Month: June 2021

Joey Berini: Berini saw action for #12 East Carolina during its Super Regional series against #4 Vanderbilt at Hawkins Field in Nashville, TN. The Commodores swept the best-of-three series to advance to the College World Series in Omaha, NE. On Saturday, Berini entered the game as a pinch-hitter replacing Bryson Morrell. He flew out to right field. Berini played the 9th inning at shortstop. Berini also played in Friday’s game, a 2-0 Vanderbilt win, pinch-hitting for Ryder Giles. He grounded out to second base. The Pirates struggled against Vanderbilt pitching all weekend. ECU managed just three hits on Friday and two on Saturday. East Carolina ends the year 44-17. In his freshman year, Berini played 15 games for the Pirates. He hit .250, including an RBI single against Charlotte in the Greenville Regional on June 5. On May 13 against Cincinnati, Berini had a putout and three assists at shortstop. Berini will play summer baseball with the Asheboro Copperheads of the Coastal Plain League, who played its home games at McCrary Park. 

Bryse Wilson: Wilson won his third game of the season for the Gwinnett Stripers of Triple-A East on Wednesday. The Stripers defeated the Memphis Redbirds 5-4 in a seven-inning game at AutoZone Park in Memphis. In five innings, Wilson gave up four runs off seven hits. He had one strikeout with one walk. In 79 pitches, Wilson threw 51 strikes. Wilson is 3-1 this season for the Stripers. Gwinnett entered Sunday’s game against Memphis with an 18-17 record. 

Phillip Berger: The Elizabethton River Riders of the Appalachian League started its second full week of the season. On Wednesday, the Kingsport Axmen defeated the River Riders 4-3. Berger faced five batters. He threw one-and-one-thirds shutout innings with two strikeouts and one walk. On Saturday, Elizabethton defeated the Bluefield Ridge Runners 6-2 at Northeast Community Credit Union Ballpark to end a four-game losing streak. Elizabethton is 3-5. The River Riders will travel to Burlington to face the Sock Puppets on June 22 and June 23 at Burlington Athletic Stadium. 

Jaden Hurdle: Hurdle was named to the Region X All-Academic team for the Patrick Henry Community College softball team. In her freshman season with the Patriots, Hurdle played 40 games. She hit .328 with ten home runs and 32 RBIs. She also made 17 pitching appearances with two starts. In the circle, Hurdle went 4-3 with a 4.61 ERA with 40 strikeouts and 17 walks. The Patriots finished 2nd in the Region X Western Division with a 13-7 record, one game behind Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute. Patrick Henry was 22-20 overall. Hurdle was a member of two Big 8 Softball Championship teams at Orange and started at first base as a freshman on the 2017 3A State Championship team. 

After graduation ceremonies over the weekend, there will be some Cedar Ridge Red Wolves and Orange Panthers who will make their debut for Alumni Update this August. Congratulations to all of these graduates. Among them will be:

Emerson Talley-Lenoir-Rhyne women’s soccer team

Kessel Summers-Bluefield College Wrestling 

Grady Ray-Methodist baseball

Will Walker-Pitt Community College

Bryce Clark-Lenoir Community College

Matt Hughes-Brunswick Community College 

Ivy Gardner-N.C. State women’s soccer team

After making the state baseball playoffs for the 19th consecutive year, Orange will hit the road to Randolph County.

The Panthers will face Mid-Piedmont Conference co-champion Asheboro in the opening round of the North Carolina School Athletic Association 3A State Playoffs. The preliminary brackets were released at 4:10PM Sunday afternoon. 

The Panthers will face the Blue Comets at 6PM on Tuesday night at McCrary Park, also the home of the Asheboro Copperheads of the Coastal Plan League. 

Orange, the co-champions of the Big 8 Conference, received a #11 seed in the predetermined brackets released by the NCHSAA. The winner of this game will meet the winner of #3 D.H. Conley vs. #14 Jacksonville in the second round. 

