By his own admission, Oliver Van Tiem isn’t 100% yet.
If he was 75% on Thursday night, it was still plenty to overpower Cedar Ridge.
Van Tiem, who suffered an ankle injury against Western Alamance on March 18 and missed six games, threw a complete game, one-hit shutout and added the game-winning hit during a two-run third inning as Orange defeated Cedar Ridge 5-0 at Red Wolves Stadium on Thursday night. It was Van Tiem’s first pitching win since March 14, when he struck out 12 batters in five innings against Jordan.
Orange (10-9 overall, 3-5 in the Central Conference) ended a five-game conference losing streak by splitting the series against Cedar Ridge. It came two nights after the Red Wolves stunned Orange 6-1, its first win at Panther Field since 2012.
Unlike the previous two meetings between the crosstown squads, there were no memorable comebacks in the seventh inning. Yet tensions within the rivalry remain as healthy as ever as coaches and players from opposing sides exchanged words in the latter innings. The emotions lingered well into the postgame.
“We’re not fully healthy, but our boys played with a lot of fight,” said Orange coach Jason Knapp. “Tuesday left a bad taste in our mouth. We’ve dominated that program for the last 15 years. We didn’t finish Tuesday. Our kids came out yesterday (Wednesday) to practice laser focused. Laser focused. And we came out here as a totally different team tonight that we’ve had the last few weeks. I’m absolutely proud of them.”
When 2024 ended, Orange lost six position starters and two-thirds of its pitching to graduation. Van Tiem, a sophomore, was the player they could least afford to lose. He starts at shortstop when he isn’t pitching and hits third in the starting lineup.
He went down against Western Alamance, the Central Conference opener, when he stepped on third base after a dropped ball in centerfield. His loss took away Orange’s most powerful pitching arm, among its most potent batters and forced several players to adjust to new defensive positions on the fly in his absence.
Orange put up a two-out rally in the top of the third to bring across the game-winning runs. Kayden Bradsher sent a first-pitch fastball to the left field power ally, 360 feet from home plate, and stood up for a triple, the Panthers first hit of the game against Cedar Ridge starter Aidan Ryan. Van Tiem turned on a 1-0 curveball, which hugged the third base line and faded into the left field corner. Bradsher scored the first run of the game off Van Tiem’s double.
After Eli Horton replaced Van Tiem as a courtesy runner, designated hitter Henry Hoffman skied a 2-2 pitch to the wall in centerfield. Horton touched home as Hoffman earned his first triple of the year to increase Orange’s lead to 2-0. Hoffman has a team-high 18 RBIs.
Ryan laced a triple to left field in the first inning with one out. The next Cedar Ridge batter popped out to Orange’s Cam Brown, who made the catch in the third base’s coaches box. Van Tiem got his first strikeout of the night to end the inning.
Cedar Ridge would have only four more baserunners the rest of the game, all reaching off walks. The last true Cedar Ridge threat came when Quinn Finnegan and Ryan each walked. They both got into scoring position, but the inning ended after another infield pop-up that Van Tiem handled in foul territory.
D.J. Woods stroked a double down the left field line to start the fifth inning. Hunter Albert replaced Woods as a courtesy runner and went to third after Wren Hash grounded out to Cedar Ridge first baseman Dominic Sena. Brown lofted a two-out single to left field to increase Orange’s lead to 3-0.
Orange added two more runs in the seventh. Bradsher drew a leadoff walk. Hoffman dropped a soft liner to right field where McGuffey and Carter Warren collided. With the infield drawn in, senior Dominic O’Keefe sent a grounder up the gut to drive in Bradsher. Woods drove in Hoffman with a single to left field.
