This season, Quade played catcher and hit .462 and led the team with 32 runs scored. Rakouskas, who left field and hit .371, also won a Big 8 Championship as a starter for the volleyball team. Quade also was a member of the volleyball squad. Ruhl, whose older sister Taylor also was a member of the 2018 and 2019 teams, hit .340 with 17 RBIs. Matthews played first base and pitched. Sharp was a first baseman. This was the fourth straight season where Cedar Ridge had a winning season. Congratulations to all of these ladies on a run filled with championships and fun.

In terms of sports arguments created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the surfaced hasn’t even been touched, much less scratched.

Those who care about high school sports across northern Orange County will be left to wonder whether Cedar Ridge 3rd baseman Takia Nichols could have broken Mia Davidson’s statewide home run record of 53 with a full slate in her sophomore and junior seasons (and if she had played home games in a smaller ballpark). Or whether the Orange baseball team could have captured the Big 8 Conference championship before the pandemic ended its season after just five games in 2020.

The Orange softball team now has created its own realm of argument. The players, comprised primarily of sophomores and freshmen, didn’t create a 12-game regular season schedule in a sport where the standard slate is around 20 games. They just had to play it.

And history will show they did it very well.

On Thursday night, the Orange softball team became the first team in Hillsborough history to finish a regular season undefeated with a 12-0 win over Northern Durham at Knights Softball Field. Orange completed the year 12-0. The 2017 Orange team, which claimed the 3A State Championship, finished the regular season 18-2 with losses to J.F. Webb (then a conference rival) and perennial 2A power South Granville.

Cedar Ridge’s 2018 team ended the regular season 15-1, with its lone blemish a 2-1 loss to Roxboro Community School in the second week of the year.

Orange had a nonconfernece game scheduled at Southern Alamance for Friday night, but it was canceled Thursday.

Thus, the Lady Panthers didn’t play any non-Big 8 Conference games during the regular season. Whether a contest against Person or Southern Alamance would have led to a loss going into the state playoffs is a topic of debate.

What is undebatable is that Orange rolled through the Big 8 in dominant fashion. They outscored opponents 167-16. Of its 12 wins, six were shutouts and ten were via the run rule (the game was stopped early because Orange led by at least ten runs after five innings).

On Thursday, Junior catcher Lauren Jackson finished 4-for-4 with two home runs, including a two-run blast during a six-run 3rd inning. Jackson also doubled in the seventh.

Pitcher Gracie Walker improved to 4-0. In five innings, Walker surrendered only one hit with eight strikeouts. She retired the first nine Knights she faced. Northern didn’t get its first batter on base until catcher Abi Walker was hit by a bounced pitch to lead off the fourth. Aubrey Clayton’s single in the fourth, which was nearly caught by freshman left fielder Delaney Shaffer, was the only hit that Walker conceded.

The Knights (11-3) never had a runner reach third base.

Orange pounded out 17 hits, tied for its second-best total of the year (they had 21 against Cedar Ridge on March 23). Jackson led off the second inning with a low line drive of a home run that cleared the centerfield fence by inches.

It appeared Orange would go away meekly in the third after its first two batters were retired. Serenity McPherson, who hit safely in all 12 of Orange’s games this year, stroked a double to left centerfield to start of string of seven consecutive Panther hits. Carson Bradsher bounced a 2-1 fastball up the middle to score McPherson and the parade was underway.

Caden Robinson sent a pop fly down the left field line which led to Bradsher racing home from second. Jackson launched a two-run homer that nearly reached the walking track beyond left field to increase Orange’s lead to 5-0. After Mary Moss Wirt and Kelsey Tackett each stroked singles to right field, senior Emma Puckett lined a 1-1 fastball to the fence in right field to bring in two more runs.

Though Orange had several threats, they failed to score in the subsequent three innings. The dry spell ended with five runs in the seventh inning. Jackson started with a leadoff double capped with a headfirst slide. Senior Gracie Colley, in her only plate appearance of the night, singled up the middle to score courtesy runner Brianna Wilkins. After Puckett singled, freshman Delaney Shaffer lined a fastball up the middle to score Colley. Courtney Watkins bounced another hit over second base. McPherson lined a two-run single to left field.

Robinson and Watkins pitched the sixth and seventh innings, respectively.

Orange preserved the shutout after a spectacular play in the final frame by Wirt. After Northern had runners at first and second with no one out, Wirt made a diving catch on a soft liner hit by Northern’s Savannah Burton, then practically landed on second base to double up Macey Ellis, who led off with a double.

Orange will now await to see the 3A State Tournament bracket this weekend. They will host a playoff game next week.

Women’s Soccer: The standard for goal scoring at Cedar Ridge for years, and possibly decades, to come will be 87 goals.

That’s what Cedar Ridge senior forward Emerson Talley ended her storied high school career with after the Red Wolves defeated Vance County 9-0 in Henderson on Monday. It was Talley’s 14th career hat trick and the fourth of the abbreviated 2021 season.

