It was a special night for the Orange softball team. The Lady Panthers defeated Cedar Ridge 20-0 in five innings at Orange softball field. Orange jumped right on the Red Wolves with six runs in the opening inning, punctuated by a three-run homer from junior second baseman Mary Moss Wirt. Recently, Wirt committed to play softball at Elon University, where her father, Todd, played baseball. In the circle, freshman Caden Robinson earned her first varsity win by throwing two shutout innings. On top of that, Robinson went 3-for-3 at the plate with two doubles, 3 RBIs and three runs scored. Orange is atop the Big 8 Conference after knocking off the two-time defending Big 8 Champions. Now, Orange will travel to face Vance County on Wednesday before a big home game against powerful Northwood on Thursday in Hillsborough.

Kayla Hodges: Elon Phoenix junior Kayla Hodges was named Colonial Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Week. Last week, Elon defeated James Madison in overtime 1-0. The Dukes fired 12 shots against Elon, but Hodges and the rest of the backline prevented any of the shots from getting on net. Hodges also had a shot on net in Sunday’s victory at Rudd Field. Elon is 2-1, 1-1 in the CAA. They host South Carolina on Thursday.

Brittany Daley: Division III Greensboro College played to a scoreless tie with Pfeiffer on Saturday at Pride Field in Greensboro. Daley made her 39th career start for the Pride, who are now 3-1-1 in the USA South Athletic Conference.

Bailey Lucas: Lucas posted a double-double in Division III Meredith’s nightcap victory over North Carolina Wesleyan at Weatherspoon Gym in Raleigh on Saturday. Lucas had 24 assists and eleven kills as the Avenging Angels won the second match of a doubleheader 3-0 on scores of 25-14, 25-14 and 25-20. Meredith also captured the opener 3-0 on scores of 25-19, 25-16 and 25-9. In that match, Lucas started once again and registered nine assists and two digs. Meredith improved to 4-3, 3-2 in the USA South. This season, Lucas has started all seven matches for the Avenging Angels. She leads the team with 161 assists and is third on the squad with 51 digs. Meredith travels to Greensboro on Saturday.

Joey Berini: The #8 East Carolina baseball team lost to #24 North Carolina 8-1 on Tuesday night at Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill. Berini entered the game in the sixth inning and remained as the shortstop. In his only at-bat, Berini grounded out to second base. The Pirates are now 16-4.

Cooper Porter: Pensacola State defeated Chipola College 8-4 last Thursday. Porter finished 1-for-4 with a run scored. Through nine games with the Pirates, Porter is hitting .167 with one RBI and three stolen bases.

Jaylin Jones: The Division III Pfeiffer University men’s lacrosse team defeated Methodist 18-8 at Lefko Field in Misenheimer on Sunday. It was the Falcons’ fourth straight victory. Jones was credited with a ground ball as Pfeiffer improved to 5-1, 3-0 in the USA South Conference.

Olivia Ward: Ward captured a victory at #3 doubles for the Division III Methodist women’s tennis team on Saturday. Ward, a former All-Big 8 Conference player at Cedar Ridge, teamed with Natalie Collins to defeat Emily Wrenn and Ruth Lechner 8-0 of Sweet Briar in #3 doubles. Sweet Briar wound up winning the match 5-4. It was Ward’s first victory in the college ranks. Earlier in the day, Ward lost in #3 singles to Kate Katany 6-4, 6-3. Methodist is 4-9 overall, 1-0 in the USA South Conference.

Connor Crabtree: Though he hasn’t played since early December, Connor Crabtree will be watching when the University of Richmond competes in the National Invitational Tournament quarterfinals. The Spiders will face Mississippi State on Thursday night. Unfortunately, Crabtree was sidelined for the season with a broken foot before Christmas. In his first season with the Spiders, Crabtree played in four games. On December 22, he scored eight points as the Spiders lost to Hofstra 76-71. Crabtree played a season-high 21 minutes. He also played seven minutes against Loyola-Chicago, whom the Spiders defeated 75-73 on December 18. The Ramblers will face Oregon State on Saturday in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

The East Chapel Hill Wildcats were the deserving winners against Orange in the 3A/2A/1A State Quarterfinals at Auman Stadium.

