ELON: Any similarity between the Orange baseball team and the Duke men’s basketball during the ACC Tournament is purely coincidental.
And nearly identical.
Duke’s ACC Player of the Year Cooper Flagg suffered a sprained ankle during a nightmarish first half against Georgia Tech and didn’t return the rest of the weekend. They also lost utility forward Maliq Brown, but its depth was so thorough that it won the tournament championship anyway.
Last Monday, things seemed simple enough for Orange baseball coach Jason Knapp as he prepared for his first conference series against Western Alamance. His pitching rotation was set. Ryan Sawyer on Tuesday. Oliver Van Tiem, ranked as among the top pitchers in the class of 2027, would start on Friday in Elon.
It didn’t end up that way.
On Tuesday, Sawyer earned his fourth win of the year as the Panthers defeated the Warriors 8-1 in Hillsborough. In the fifth inning, Van Tiem injured his ankle he stepped on third base after he reached on a dropped ball in centerfield.
Suddenly, Knapp was without his Friday starter going to Elon, a place where Orange had lost in its last two trips.
If Van Tiem was Orange’s Flagg, then Mason Bullard was Maliq Brown. In the second inning against Western Alamance in Elon, Bullard sent a Baltimore chop that rose over the head of Warriors’ third baseman Bryce Runner and bounced along the third base line.
As he rounded first, Bullard pulled something in his back and was replaced by Eli Horton. Suddenly, Knapp had to replace in entire battery on another cold night at Western that didn’t start off well.
Yet the Panthers would overcome an early 4-1 deficit and pieced together an 11-7 win over Western Alamance on Friday. Senior Garrett Sawyer worked long relief, replacing starter Camryn Raspberry with one out in the first inning. Sawyer threw three-and-two-thirds innings to earn his first win of the year, allowing two hits and one run.
Garrett Sawyer nearly delivered the death blow in the third inning with the bases loaded, driving a first-pitch fastball to left field. Warriors’ left fielder Dawson Boysel backed up to the fence and made the catch. Instead of a grand slam, Sawyer had to be content with driving in Dominic O’Keefe, who scored the game-winning run, on a sacrifice fly.
“It goes back to all seniors,” Knapp said. “Garrett, Dominic and Eli Horton. We didn’t really have a great start. We didn’t make some plays behind Raspberry, who I thought did a really good job. We had to go to Garrett in a tough spot and got us out of the jam.”
Orange sophomore Kayden Bradsher, who has hit safely in eight of ten games, went opposite field on a leadoff single in the first. Sawyer legged out an infield single on a ball tapped back to the mound. Bradsher stole third and would score the first run of a long night off a groundout by Henry Hoffman.
The Warriors scored four runs in its side of the first when Cooper Marks reached on an error. Gavin Davis walked and Frederick Harrelson, who made several spectacular plays at shortstop defensively, reached on a groundout to Bradsher, who threw out Davis at second base. Harrelson stole second and Marks scored when the throw wound up in centerfield. Western’s Jackson Rippy reached on a dropped third strike wild pitch. With Jorge Banda at the plate, Harrelson touched the plate on a wild pitch. After Banda walked, Renner sent a grounder up the middle for a single to score Rippy. Ethan Oakley, running for Banda, scored off a passed ball to put the Warriors lead at 4-1.
Orange would tie the game in the second inning off three bases-loaded walks. Hoffman, Cam Brown and Gary Miller all drew RBIs.
The Panthers pulled away with five runs in the fifth. Hoffman drove in his third run of the game with a line drive to left field to bring in Mason Grooms, who’d drew a leadoff walk. Following a single by Brown, Miller and Raspberry drew walks. Horton sent a pop-up to second base that was dropped with two out, allowing Brown and Miller to score.