The Orange lacrosse team is off to its best start in the three-year regime of head coach Chandler Zirkle. On Wednesday night at Auman Stadium in Hillsborough, the Panthers held on to defeat J.H. Rose 12-11. The game-winning goal was set up on the combination of Dylan Boyer and Caleb Davis, who have been teammates for three years on Orange as well as the Carolina Hilltoppers summer travel team. With the game tied 8-8, Boyer used a behind the back pass from the end zone. The ball went over the net and landed firmly in the pocket of Davis’ stick, who threw it in the net over the shoulder of the Rampants goalkeeper. Davis finished with three goals, while Boyer had three goals and three assists. Orange is 5-0 and will look to match the best start in school history when they face Roxboro Community School on Friday. It will be the Panthers’ Conference 9 opener.

After winning the Big 8 Player of the Year in 2019 and securing three state playoff wins, there were largely two things that Joey Berini has never done in his four years as an Orange Panther.

Hit a grand slam and win the Big 8 Conference championship.

After Tuesday night, the former has been put to bed. The latter is still a work in progress.

With two out in the third inning against East Chapel Hill, Berini skied the first pitch over the centerfield wall with the bases juiced. There was a touch of anger in Berini’s swing. In his previous at-bat in the 2nd inning with runners at the corners, Berini grounded out to East pitcher Matthew Kupec.

“I was pretty mad,” Berini said.

From that point forward, Orange (2-2, 1-0 in the Big 8 Conference) cruised past East 9-4 at Panther Field, but Berini wouldn’t have had a chance to hit the grand slam if it wasn’t for Ethan Guentensberger.

With two out in the third, Guentensberger stepped up with Will Walker at third and Bruce Clark at second. Guentensberger, who had reached base eight times in the opening week of the season without the benefit of a base hit, poked a floater over the head of second baseman Zach Wernoski into left field to give Orange a 2-1 lead.

Tucker Miller replaced Guentensberger as a courtesy runner and stole second as Ryan Hench drew a walk. Centerfielder Jaren Sikes went opposite field down the left field line to score Miller. After freshman Jackson Berini earned his first varsity base hit to load the bases, Berini launched his grand slam.

East (1-2, 0-1) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning with its traditional station-to-station baseball. Catcher Ben Buchman singled to right field, stole second base, took third on a sacrifice bunt by Blake Moyer and scored off an RBI groundout by 1st baseman Will Briley.

Senior Cooper Hench, making his second straight start, earned the win. He threw four innings, giving up three hits, two walks and an earned run. Hench struck out two and remained in the game at third base after Marco Velasquez replaced him in the fifth.

Guentensberger came up with another clutch hit in the sixth. Walker, who has hit safely in Orange’s first four games, singled to left field. Clark was hit by a pitch, but was thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice hit by Connor Funk. Guentensberger lined a first-pitch fastball to the right center gap, the deepest part of the park, to score Walker and Funk, who came in from first.

Guentensberger finished 2-for-4 with 4 RBIs. Freshman Ryan Hench went 3-for-3 with a run scored. Clark, in only his third start, was 2-for-3 with a run scored.

Orange’s 13 hits was a season-high.

East, the defending Big 8 Conference champions, added two runs in the seventh. Wernoski and Buchman led off the inning with singles while Moyer reached on an error to load the bases. Briley knocked in Wernoski on a fielder’s choice, while Kupec hit a sacrifice fly to center to plate Buchman.

Orange will travel to East Chapel Hill on Friday afternoon at 4.

In his 1994 song “The Wild Ones,” Waylon Jennings reminisced about the group he ran with in his younger Texas days that eventually found fame in Nashville because “we didn’t know we could fail.”

Right now, that’s a very basic but accurate way of describing Orange softball.

In its Big 8 Conference opener, the Lady Panthers trailed 7-1 after four innings, but they were too tough–and perhaps too young—to know how to fold.

With freshman Carson Bradsher and sophomore Lauren Jackson leading the way, the Lady Panthers pulled out a 10-8 victory at Wildcats Softball Field in Chapel Hill. Orange (2-1, 1-0 in the Big 8) scored five runs in the fifth inning and added four more in the sixth to beat East for the third straight time.

Bradsher finished 4-for-5 with two RBIs in just her third varsity game. Jackson, a sophomore, went 3-for-3 with three RBIs.

East (1-1, 0-1) suffered its first loss after a 17-6 win over Broughton to open the season Thursday.

Sophomore Courtney Watkins, who came on in relief during the fourth inning with Orange trailing 7-1, earned her second win in as many games. Senior Grace Perry picked up the save, retiring the final four Wildcats.