But that’s only part of the story from Monday night.

There’s the atmosphere that surrounded it. Even with attendance restrictions, there was a strong turnout at Auman Stadium to see if the highest achieving Orange lacrosse team in history could extend their run a few days later. Perhaps even find a way to carry it all the way to this weekend in Raleigh. Listeners from Texas, Florida, and western North Carolina tuned in to Hillsboroughsports.com for the play-by-play call.

There was the mental toughness of an Orange team that fell behind foul goals in the third quarter and refused to concede. It wasn’t a once in a lifetime moment for this Panthers’ team because they expect success, now and later, which is precisely the point. To compete against one of the blue bloods of North Carolina high school lacrosse? Orange has transcended that now. They’re nearly beating them.

That’s where Chandler Zirkle, at the end of his fourth season, has taken Orange lacrosse. On Monday night, it ironically came against the school where his father, Franklin, won two North Carolina Lacrosse Association state championships in 2004 and 2006. Chandler himself played at East and also reached the 2011 State Championship game.

East’s offensive firepower of Alec Levy and Samuel Reece sparked a 6-0 run late in the third quarter to send the Wildcats past Orange 15-12 on Monday night at Auman Stadium. East Captain Alec Levy finished with five goals and two assists, while junior Samuel Reece added four goals and two assists as the Wildcats reached the Eastern Regional Championship game for the second time in four years.

Orange’s Ryan Merrill, in his final game, scored four goals and two assists. Senior Duncan Grant and freshman Connor Kruse also had two goals for Orange, who end the year 8-4.

The Wildcats will travel to Hampstead to face Topsail for the Eastern Regional Championship Wednesday night.

“It’s actually fun going against a team you know is going to coach well,” Zirkle said. “They threw a short stick zone at us early, which I really liked. It’s cool to make those adjustments. They’re a well coached team that deserved to win. They outplayed us tonight.”

With 4:02 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Orange led 11-9 after Ryan Merrill snuck a low shot past East goalkeeper August Walls. With the partisan Orange crowd providing applauding after every goal, for and against, the Panthers appeared to add momentum when goalkeeper Chase Hawkins stopped a shot by Seiji Stanford late in the third quarter.

Then Levy made the play of the game. He intercepted the subsequent outlet pass out of midair, went behind the net, ran out in front as he absorbed two checks and fired the ball into the upper right corner of the net. It was his fifth goal, but it drained Orange of any juice for the remainder the night.

“We went back and made the same dumb mistakes that we shouldn’t make,” Zirkle said. “We’ve tried to fix that in practice, and as a whole, we’ve done a good job in adjusting. But we made too many bad turnovers tonight.”

East sophomore Harrison Yost evened the game just one minute later at 11-11. Nicholas Castro, who scored seven goals against Orange in the first meeting between the two teams on February 10, notched his first goal with under a minute remaining in the third to vault East into the lead at 12-11.

“We made too many mistakes in transition this year,” Zirkle said. “We tried to keep them out of transition tonight and again I think we gave them too many transition goals. That’s where they’re great. You can’t let them have too many 3-on-2 opportunities when they have two All-American attackmen.”

Not even a two-minute illegal stick penalty to start the fourth quarter could stop the Wildcats. East calmly killed it off without allowing an Orange shot. Stanford added two more goals in the fourth quarter, while Castro scored another to boost the Wildcat lead to 15-11.

Orange sophomore Jake Wimsatt dominated at the face-off circle for the first three quarters, which led to lengthy possessions against the transition-minded Wildcats. Orange trailed 7-3 with 9:51 remaining in the first half, but Wimsatt’s low shot past Walls triggered a 5-2 Panther run to finish the first half. After an offside penalty against Stanford, freshman Connor Kruse notched a Man-up goal off an assist from Ryan Merrill to cut East’s lead to 7-6. Levy followed with consecutive goals, but Orange ended the first half with a strike from Merrill with 1:03 remaining. Then Kruse, with only five second left following a restart, found Caleb Davis, who whipped a shot into the net just as the half ended to propel Orange into the locker room with momentum down 9-8.