It’s a meeting between two teams that shared their respective conference championships. Because of the pandemic, last January the Big 8 Conference’s athletic directors approved a format for all sports where only the first meetings between conference rivals would count in the league standings. Orange clinched a state playoff birth on May 11 when they defeated Chapel Hill 5-0 at Tiger Field. Northern Durham earned the #1 seed from the Big 8 Conference when they shut out the Panthers 4-0 in Hillsborough on May 18 behind a mammoth pitching performance from senior Matthew Lombard, who threw a 3-hit shutout in six-and-two-thirds innings with eleven strikeouts. 

It’s a game that hits close to home for Orange Coach Jason Knapp on several levels. Asheboro Head Coach Brett Hoogkamp played on Knapp’s junior varsity baseball team at Southwestern Randolph High School. Hoogkamp was also a quarterback for Southwestern Randolph’s football team.

On top of that, Knapp’s wife, Selina, graduated from Asheboro High. The Knapps celebrated their anniversary last week. 

Former Orange High star Joey Berini, who just finished the season with East Carolina in the Super Regionals of the NCAA Baseball Tournament, will spend his summer at McCrary Park. Berini has committed to play with the Asheboro Copperheads of the Coastal Plain League, a summer collegiate wooden-bat league. 

This season, Asheboro tied with Southeastern Guilford for the Mid-Piedmont Conference Championship. The Blue Comets are 12-2 overall, 10-2 in the Mid-Piedmont Conference. Asheboro opened the season 1-2 with losses to Southeastern Guilford and Southern Alamance, but concluded with eleven consecutive wins. Last Tuesday, the Blue Comets defeated previously undefeated Randleman, the champions of the 2A PAC-7 Conference. Asheboro ended the regular season with a nonconfence win over Chatham Central. 

Asheboro pitcher Caleb Walker, a senior who started against Randleman last Tuesday, has signed with Division II Catawba College. Another senior, Avery Jones, has made eight pitching appearances this season, including the season-ending win over Chatham Central last week. Jones has signed with Bluefield State College in West Virginia. 

The 3A State Tournament, paired down from 64 teams to 32 teams because of the pandemic, will start Tuesday. Even though Northern Durham captured the #1 seed from the Big 8 Conference, the Knights will not host a game in the opening round. Instead, the Knights will travel to Wilson to face Hunt. Northern received a #9 seed. The winner of Hunt-Northern will face either top-seeded Northern Guilford, the champions of the Mid-State Conference, or Cape Fear. 

Orange ended the regular season with a disappointing 12-8 loss to Northern Durham on Thursday. The Panthers led 5-0 going into the bottom of the third inning. Trailing 8-5, Northern scored seven runs in the sixth inning, going through three Panther pitchers. 

Orange senior starter Pierson Kenney had the longest stint of his career against the Knights. Kenney threw four inning and surrendered four runs off six hits. He left the game with Orange leading 6-4. 

Orange catcher Davis Horton singled in the sixth inning to conclude the year with a 15-game hitting streak. Horton had a hit in each regular season game this year. Panther second baseman Connor Funk went 3-for-3, including a two-run single in the third inning that brought in David Waitt and Will Walker to push Orange’s lead to 5-0. Funk also scored Orange’s first run after he reached on a bunt single in the 2nd inning. After Jaren Sikes hit a grounder to Northern third baseman Colin Scoggins, Funk scored off a throwing error, along with Joey Pounds.

You can hear Orange-Asheboro on Tuesday night on Hillsboroughsports.com.

Our Retro Orange Panther of the Week is Orange rising senior Avery Miller. Last year, the Orange volleyball team defeated defending 3A State Champion Chapel Hill 3-1 inside of an empty Orange High Gymnasium. Ordinarily, the gym would have been raucous after the Lady Panthers gained a long-awaited win over the Tigers, who had dominated the Panthers since the two teams became conference rivals again. Miller, playing the first game of her junior season, had five kills, four aces, five blocks and a team-high 29 serve receptions. Miller, the daughter of Orange High graduates Bobby and Jennifer Miller, had eight kills the following weeks in a 3-1 win over Northern Durham at Poe Gymtorium. She matched the eight kills in a 3-1 loss to Cedar Ridge. Like many volleyball players across the area, Miller has spent weekends during the spring playing across the region with her summer travel team. As soon as travel season ends, Miller will return to action to prepare for the upcoming season, which will start in August as Orange prepares for new league opponents in the Central Conference.