The Red Wolves ended the season 5-9 after Southern Durham forfeited the final game of the season, which was slated for Wednesday night. Talley, who vowed to former Cedar Ridge head coach P.J. Michaelson that she would score 100 goals in her career, likely would have exceeded that total in her junior season if it wasn’t for the pandemic.

Last week, Talley formally signed with Division II Lenoir-Rhyne.

As Talley’s career ended with a hat trick, a Red Wolf freshman had her first three-goal game. Rachel Alverson had a hat trick for Cedar Ridge, as well. In her final game, Cedar Ridge’s Nicol Anderson had a brace.

ORANGE 4, NORTHERN DURHAM 1

The Orange women’s soccer team concluded its most successful season since 2015 with a 4-1 victory over Northern Durham at James Armstrong Stadium on Wednesday night.

Sophomore Madison Orange scored two goals for the Lady Panthers, who finished the season 11-5. In her final game, senior co-Captain Logan Rogers notched a goal and dished out an assist. Sophomore Isabel Jones also scored a goal for Orange. Freshman Ella Wimsatt had two assists. Junior Bella Brown, who transferred from Alamance Christian School last summer, also assisted on a goal.

Brown ended the year as Orange’s leading scorer with 15 goals and four assists, as well as four hat tricks.

In terms of record, Orange had its best season since they went 15-4-2 in 2015.

WRESTLING: ORANGE 78, NORTHERN DURHAM 0; ORANGE 60, EAST CHAPEL HILL 18

For the first time this century, the Orange wrestling team started as challengers to the Big 8 Conference title as opposed to the defending champions. Things started promising as the Panthers defeated East Chapel Hill 60-18 on Tuesday night inside Panther Gymnasium.

On Thursday, Orange rolled past Northern Durham 78-0 in Hillsborough. Only four matches were contested as the Panthers claimed the other nine bouts via forfeit.

Matthew Smith-Breeden pinned Wyatt Gardner at 152 pounds. At 220 pounds, Hugo Vazquez scored his second pin of the week. Tyler Larkin earned a pin at heavyweight over John Neiman. Samuel Crawford scored his own pin at 145 pounds. Dillon Heffernan, Talan Pearley, Joshua Dunn, Kessel Summers, Avery Clark, Chase Harward, Nate Hecht, Brendon Worsham, and Korbin Nevius all earned forfeit wins.

Against East Chapel Hill, Orange scored nine pinfalls. Summers, a junior who has committed to wrestle at Bluefield College (NAIA) in Virginia, earned a pinfall victory. Joshua Dunn (126), Jose Grimaldo (145), Smith-Breeden (152), Hecht (170), Worsham (182), Nevius (195), Vasquez (220), and Larkin also scored pins for Orange.

CEDAR RIDGE 52, SOUTHERN DURHAM 24

On Thursday night, the Cedar Ridge wrestling team earned its first win of the young season with a 52-24 victory over Southern Durham. The Red Wolves got pins from Fernando Martinez at 120 pounds and veteran James Rosati-Brown at 152 pounds.

Daina Pritchard, fresh off of wrestling season ending, scored a major decision over Thomas Johnson 14-5 at 145 pounds. Mac McGhee, Gavin Mintz, Kaden Tatro, C.J. Jackson, Wyatt Robinson, and Aiden Kearns all claimed forfeit wins.

On Tuesday, Cedar Ridge participated in a tri-match against Northwood and Providence Grove. The Chargers edged the Red Wolves 40-36. Martinez scored a pin at 1:16 in his match. Pritchard, Rosati-Brown and Tatro all earned pinfall victories, as well. At 195 pounds, Wyatt Robinson pinned Northwood’s Jason Schroeder in 1:59.

Providence Grove defeated the Red Wolves 60-21. Martinez earned another pin over Logan Armfield in 1:18. Pritchard pinned Derrick Isley in 1:43. Rosati-Brown pinned Nathan Hutcherson in 3:03. Robinson grinded out a 5-2 decision over Gavin Hardister at 195.

MEN’S TENNIS:

CEDAR RIDGE 9, SOUTHERN DURHAM 0

Will Ballenger and Colby Alford ended their senior seasons successfully for the Cedar Ridge men’s tennis team on Wednesday afternoon. The Red Wolves rolled past Southern Durham to conclude the regular season 9-4. It was Cedar RIdge’s most successful dual season since 2017, when the Red Wolves finished 10-3.

Ballenger started at #1 singles and captured a 6-1, 6-1 win. Alford started at #2 singles and won 6-0, 6-2. Junior Derrick Stephens, Bowen Woods and Leo Filley also picked up singles wins for the Red Wolves.

In doubles, Ballenger and Alford teamed for a win at #1. Walker Richards-Baker and Jason Pattison won at #2 doubles. Woods and Filley completed the sweep at #3 doubles.

Cedar Ridge will start play in the Big 8 Conference Men’s Tennis Championships inside Lindsey Linker Tennis Courts at East Chapel Hill High School on Friday afternoon.

