Since 2021, a softball team currently in the Central Conference has won the 3A Eastern Regional Championship three times. Two of them won state championships.
In the final year of possibly the most powerful softball conference in the state, Orange used its potent batting lineup to win its league opener at Western Alamance.
The Lady Panthers put up eight runs in the fourth inning, then held off a Warriors rally to win 13-10 in its final league trip to Elon on Tuesday night.
Allie Carden put the exclamation point on the decisive frame with a grand slam, vaulting the Lady Panthers ahead 11-2. Allie had two at-bats in the frame. She rounded the bases after sending a fly ball to right field at the fence, which was dropped, leading to a Little League home run.
At that point, Orange’s lead was only 4-2 and it appeared that would be all after the next two batters grounded out. Then the Lady Panthers scored seven runs with two outs, starting with senior Rhiley Crabtree and Natalie Roberson each hitting singles. Senior Sadie Cecil dropped a fly ball into centerfield to score Crabtree. Camryn Rodrigues replaced Addison Beal as Western pitcher, but Orange scored when Katie Carden drew a bases-loaded walk to score Roberson.
On the verge of getting run-ruled, Western Alamance came back with five runs in its side of the fifth inning, capped by a two-run homer from Rodrigues.
Cecil struck back with a RBI single to centerfield to score Molly Kate Ollis in the fifth, putting Orange ahead 12-7. Hayleigh Hammond dropped down a sacrifice bunt to score freshman Reese Blank, who reached on a pinch-hit single to right field earlier in the inning.
Cecil finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs. Katie Carden drove in four runs, including the opening tally of the night with an RBI single in the third inning.
Orange sophomore Addison Guentensberger threw six innings to earn the win.
Cedar Ridge 15, Person 2, 5 innings:
Cedar Ridge smashed a season-high 18 hits, including three hits each from senior Kimber Shambley and freshman Reagan Remaly, in an each win in Roxboro on Tuesday night.
Senior Reagan Simmons hit a solo homer in the second inning as the Red Wolves bounced back from a crushing home loss to Eastern Alamance to even its league record to 1-1. In five innings of work, senior Charlotte Lowry struck out nine to improve to 3-1.
Cedar Ridge chained together three consecutive singles to scratch the opening run across. Remaly and Shambley each reached. Junior Rylee Capps lined to center to score Remaly.
Simmons home run in the third help the Red Wolves pull away. Remaly singled and stole second with Shambley at bat. Shambley earned her second hit with a fly ball that dropped into right field. On a double steal with Capps at the plate, Remaly scored as Shambley bolted for second. Capps then earned another RBI with a single to right field.
Cedar Ridge sent 14 batters to the plate during a 10-run fourth inning. Mia Best sent a two-run single to centerfield that brought in Parker Kennedy and Brittany Goddard, putting the Red Wolves ahead 6-0. Simmons stroked an RBI single to score Madeline Galindo-Woodring. Remaly hit a two-run single on a worm burner to right field to score Best and Simmons. Then Remaly scored off a single from Capps, along with a throwing error by a Person outfielder. In her second at-bat of the inning, Goddard hit an RBI double to score Laci Sykes. Earlier in the frame, Goddard reached on an error.
Best increased Cedar Ridge’s lead to 14-0 with a two-run double to left field.
In a pinch-hitting situation, Emma Going hit a RBI single in the fifth inning to score Shambley.
Cedar Ridge will host Falls Lake on Thursday night in Hillsborough.