Kruse tied the game off an assist from Cy Horner to open the third quarter. In the process, East was kept off the scoreboard for over eleven minutes Wimsatt gave Orange the lead off a feed from Merrill with 7:31 remaining, followed by Merrill’s goal before East’s run.

There were no tears for an Orange team that only experienced a fraction of a season that they’re used to. There were memories of past practices and Zirkle’s early days as a head coach where he tried to instill discipline only to turn into unintentional comedy. And lots and lots of pictures.

“We’ve got a cool program,” Zirkle said. “I love having multiple sport athletes, but when you have ten of eleven football players who decided to play lacrosse this year because it’s more fun…I actually pushed kids to play football this year, but they wanted to be part of this. It’s cool to have kids want to be here.”

As he walked out of Auman Stadium for the final time in 2021, Zirkle was smiling. Not just about the season that has ended, but for the future, as well.

It was the end of the line for Orange lacrosse seniors Leif Mahaney, Duncan Grant and Tristin Watson in the 3A/2A/1A/ State Lacrosse quarterfinals on Monday night. East Chapel Hill scored six unanswered goals to beat the Panthers 15-12 at Auman Stadium. The seniors on Orange’s team can say they did something that no other Panther team had ever done. They reached the state quarterfinals and won a conference championship. Long stick midfielder Duncan Grant scored two goals. Midfielder Leif Mahaney helped sophomore Jake Wimsatt to numerous face off wins in the first half by getting to ground balls. Tristin Watson provided reliable defense. As Orange looks to the future, the class of 2021 will be remembered for laying a foundation that the success of later generations will be built on.

The Cedar RIdge softball team breezed to its first win of the season on Monday. 3rd baseman Takia Nichols, who homered off the scoreboard in the Red Wolves’ home opener last year against West Johnston, drilled a deep drive to dead center for her second dinger off the year against Chapel Hill on Monday. It was Nichols’ 15th career home run, which is believed to be the school record. That’s despite the fact that Takia draws an incredible amount of walks. Cedar Ridge is 1-1 as they travel to Orange on Tuesday. It’s an important game for the Red Wolves, as it always is against its crosstown rival. Only the first meetings will count in the Big 8 Conference standings this year. Last week, Cedar Ridge lost to Northwood, so the matchup against the Lady Panthers takes on increased importance, particularly after Orange opened the season with a victory over East Chapel Hill last week. Nichols continues to add her name to the Cedar Ridge record book, even during a pandemic, which shortened her sophomore season to four games and will limit her junior season, as well Cedar Ridge hosts Northern Durham on Thursday.

Jaden Hurdle: The former Orange High first baseman had a big weekend as Patrick Henry Community College swept Cleveland Community College in a doubleheader on Sunday. Collectively, Hurdle went 6-for-7 with two doubles, a home run and four RBIs as the Patriots swept the doubleheader 5-3 and 23-3 in Shelby. In the opening game, Hurdle went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, and a run scored after a home run. According to records from the National Junior College Athletic Association, it was Hurdle’s second home run this season. In the second game, Hurdle went 4-for-4 with two double. She scored twice with two RBIs. Hurdle closed the second game as pitcher. She threw two-and-two thirds innings. She surrendered three hits, one run and one walk with two strikeouts.

Mia Davidson: #5 Florida swept the Mississippi State softball team over the weekend at Nusz Park in Starkville, MS. In Friday’s 1-0 loss to the Gators, Davidson hit a double.

Montana Davidson: Montana started all three games against Florida at third base. The Bulldogs are 15-11 overall, 0-6 in the Southeastern Conference.