It was another freshman, Kelsey Tackett, who started the Orange comeback in the fifth. Tackett singled up the middle to score Grace Andrews, who reached on a fielder’s choice. With Bradsher at bat, Chloe Glaser scored on a wild pitch. Bradsher followed with a line drive single to left, scored Tackett and Bradsher and cut Orange’s deficit to 7-6.

After East scored seven runs off six hits in the first three innings, Watkins kept the Wildcat bats tame. East could only muster a walk in the fourth and a hit batter in the fifth, both of whom were stranded.

Andrews drew a walk to open the sixth, then moved to second after Glaser reached on a bunt single. Colley tied the game when she reached on an error following a grounder to second, leading to Andrews scoring. Bradsher wound up with the game-winning hit with a line drive single to centerfield, bringing in Glaser and loading the bases. Then Maddy Bartlett was hit by a pitch to bring in Colley. Jackson knocked in Orange’s final run on a sacrifice fly, leading to a tag up from Rachel Tilley at third.

East put together a run in the sixth when Gabrielle Sielken got on board off an infield single. With senior Ella Pedersen at bat, Sielken eventually scored off an Orange throwing error.

Perry retired the Wildcats in order in the 7th, the only time all day that East went down 1-2-3.

Five Orange players had multi-hit games. In addition to Bradsher and Jackson, freshman centerfielder Serenity McPherson went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Junior third baseman Emma Puckett also finished 2-for-4 with a walk. Colley ended up 2-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI.

Orange will host Person in Hillsborough on Wednesday at 5. East Chapel Hill will return the visit to Orange on April 14.

On Tuesday night, the Orange baseball team defeated East Chapel Hill 9-4. Panther freshman Ryan Hench had three hits, including a liner in the seventh inning where Orange scored twice. Hench’s older brother, Cooper, earned the win on the mound for Orange. Last week, Ryan reached base in all five of his plate appearances in his first varsity game against Western Alamance. He drew two walks and was hit by pitches three times. Against East, Hench scored during Orange’s 7-run 3rd inning off of Joey Berini’s grand slam. The Panthers improved to 2-2, 1-0 in the Big 8 Conference. They will travel to East Chapel Hill on Friday afternoon looking for a sweep against the defending Big 8 Conference champions.

The Orange baseball team won its Big 8 Conference opener over East Chapel Hill on Tuesday night. Catcher Ethan Guentensberger went 2-for-4 with 4 RBIs as the Panthers won 9-4 at Panther Baseball Field. In the bottom of the third inning with the Panthers trailing 1-0, Guentensberger lined a two-out single to right field to score Bryce Clark and Will Walker. That hit led to shortstop Joey Berini sending a grand slam over the centerfield wall. In the sixth inning, Guentensberger sent a double to right centerfield to score Walker and Connor Funk for Orange’s final runs of the game. Ethan is the younger brother of former Orange right fielder Colin Guentensberger, who is now a walk-on linebacker at Appalachian State. Ethan has started four games at catcher so far this season for the Panthers. Coming into Tuesday’s game, Guentensberger had walked six times and has been hit by pitches twice. Orange will travel to East Chapel Hill on Friday afternoon.

Every coach will remember his first win and Bryson Massey was no different.

Speaking two days after Cedar Ridge defeated the Burlington School 3-1 at Red Wolves Baseball Field in Hillsborough, Massey picked apart piece-by-piece the vital moments of his first coaching win.

In a year of younger players across the Big 8 Conference, Cedar Ridge sophomore Will Berger went four innings to earn the win as the Red Wolves defeated the Spartans 3-1.

Berger, who started at quarterback last season for the Cedar Ridge football team, is the younger brother of Phillip Berger, who graduated last June with a school-record 22 pitching wins. Phillip now pitches at William Peace University, where he was named the USA South Rookie Pitcher of the Week on February 24.

While Cedar Ridge senior Fransisco Martinez didn’t earn the save, he was one of the heroes of the night. In two out in the fifth inning, Martinez replaced Chris Pearce, who was forced to leave the game because of an injury. Martinez walked into the game with the bases loaded for Burlington, but got the final out to retain the 2-1 lead.

“Francisco took the ball in a big situation for us,” Massey said. “He stepped up as a senior in a close game. He showed his leadership in a big situation for us.”

Sophomore Cristian Macias earned the save with a shutout seventh inning.

After hitting 9th in the season opening loss to Carrboro, Grady Ray was inserted into the leadoff spot on Friday.

“He had some good at-bats against Carrboro in the nine spot,” Massey said. “I thought he had enough good cuts to earn that leadoff position. He looked comfortable in the box against Burlington and I was pleased with that.”

