Taking the Sting Out–Nordan’s 2-run homer, Clayton’s eight strikeouts lifts Orange over Lee County 4-1

It was a classic Orange High home run.

The infamous porch in left field at Orange High has been a hindrance for right-handed pitchers for years. The fences were moved in during the late-1990s to take the light poles out of play for outfielders who had enough to worry about chasing down fly balls without crashing into something, which actually happened a few times.

That created an environment where no lead in safe regardless of how good the pitching is.

Orange’s Connor Nordan faced Lee County’s Walker McDuffie, who has committed to North Carolina, in the first inning. After Nordan missed badly on McDuffie’s initial offering, he made contact on a slider hit to left field.

At first, Nordan thought it would be blooper that may hug the third base line. But the wind was blowing out of the park and the ball carried and carried. It wound up right at the foul pole, naturally colored Orange, where it disappeared over the shallowest area of the ballpark. A true wall scraper.

“I thought it was going to go foul,” Nordan said.

Afterwards, the showdown between the Panthers and the Yellow Jackets became the defensive struggle everyone thought it would be. Yet Nordan’s dinger stood the rest of the way and led Orange to its biggest non-conference win of the year.

Clayton struck out eight and allowed just five hits in his first complete game of the season in Orange’s 3-1 win over Lee County. Clayton, in his fourth start of the season, earned his 12th win since the start of last year.

It was a victory that could pay off handsomely for the Panthers in the 3A East RPI rankings. Orange entered the game ranked #3 while Lee County was #4. Earlier this week, Person upset #1 South Brunswick. Last week, #2 J.H. Rose lost consecutive home games to D.H. Conley and Rolesville.

Orange is 15-2, its best start since the 2013 squad that roared out of the gates 16-1.

The only run Orange conceded came from Lee County’s B.J. Brown, who sent a high fly over the, you guessed it, left field fence. The wind pushed the ball beyond the reach of outfielder Elijah Santos to give the Yellow Jackets an early lead.

Lee County didn’t have another runner in scoring position until the fifth inning.

While the home runs may have been surprising, Orange coach Jason Knapp noticed the wind was blowing out as he watered the infield a few hours before first pitch.

“I wasn’t completely surprised that the ball jumped out a little bit,” Knapp said. “Especially early because it felt like both teams were trying to feel each other out at the very beginning. It’s not surprising, but it’s also not surprising with my squad that they didn’t blink.”

Following Nordan’s two-run wall scraper, Clayton and McDuffie went along business as usual. McDuffie finished with eleven strikeouts, his sixth double-digit strikeout game in seven starts. After Nordan’s home run, McDuffie set down ten in a row.

Clayton, coming off a 12-strikeout performance over Person last Wednesday, improved to 4-0 this season.

By the end of the fourth inning, only one run separated the two teams. Just about everything else was remarkably similar. They each had two hits. McDuffie had 51 pitches. Clayton had thrown 50.

The Yellow Jackets’ biggest threat came in the fifth inning when Blake Carlyle lofted a double down the left field line with one out. Cameron Cabe, batting ninth, sent a soft liner to right field, where David Waitt got the ball in before Carlyle could score. McDuffie flew out to Waitt for the second out in shallow right, leaving Carlyle unable to tag up. Brown was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Dylan Kelly worked the count up to 3-1, only the third Yellow Jacket to get three balls against Clayton all day. With Lee County one ball away from tying the game, Kelly sent a grounder to third baseman Neo Best, who stepped on third to end the inning.

Orange took advantage of its chances in its side of the fifth. Junior catcher Ryan Honeycutt laced a leadoff double down the third base line. Wyatt Hedrick looped an 0-2 fastball to left field for a base hit to send Ty Walker, a courtesy runner for Honeycutt, to third. After a sacrifice bunt by Best sent Hedrick to second, Berini pulled a 1-1 fastball down the right field line that landed fair. Walker and Hedrick both scored standing up in what proved to be the kill shot.

Lee’s Carson Beal led off the seventh with a single, but Hedrick turned a 4-6-3 double play in the next at-bat. Clayton struck out Cabe to end the game.

Orange is 8-0 against non-conference teams and has won eleven in a row at home.

“Lee County is traditionally strong,” Knapp said. “I was proud of the way we represented our school and our community today. It’s a big win. We’ve still got work to do over the next two weeks.”