Arriving eight months later than usual, next weekend’s 3A Mideast Women’s Tennis Regionals will include a singles player from Cedar Ridge and a doubles team from Orange.

Cedar Ridge freshman Cameron Mayhew reached the semifinals of the Big 8 Conference Tournament inside Lindsay Linker Tennis Courts at East Chapel Hill High School on Wednesday afternoon. After receiving a bye into the second round Mayhew won her second round match 6-0, 6-0 to reach the semifinals. Mayhew fell in the semifinals to Northwood’s Evelyn Lippers 6-1, 6-3.

Mayhew is the younger sister of Cedar Ridge sophomore Josh Mayhew. Last month, Josh became the first Cedar Ridge singles player to ever reach the 3A State Men’s Tennis Championship match when he faced off against Chapel Hill’s Dennis Perumov.

A doubles team from Orange comprised of two freshmen reached the semifinals in the Big 8 Tournament. Finley White and Grace Pell advanced to the semifinals with a victory over a team from Northwood 6-4, 6-4.

Cedar Ridge’s Hannah Schinnick won her opening match 10-1, but fell in the second round against Northwood 6-1, 6-3. The Red Wolves’ doubles team of Raven Mowles-Aring and Annabeth Lundberg, both freshmen, won their opening match but lost in the second round 10-1.

The Mideast Regionals will be held at the Burlington Tennis Center starting Friday morning.

WRESTLING:

Over a two-day span, the Orange wrestling team faced the defending 4A State Dual Team Champions as well as the 2020 4A runners-up.

In a long road trip to Mecklenburg County on Tuesday night, 2020 State Champion Hough defeated Orange 46-24. In the same tri-meet, Mooresville Senior defeated the Panthers 37-27. It was the first dual losses of the season for Orange, who had won its opening 15 matches en route to the Big 8 Championship.

On Wednesday night, runner-up Cardinal Gibbons held off Orange 40-30 at Enloe High School. With no 3A State Dual Team Tournament taking place this year, the Panthers ended season 15-3.

Orange senior Kessel Summers defeated Hough’s Tyler Caldwell in 55 seconds. In 2020, Caldwell qualified for the 4A state championships at 120 pounds, where he defeated Riverside’s Issac Ramirez in the consolation round. Summers later faced Davis Freeze of Mooresville, who finished 2nd in the state in the 2020 3A 113-pound tournament. Freeze handed Summers his first loss of the season on a 6-0 decision.

Orange 220-pound senior Hayden Horne maintained his undefeated record on the season with three wins. Against Hough, Horne defeated Anthony Walker in 1:02. Horne held off Mooresville’s Ray Watson. Against the Crusaders, Horne pinned Liam Roldan in 2:20. Horne, who was an All-Big 8 Conference offensive lineman for the Orange football team, is now 13-0 with five pins.

At 170 pounds, Orange senior Henry Joubert-Stanzel defeated Brady Rabb of Mooresville 10-5. Against Hough, Joubert-Stanzel squeezed out a 10-8 decision over Alex Coward. Joubert-Stanzel suffered his first loss of 2021 to Cardinal Gibbons’s Savoy New, 10-4, on Wednesday and is now 15-1 on the year. He leads the team with seven pins.

Brandon Worsham, who qualified for the 3A State Championships last year, improved to 14-2 with six pins. At 182 pounds, Worsham decisioned Mooresville’s Desmond Jackson 11-9. Against Hough, Worsham pinned Matt Digerolamo in 58 seconds. On Wednesday, Worsham pinned Gibbons’ Anton Berg in 2:44.

On Tuesday, Cedar Ridge traveled to Kernersville to close its 2021 dual season. The Red Wolves lost to Ledford 51-30 and to the Glenn Bobcats 48-24.

Cedar Ridge senior Daina Pritchard improved to 22-1 on the season at 145-pounds with a pin over Ledford’s Caleb Brumett in 4:19. Pritchard also earned a forfeit win over Glenn.

Red Wolves senior James Rosati-Brown earned two more wins to boost his record for the season to 21-2. Rosati-Brown pinned Ledford’s  Diego Ponce-Gamez in 1:04.

