Even with Taylor Apple now pitching at East Carolina, Central Conference softball hasn’t lost very much depth.
Of the top 15 teams in the current 3A East Region RPI rankings, four are from the Central. Western Alamance lost Apple, the 2023 Central Conference Pitcher of the Year, along with seven other seniors. Yet the Warriors will almost certainly make the state playoffs.
Cedar Ridge, with just one senior starter, is battling to return to the state playoffs for the fifth time in six years, not counting the pandemic season of 2020. Last week, they used power hitting from its top two power hitters to earn consecutive wins.
On Wednesday, junior Kimber Shambley drilled her team-leading fifth home run of the season while sophomore Mia Best went 2-for-3, scoring three runs in a 10-1 win over Falls Lake at Cedar Ridge Softball Field. Sophomore pitcher Charlotte Lowry struck out four over five innings to improve to 3-1 in the circle.
Falls Lake (5-7) is the defending champion of the 1A Super Six Conference.
Best started a two-out rally in the opening inning with a single to centerfield, then advanced to second after the ball rolled under the glove of centerfielder Cora Cates. Catcher Rylee Capps laced a single to right to score Best.
Aliceann Kohler opened the third inning by getting hit by a pitch. Madeline Galindo-Woodring moved Kohler to second on a sacrifice bunt to pitcher Wynterlee Glenn. With two outs, Kohler raced to third base when a pickoff throw to second base bounced off the glove of Kayla Cash. Best sent a fly ball to right field that was dropped, leading to Kohler scoring.
Lowry retired nine of the first ten batters in the opening three innings, allowing only a walk to Cates to leadoff the second.
Leading 2-0 going into the bottom of the fifth, Shambley helped bust the game open with an RBI single to centerfield, which scored Kohler after she was hit by a pitch. After Best walked, Capps sent a deep fly ball to centerfield that landed just shy of the new, makeshift fence that easily plated Shambley and Best.
In the sixth, Victoria Matthews led off the inning when she reached on an error by Cash at second base. Shambley slammed a two-run Homer to right field to give the Red Wolves an 8-1 lead. Later, Laci Sykes would launch a two-run double to centerfield to score Best and Cameron Copeland, running for Capps.
On Friday night, the Red Wolves defeated Person 8-6 for its first-ever win in Roxboro. While Ridge had a pair of two-run leads in the opening four innings, only for the Rockets to tie things up each time.
Best led off the fifth inning with a line drive to left field for a single. Capps followed with a single to centerfield. Sykes walked to load the bases with no outs. Charlotte Lowry landed a 2-1 fastball into deep centerfield over Liberty Jones, easily scoring Best and Copeland. Matthews scored Sykes with a groundout to third baseman Camryn Clarke.
Person made things interesting with two runs in the sixth inning. Paisley Riggsbee and Clarke both scored to trip the Cedar Ridge lead to 7-6.
Cedar Ridge picked up a crucial insurance run in the seventh inning after Lowry was hit by a pitch. Matthews singled to right field and got Copeland, running for Lowry, over to third. Kohler laid down a gorgeous sacrifice bunt to score Copeland.
Person got Macey Bowes aboard in the bottom of the seventh off a walk, but Brittani Goddard retired Taryn Massey when she caught a line drive for the final out.
In the first inning, Shambley doubled down the left field line. Best followed with a two-run home run to give the Red Wolves an early lead.
Cedar Ridge (8-4) will host Southern Alamance on Tuesday night in Hillsborough. The Red Wolves will step out of conference play to face Northwood on Thursday, also in Hillsborough.