Even on nights when they aren’t clicking on all cylinders early, the Orange baseball team has enough arms to simply overpower the opposition.
That was the case once again Tuesday night in the Panthers’ opening game of the Hilltop Invitational, concluding a day where the stakes of the event rose dramatically.
Trailing 4-2, the Panthers scored five runs off five hits in the fifth inning with senior David Waitt knocking in the go-ahead run on an infield single. Junior Coltin Hedrick, coming on in relief of starter Josiah Gibbs, threw three shutout innings as Orange won 9-4 to improve to 14-2.
The Panthers are 8-0 against non conference opponents. The win set up a showdown between Lee County and Orange for Wednesday night at Panther Field in a meeting between two teams in the top five of the 3A East RPI rankings. The Panthers entered Tuesday night #3, while the Yellow Jackets are #4.
The winner of Orange-Lee County could find themselves ranked even higher next week.
Earlier on Tuesday, Person stunned South Brunswick, the #1 team in 3A East, 9-8 in the semifinals of the Battle for the Big Rock Tournament in Morehead City. The Rockets will face New Hanover for the tournament championship on Wednesday afternoon.
Last week, J.H. Rose, ranked #2, lost consecutive home games to D.H. Conley and Rolesville.
For much of Tuesday night, it appeared the upset bug may bite Orange. The Vikings erased an early 2-0 deficit with two runs in the second, a go-ahead tally in the third and insurance in the fourth.
The Vikings’ Hunter Meeds led the comeback. He scored off a single by Grey Booker to right field in the second. Chandler Ring, who started the game at shortstop, scored off a bunt by Malcolm Vann to tie the game.
In the third, Meeds laced an RBI single to right centerfield, the deepest part of Orange’s park, bringing in Mayson Dear to put the Vikings ahead 3-2. In the fourth, Dear sent a deep liner to right center to score Ryan Wallace from first base.
Orange chipped away at the Union Pines lead 90 feet at a time in the fifth inning. Ryan Honeycutt lead off with a walk. Catcher Ryan Horton looped a single to right field. Cross Clayton loaded the bases with a soft liner to centerfield for another hit. Neo Best lined a ball under the glove of Ring being second base and into centerfield to score Honeycutt. After Elijah Santos reached on a fielder’s choice where pitcher Austin Mooring threw out courtesy runner Joey Pounds at third on a bunt attempt, Jackson Berini drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game, scoring Clayton.
After Ring replaced Mooring as pitcher, Waitt poked a soft pop-up behind the mound. Dear, who went from catcher to shortstop, couldn’t throw out Waitt, leading to Best scoring. Connor Nordan lifted a sacrifice fly to left field, which was caught by Grey Booker in the left field bullpen, allowing Santos to tag up and score. Cameron Guentensberger sent a 3-0 fastball to right field for an RBI single, scoring Berini and putting Orange ahead 7-4.
Hedrick replaced Gibbs to open the fifth inning and allowed only one baserunner in the final three innings. Over the past month, Hedrick is 2-0 with two saves. In 12-plus innings over his last four appearances, Hedrick has 13 strikeouts with four walks, one run and five hits surrendered.
Berini opened the scoring in the first when he lined a single to right field. With Waitt at the plate, Union Pines starting pitcher Grey Withrow was called for a balk. With Connor Nordan at bat, Berini advanced to third on a wild pitch, then came home after the corresponding throw to third bounced off the fielder’s leg and rolled into the outfield.
After Nordan, Guentensberger and Honeycutt all drew walks, Horton lifted a fly ball to the left field that may have stayed in the park solely because of the wind. The left fielder dropped it at the warning track, which allowed Nordan to score.
Orange put the game away in the sixth when Berini lined a two-run single up the middle, scoring Best and Clayton. Nordan nearly added another double, but he was robbed on a gorgeous diving catch by Meeds in centerfield for the third out.
Lee County 7, Cedar Ridge 1: The Yellow Jackets scored two runs in the first inning against Cedar Ridge, then scored four runs in the final two innings to secure their 13th win of the season.
B.J. Thornton struck out six for the Red Wolves. Thornton also drove in the Red Wolves’ only run in the fourth inning. After Mason Cates drew a leadoff walk, he went to second after a balk. Thornton lined a double to left field.
Nick Pope earned the win for the Yellow Jackets, allowing only two hits over six innings. He struck out seven and walked four.
Cedar Ridge, who defeated Union Pines 9-5 on Monday night, will face Chapel Hill on Thursday in their final game of the Hilltopper Invitational.