In a preview of next week’s Women’s State Wrestling Tournament, Cedar Ridge’s Kady Watkins pinned Ledford’s Mahogony Brown in 1:36.

The 3A Mideast Regionals will be held at Eastern Guilford High School in Gibsonville on Tuesday. Eastern Guilford will host the 3A State Men’s Championships on June 26. The Women’s State Championships are set to take place next Saturday at Kernersville Glenn High School.

When Cedar Ridge senior Grady Ray took off his baseball uniform for the final time on Wednesday night, it ended years of service with Red Wolf athletics. Ray played baseball, basketball and football with Cedar Ridge. On the day of his final baseball game, Ray signed with Division III Methodist University, where he will play baseball with the Monarchs in Fayetteville. As fate would have it, Ray will compete in the USA South Athletic Conference against a former classmate, Phillip Berger, who is the winningest pitcher in Cedar Ridge history. Berger plays for William Peace University in Raleigh. This season, Ray started in left field. Among his senior highlights was going 1-for-3 against Northwood on opening night. He scored two runs as the Red Wolves won in Pittsboro for the first time since 2014. Ray was also a regular rotation player in basketball for Coach Jaison Brooks the past two seasons. Ray ended his stint on the hardwood with four straight wins over crosstown rival Orange.

A season of near-misses concluded for the Cedar Ridge baseball team on Wednesday night against Kernersville Glenn. It was the final Cedar Ridge game for seniors Grady Ray, Tucker Cothran, Bryce Clark, Marco Velazquez, Sam Garbee, Matt Hughes and Trent Kirby. The team managed to have fun despite ups and downs. They invented some dugout chants, including “Marco Polo” whenever Velazquez got on base. They also were in charge of rolling out the tarp, which led to some adventured whenever a snake would find its way underneath the plastic…which actually happened on Thursday. The team managed to kill the copperhead and actually kept it in the dugout. This team helped head coach Bryson Massey, in his second year, install his system and mentality about coaching after the 2020 season ended in only three games. Earlier on Wednesday, Ray signed with Methodist University, where he will play baseball for the Monarchs. Hughes signed with Brunswick Community College, where he will play baseball alongside current Northern Durham ace pitcher Matthew Lombard. Clark, who played at Cedar Ridge one season, signed to play at Lenoir Community College in Kinston.

Cedar Ridge shortstop Bryce Clark is going to an area very familiar with baseball to start his college career. On Thursday during a ceremony at Cedar Ridge High School, Clark signed to play with Lenoir Community College in Kinston. This season was Clark’s first with the Red Wolves. Clark had to overcome Tommy John Surgery when he was 14 and was asked by a doctor whether he wanted to continue his baseball career. He did. In his junior year, Clark started two games at Orange. After he transferred to Cedar Ridge, he was the Red Wolves regular shortstop under head coach Bryson Massey. This season, Clark went 3-for-3 with two doubles against Orange on May 5. On May 28, Clark became the first player to hit a home run off of Orange pitcher Ryan Hench. Against Northwood on May 21 in a 6-1 Red Wolves win. With the Lenoir Lancers, Clark will play at historic Grainger Stadium, the longtime home of Kinston’s franchise in the Carolina League.

During a formal signing ceremony at the J-Wing of Cedar Ridge High School on Wednesday afternoon, senior pitcher Matt Hughes formally signed with Brunswick Community College. It happened hours before Hughes played his final game in a Cedar Ridge uniform against Kernersville Glenn at Red Wolves Territory. Hughes has been a varsity player at Cedar Ridge since his freshman year. Last Friday, Hughes threw four shutout innings against East Chapel Hill, with eight strikeouts. Hughes had arm problems to being this season, which hampered his ability to start for the Red Wolves. However, he struck out the side against Northwood in the 7th inning of a 6-1 Cedar Ridge win on May 21. With Brunswick Community College, Hughes will be teammates with Northern Durham standout pitcher Matthew Lombard. In Region X of the National Junior College Athletic Association, Hughes will see some familiar faces, including his teammate Bryce Clark, who signed with Lenoir Community College on Wednesday during the same ceremony. Hughes will graduate from Cedar Ridge High on Friday night inside Red Wolves Football Stadium.