The Cedar Ridge Red Wolves have taken a big step towards its first winning season since 2012.

Senior Brandon Andrews and junior Erik Zehnder doubled while first baseman Chris Cox drove in two runs as the Red Wolves shutout J.F. Webb 9-0 on Tuesday night at Red Wolves Field. Cedar Ridge (10-5, 3-4) have now won four in a row after sweeping its three games in the Hilltop Invitational Tournament against Riverside, Western Harnett and the Wake County Warriors.

Leadoff batter Dante DeFranco went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. Zehnder finished 2-for-3, scoring twice. Junior Sailor Ramos went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI.

Freshman Jake DeFranco’s four-game hitting streak came to an end against the Warriors, but he still leads Cedar Ridge with 22 hits and a .500 batting average.

After two scoreless innings, the Red Wolves struck for three in the third, including Andrews RBI double. It was Andrews’ 14th RBI of the season, which leads the team.

The Red Wolves, who travel to Southern Durham tonight, are now in 5th place in the Big 8, a game behind Webb and Chapel Hill, who are locked in a tie for 3rd at 4-3. The top three teams in the Big 8 automatically advance to the state playoffs.

In mid-March, Orange Coach Dean Dease hoped his young Orange squad would be a good team by April.

On Thursday night at the Hilltop Invitational, there were reasons to believe he hopes would come to fruition. On Friday night, there weren’t.

Athens Drive, coming in 3-10, bolted out to a 5-0 lead and defeated Orange 7-3 at Panther field. Jaguars centerfielder Sam Enders went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI, while 2nd baseman Braxton Boddorf came off the bench to score twice and finish the game in relief of freshman starter Zach Hurand, who earned his 3rd win.

The Panthers briefly had hopes of tying the game in the 3rd. After centerfielder Jaydin Poteat lined a single to left field, second baseman Jason Slaughter doubled to right field to reduce the Orange deficit to 5-1. After Caige Clayton walked, Mark Willms singled to left field to score Slaughter. With two on and two out, 1st baseman Eric Nichols slapped a 2-1 fastball to left that cleared the wall, albeit around 10 feet foul. Nichols walked, but Ryan Puckett flew out to Enders to end the threat.

Orange’s only other run came in the 5th when freshman shortstop Joey Berini dropped an opposite field floater to left field, leading to a triple. In the subsequent at-bat, Slaughter singled him in.

The Panthers conclude the Hilltop Invitational against Western Harnett on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 at Panther field. You can hear the game on Hillsboroughsports.com.

Three weeks ago, after a 10-9 loss at Chapel Hill where the Tigers scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh, Cedar Ridge senior Brandon Andrews called a mandatory, players-only practice.

After some tough losses, the results are starting to arrive.

On Friday night, the Red Wolves defeated Western Harnett 9-3 in the 2nd game of the Hilltop Invitational at Red Wolves Field. Cedar Ridge won its opener in the tournament 9-8 against Riverside on Thursday.

Sophomore Phil Berger improved to 4-2 after scattering six hits in six innings, yielding just two runs, one earned.

Junior Adam Chnupa went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two doubles as Cedar Ridge jumped out to a 5-0 lead after two innings. Chnupa also stole two bases. Cedar Ridge poured on four more runs in the fifth inning to erase any hopes of an Eagles comeback.

Andrews finished 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs. Freshman Jake DeFranco went 2-for-3 with an RBI. 1st baseman Chris Cox, who had three hits on Thursday night, laced a double in the first and scored twice.

Cedar Ridge will wrap up its stint in the Hilltop against Wake County Home Schools on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 at Red Wolves Field. They return to conference play on Tuesday with another home game against J.F. Webb.

It’s survival of the fittest at this stage of lacrosse season, and Cedar Ridge is in pretty good shape.

Coming off a 14-4 victory over Orange last Friday, the Red Wolves continued to revel in revenge mode on Thursday night by beating Carrboro 10-7 at Red Wolves Stadium.

Cedar Ridge stormed out to a 5-0 lead and never trailed. As usual, the Red Wolves seniors led the way. Sean Tobin and Jack Widman each had hat tricks. Widman finished with five points, while Tobin had four.

Carter Danku, Nick Bachelder, Jacob Miles and Jackson Berry also scored goals for the Red Wolves (8-3). Demetrius Lyles picked up an assist.

It was a sweet victory for the Red Wolves, who lost to Carrboro in the 3A/2A/1A state playoffs last season at home.

Widman leads the team with 39 goals and 62 points. Tobin has 28 goals and 15 assists, while Bachelder has 15 goals and 11 assists.

Cedar Ridge has five games remaining in the regular season. The Red Wolves play three games in the span of five days next week. They travel to Eastern Alamance on Monday, followed by a home game against Riverside. Next Friday, Cedar Ridge will host East Chapel Hill. They finish the season on April 28 at Chapel Hill.

So far in Big 8 Conference play, Orange has won all six of its games by a combined score of 126-0.

After Easter, things will get real.

The Panthers completed its latest series sweep by beating Chapel Hill 21-0 on Thursday at Orange Softball Field. The Panthers took the opener on Monday 28-0 over the Tigers to improve to 11-0 overall.

Orange is tied with J.F. Webb for 1st in the Big 8 at 6-0. The Warriors are 12-1 overall, its only loss against defending 2-A state champion South Granville 9-4 on March 8.

On Monday against the Tigers, Mia Davidson hit her 49th career home run and finished 2-for-5 with four RBIs. Davidson has 33 RBIs this season (1st on the team) and 135 for her career.

Freshman 1st baseman Jaden Hurdle went 3-for-4 with four runs and two RBIs, improving her team-leading average to. 594 with 17 runs and 20 RBIs. Hurdle also leads the squad with 19 hits. Senior Abby Hamlett finished 3-for-4, scoring five runs. Hamlett leads the team with 21 runs scored. Olivia Latta-Harshaw also homered, her second of the year.

Hayley Funk, Jansen Manley and Kristina Givens had multi-hit games for Orange.

Orange hosts Northwood on Tuesday at Orange. They travel to Pittsboro next Friday to complete the series against the Chargers.

Junior Pitcher Will White struck out 11 for his 2nd career win as Orange won on the opening night of the Hilltop Invitational over Green Run (Virginia Beach, VA) 9-0 on Thursday night.

Chris Cox went 3-for-4 on Thursday night as Cedar Ridge defeated Riverside 9-8 on the first night of the Hilltop Invitational.