Since he emerged as Orange’s #2 starting pitcher last season, Cross Clayton has had a flair for huge performances in big games.
Last year, he threw a five-inning perfect game against Cedar Ridge to clinch the Central Carolina Conference regular season championship. At one point in 2022, Clayton threw 23 consecutive scoreless innings.
On Wednesday night, Clayton came through with possibly his best all-around game in his Panther career, and it put Orange on the brink of a second consecutive regular season championship.
Locked in a scoreless stalemate with Person pitcher Dylan England, Clayton launched a 3-2 fastball over the porch in left field for the go-ahead run in the fifth inning. Clayton would go on to strike out a career-high 13 batters as conceded just three hits over six innings with zero walks as Orange defeated Person 3-0 to sweep a two-game series.
Orange (13-2, 6-2 in the CCC) now leads Walter Williams by two games in the loss column for first place in the CCC. The Panthers have four conference games remaining, two each against Northwood and Eastern Alamance.
Clayton overpowered Person throughout the night and didn’t show any signs of wilting in the late innings. He retired the final seven Rockets he faced, six of them via strikeout, before yielding to junior Cameron Guentensberger for the seventh inning.
Of Clayton’s 77 pitches, 59 were for strikes. Not one Person batter touched third base. Of the 21 batters Clayton faced, he threw the first pitch for a strike on 16 of them. Three Rockets either struck the first pitch or was hit by it. Only two Person batters the whole game had a first pitch that was called a ball. One of those was catcher Tyler White, the final batter Clayton faced.
White struck out anyway.
“If you Google efficiency, you’re probably going to see a picture of Cross Clayton,” said Orange coach Jason Knapp. “He’s very efficient. I don’t know how many first pitch strikes he had tonight, but I’m sure it’s a ton. He just pounds the zone and moves around and is a very good pitcher.”
For the second straight game, Orange played without David Waitt, the senior right field who leads the team in hits. This time, Orange wasn’t alone in facing injury adversity. Person third baseman Levi Strader left the game in the first inning after a hard grounder by Jackson Berini caught his bare right hand. Peyton Smith replaced Strader.
England was able to match Clayton’s power on the mound through the first four innings. Berini was stranded at second after the leadoff infield single when England set down Elijah Santos, Connor Nordan and Ryan Honeycutt on strikes.
In the second inning, Orange’s Ryan Horton sent a one-out dribbler up the middle for a single. Wyatt Hedrick walked with two out, but England struck out Neo Best to quell the threat.
Person’s biggest opportunity of the night came after a base hit from Smith, who had played in only one game prior to Wednesday. After Tyler White sent a single over second base to leadoff the fourth inning, Clayton struck out Brennan Kiser. Smith, who hadn’t had a base hit this season, lined a single to right field. Joey Pounds came up with the ball and threw to Berini, who managed to catch a Person courtesy runner in a rundown. Hedrick tagged out the runner at second, which was the closest anyone from a Person uniform would get to home plate. Clayton set down William Ragan to end the inning.
Clayton faced England to lead off the fifth and chased several pitches. With the count 3-2, Clayton launched a fastball that barely cleared the left field fence. Shaw, the left fielder, got his glove over the fence but couldn’t pull it back into the ballpark. It was Clayton’s second home run of the season.
In the next at-bat, Hedrick struck a double that rolled to the right field fence. Best lined out to Regan in right field, which allowed Hedrick to advance to third. Berini swung at a high fastball and pulled it to Ragan, who argued to the field umpire that he made a shoe top catch to no avail. The single was Berini’s eleventh RBI of the season and it put Orange ahead 2-0.
In the sixth, Honeycutt snuck a pop fly to shallow right in between three Rockets for a double. Walker replaced Honeycutt as a courtesy runner. With two out, Ryan Horton looped a 1-2 fastball into right field to bring in Walker.
Guentensberger walked Kiser to open the seventh, but Best turned a 5-4-3 double play to immediately quell any Person hopes of a comeback. Guentensberger wound up with his second save of the year.
Orange will take a respite from CCC play nest week and start play in the Hilltopper Invitational. On Monday, the Panthers host Lee County in a matchup that could heavy implications for state playoff seeding. Orange is currently #3 in the RPI rankings for 3A East Region schools, while the Yellow Jackets are #7.
Orange will also face Union Pines on Tuesday at 6PM, then host Wakefield for Senior Night festivities next Friday.