Tori Dalehite: Dalehite scored in the opening game of the UNC Greensboro softball team’s doubleheader against Elon on Friday. In the Spartans’ 11-3 win over the Phoenix, Dalehite replaced Kayleigh Willis as a pinch runner. Dalehite scored off a wild pitch in the 4th inning to increase the Spartans lead to 6-1. UNCG split the Friday doubleheader, but swept Elon in another doubleheader on Saturday. UNCG is 13-6.

Kaylen Campbell: A member of Orange’s 2016-17 Big 8 Women’s Basketball Conference Championship team, forward Kaylen Campbell was honored on Senior Night for the Division III Trinity College over the weekend. Campbell’s senior year was canceled because of the pandemic, but the Bantams played two exhibition games against Connecticut College on Saturday and Sunday. Campbell was named a Captain for this year’s team. Last year, Campbell played in 20 games for the Bantams and averaged 2.6 points and 2.1 rebounds. She is majoring in music at Trinity and is the co-founder of Trinity’s Athletes of Color Coalition. At Orange, Campbell was the Captain of a team that won a school-record 21 consecutive games to open the season, swept the Big 8 regular season and postseason tournaments and reached the third round of the 3A state playoffs.

Bryse Wilson: Wilson had a strong spring training start for the Atlanta Braves on Saturday. He allowed one run over 4 and two-thirds innings as the Braves defeated Boston 8-2. Wilson is 2-0 this spring. He surrendered five hits and three walks with three strikeouts. In the first at-bat of the game, Wilson had a comebacker go off his calf, but remained in the game until the fifth inning.

Landon Riley: The Liberty Flames closer didn’t get a save this weekend. He got his first win instead. On Saturday, Riley threw the ninth inning in Liberty’s 3-2 win over VCU. He entered with the game tied 2-2 and threw another shutout inning. He surrendered two walks and struck out one batter. The Flames got the win in the bottom of the ninth when Aaron Anderson hit a walkoff double to left field. Liberty has won eleven in a row, including a two-game sweep of UCF and two midweek wins over North Carolina.

Joey Berini: #9 East Carolina fell to UNC Wilmington 10-2 at Brooks Field in Wilmington last Wednesday. Joey Berini entered the game in the eighth inning as a pinch hitter and grounded out to third base. East Carolina rebounded to sweep a weekend series against Illinois State. Berini has played in three games this season for the Pirates.

Phil Berger: The former Cedar Ridge pitcher started the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader against Brevard College. Brevard swept the doubleheader, taking the nightcap 9-7. Berger earned a no-decision. He completed four innings and surrendered four hits, two runs and one walk. Berger struck out six. Through six games, Berger is 2-1 with a 2.14 ERA for the Pacers. He has ten walks and 16 strikeouts.

Dylan Boyer: The Lenoir-Rhyne men’s lacrosse team, ranked #5 in Division II, defeated # 12 Queen’s University 15-7 on Saturday night at Dickson Field in Charlotte. Former Orange High midfielder Dylan Boyer actually helped the Royals build a 3-1 lead. He scored two goals, including an unassisted marker in the first quarter. Boyer added a man-up goal in the fourth quarter. It was his first goals at the college level. Queen’s is 3-3 overall, 3-1 in the South Atlantic Conference.

Jaylin Jones: The Division III Pfeiffer men’s lacrosse team defeated William Peace 21-9 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Raleigh on Wednesday night. Jones scooped up a ground ball for the Falcons. On Sunday, Pfeiffer defeated Methodist 18-8 at Lefko Field in Misenheimer. Jones also played for the Falcons and had another ground ball.

Luke Hernandez: Hernandez, a member of Cedar Ridge’s 2017 Eastern Regional Championship team, entered the game as a defenseman for the Falcons in the victory over Peace. Hernandez has played in two games this season. Pfeiffer is 5-1, and sits atop the USA South Athletic Conference at 3-0.

Adam Chnupa: The Elon Phoenix football team fell to William & Mary 31-10 at Zable Stadium in Williamsburg, VA on Saturday. Chnupa, the former All-Conference selection in football at Cedar Ridge, got some snaps on offense for the Phoenix.