After Massey replaced Mitchell Frazier in September, almost all of the members from the 2018 squad were gone. Two years ago, Cedar Ridge finished 18-6, 11-3 in the Big 8 Conference and reached the second round of the state playoffs. Only Ray and Grant Fox remain from the Cedar Ridge team of 2018.

A new roster and a new coach has given Cedar Ridge baseball a fresh start. That’s despite a disappointing 11-2 loss to Carrboro to open the season on March 4.

“It’s been a breath of fresh air,” Massey said. “The guys are really eager to work. Against Carrboro, we didn’t perform like we wanted to. All the guys knew it. I challenged them on Wednesday at practice and it was probably the best practice we’ve had. We worked hard on the mistakes that cost us. They came out on Friday night and played well as a whole.”

Ray, starting in centerfield, made several big catches on a night of swirling winds and blustery cold.

“He made some big time plays,” Massey said. “Since February, we’ve had some guys grow up a lot. They’ve taken some roles they haven’t been in before. They’re stepping up and earning the spot to play in.”

Ray, Aidan McCallister, B.J. Thornton all started their first varsity games last week.

Cedar Ridge will travel to Northwood on Tuesday night for its Big 8 Conference opener. You can hear the game on Hillsboroughsports.com starting at 7.

With eleven home runs in 26 varsity softball games, it’s easy for local softball fans to draw a comparison between Cedar Ridge’s Takia Nichols and former Orange catcher Mia Davidson.

After Friday night, maybe Roy Hobbs would be the most accurate. (Here’s a video of the above reference for younger readers).

In the second inning against West Johnston, Nichols took a leadoff fastball and knocked it off the left field scoreboard at Cedar Ridge softball field. Despite gusts of 25 miles-per-hour, Nichols’ power thrust the ball into the teeth of the wind and off the screen that tallied the opposing team’s runs (above the home team) to tie the game at 7-7.

That was all West Johnston Coach Laura Jefferson needed to see.

Nichols never got another swing the rest of the night, receiving four intentional walks, twice with runners on board.

After two hours and 25 minutes in mid-40 degree temperatures, Cedar Ridge showed poise and plenty of offensive firepower to defeat the Wildcats 21-16 on Friday night. It was a rematch of a first-round state playoff game in May, where the Red Wolves’ won 4-3 in 11 innings off a walkoff single by Tionna Carter.

The Red Wolves amassed 19 hits to improve to 2-0. They opened the season with an 11-7 win over Cardinal Gibbons.

Cedar Ridge built an 18-8 lead off an inside-the-park grand slam by junior centerfielder ShiLi Quade, who laced a riseball to left field as the signature blow in a six-run third inning. Quade score Ava Lowry, Olivia Aitkin, and Reagan Ruhl.

Quade was one of five Red Wolves with three hits. She was joined by Aitkin, Thornton, Lowry and Ruhl. Lowry scored four runs, as did Ruhl and Nichols.

Aitkin, who spent the winter competing in the climate-controlled atmosphere of the Orange County Sportsplex for the Cedar Ridge swimming team, had to brave howling winds standing inside the circle in her first year as a regular starting pitcher. With scattered onlookers bundles under blankets, hand warmers and heavy jackets, Aitkin was left alone to face a West Johnston offense that piled up 24 runs in its season-opening victory over Northern Nash.

“I just try to focus on throwing my pitches like I imagine in my head,” Aitkin said. “Then I just throw it. I play softball year around so I’m used to the cold.”

After giving up an early run, Cedar Ridge scored five runs in the first inning after the opening two batters were retired. Ruhl, who played second base, drilled a double to left field to bring in Ava Lowry and Aitkin. Thornton launched a triple to center to score Rhule and Quade.

After trailing 16-6 going into the fifth inning, West Johnston cut its deficit to 19-16 off five runs in the sixth inning, including a three-run triple by shortstop Kaitlyn Tucker.

In the bottom of the sixth, Quade reached on a bunt single. After advancing to second and third off wild pitches, Rachel Serre scored Quade on a sacrifice fly. Thornton walked and added an insurance run following a double by freshman Anaya Carter.

Cedar Ridge will start its Big 8 Conference slate against Northwood on Tuesday in Pittsboro, then travel to Four Oaks for a rematch with West Johnston on Thursday. The Red Wolves travel to Chapel Hill for a doubleheader on Friday.

“The girls battled tonight,” said Cedar Ridge Coach Allen Byrd. “We got some productivity from the bottom of our lineup tonight, which we didn’t have the other night (against Cardinal Gibbons). They came up and hit the ball. These kids just stuck together and played fundamental softball.”