ORANGE 6, SOUTHERN DURHAM 0

The Orange men’s tennis team completed its fourth straight winning season with a 6-0 victory at Southern Durham on Tuesday.

Colin O’Hagerty, Joseph Clark, Finn Kelly, Tristan Plummer, Brandon Kessler and Jackson Panning took singles wins for the Panthers.

The Orange softball team became the first squad in school history to go through the regular season undefeated on Thursday night. The Lady Panthers defeated Northern Durham 12-0 to finish the regular season at 12-0. It was Orange’s sixth shutout of the year. Junior second baseman Mary Moss Wirt helped preserve the whitewashing with an unassisted double play in the 7th inning after Northern placed its first two batters aboard with no one out. Catcher Lauren Jackson hit two home runs. She led off the second inning with a line drive laser that barely cleared the fence in centerfield. Orange scored six runs in the third inning, getting all of its baserunners after two outs were recorded. Jackson hit a two-run homer to left field. She later added a double off the centerfield fence as the Lady Panthers piled up 17 hits. After an undefeated regular season and claiming the Big 8 Conference Championship, the Lady Panthers now await the announcement of the 3A State Championship bracket. Orange will be the #1 seed from the Big 8 Conference and will host a playoff game next week in Hillsborough.

Photo by Abbey Lipcsik

Kayla Hodges: The Elon Women’s Soccer team made its second-ever appearance in the NCAA Division I women’s soccer tournament on Wednesday at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary. Milwaukee defeated the Phoenix 1-0 in the opening round. Hodges, who starred at Orange, fired one of the Phoenix’s six shots in the game. Elon concludes the year 6-4, 3-1 in the Colonial Athletic Association, as well as the first CAA Tournament Championship in team history. Hodges was also named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com Women’s Team of the Week after her performances against Hofstra and UNC Wilmington in the CAA Tournament. Hodges was a vital factor defensively as the Phoenix defeated Hofstra for the first time in program history.

Landon Riley: Riley closed for the Liberty baseball team in its 6-5 loss to Virginia on Tuesday at Disharoon Park in Charlottesville, VA. In two-thirds of an inning, Riley retired both batters that he faced. He struck out one. Virginia avenged an earlier loss to the Flames. Liberty is 27-11 and will face Bellarmine in a weekend series starting Friday at Worthington Field in Lynchburg, VA starting Friday.

Tori Dalehite: The UNC Greensboro softball team won its eighth straight game with a decisive 10-2 victory over the Charlotte 49ers at Sue M. Daughtridge Stadium in Charlotte on Wednesday. Dalehite entered the game as a pinch runner and scored off a single by Melanie Darges in the 5th inning. UNCG will travel to Macon, GA for a weekend series with Mercer starting this Friday. The Spartans are 26-14, 9-3 in the Southern Conference, one game in the loss column behind Western Carolina for first place.

Grace Andrews: After having five games canceled last week, the Catawba Valley Community College softball team returned to action on Tuesday. They started by sweeping a doubleheader over Southeastern Community College in Whiteville. In the Red Hawks’ opening 13-0 win, Andrews hit her eight home run of the season. She finished 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs, two runs scored. The Red Hawks captured the nightcap 4-1. Andrews went 1-for-3.

On Wednesday, Catawba Valley swept a doubleheader from Cleveland Community College at Highland Recreation Center in Hickory. In the opening game, which Catawba Valley won 11-2 in six innings, Andrews went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. In the 1st inning, Andrews hit a sacrifice fly to score Alleigh Himes.

Catawba Valley won the nightcap 12-5 Andrews went 1-for-4 with an RBI single in the sixth. Andrews, who started at shortstop, has hit safely in seven of Catawba Valley’s last nine games. She’s hitting. 467, second on the team. Andrews leads the Red Hawks with 37 RBIs and 50 hits.

Jaden Hurdle: Patrick Henry Community College swept a doubleheader from Cleveland Community College on Monday in Martinsville, VA. In the opening game, Hurdle hit her seventh home run of the year as the Patriots won 8-0 in five innings. Hurdle finished 1-for-2 with a walk and an RBI. In the second game, PHCC won 10-0. Hurdle went 1-for-2 with a run scored.

Patrick Henry has won eight of its last nine and is tied in the loss column with Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute for 1st place in Region X’s Division II West Division. Caldwell is 13-5, while the Patriots are 11-5. Patrick Henry will conclude the regular season with a doubleheader against Florence-Darlington Technical College on Friday, then another doubleheader against Surry Community College on Monday.

Hurdle is hitting .375. She is tied for the team lead with seven home runs and is second on the squad with 24 RBIs. She also has 33 hits, good enough for third on the team.

Kate Burgess: The UNC rowing team competed in the finals of the Lake Wheeler Invitational in Raleigh on Saturday. Burgess rowed in the 2V4 A Final against Duke, Clemson and UCF. UNC finished fourth in the race with a time of 7:47.74. Duke came in first, while Clemson finished second. UNC will gear up for the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships on May 14 in Clemson, S.C.