Cedar Ridge Baseball

Like all other local baseball seniors, Brian Flores hasn’t had a traditional season since he started at Cedar Ridge.

The pandemic ended his sophomore season to only three games. Last season, the Red Wolves was limited to eleven games because of a reduced schedule mandated by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.

So when Coach Bryson Massey texted Flores that he was starting against Northwood in Pittsboro last Tuesday, no one knew what to expect. Certainly not Massey and Flores. Not to mention that Northwood may be the most hitter-friendly ballpark in the Central Carolina Conference.

Flores had a few relief appearances this season, the most recent coming against Person on March 15. Yet he had never started a game.

No one could have imagined that Flores would throw a complete game two-hitter against the Chargers. Or that he would take a no-hitter into the sixth inning after he walked Northwood’s Seth Davis to open the game. The Chargers’ Walker Johnson broke up the no-hitter with a double to left field, ending a string of 15 consecutive batters retired by Flores.

By that point, Cedar Ridge had largely put the game away, leading 6-0. Flores would finish with his first career complete game, conceding only one run and two hits in seven innings. He struck out four with one walk in a 6-1 Cedar Ridge win.

“He did more than I could have expected,” Massey said. “I told him to go out there and win us a ballgame and he did. He beat a gritty Northwood team that gives you a lot of troubles. He kept them off balance and gave us a chance to win the ballgame.”

It was the second straight year that the Red Wolves won at Northwood. Last season, Cedar Ridge won in Pittsboro 8-2, Massey’s first conference win as the Red Wolves’ coach.

Cedar Ridge jumped on top of the Chargers with a run in the opening inning. Following a leadoff single by third baseman B.J. Thornton, senior Aidan McAllister reached on an infield hit. McAllister stole second, which led to an RBI single from Garrett Ray.

The Red Wolves struck for two runs in the third inning, once again generated by McAllister’s base running. McAllister, who has committed to play at Hofstra, reached on an infield single. The ball was thrown away by a Charger fielder and wound up going up a steep hill behind first base, which doesn’t have a fence behind it. After McAllister took second, Efrain Morales lined a fastball to right to plate McAllister. Right field Nick Nolan moved Morales to second with another hit, while Carlo Garay would knock Nolan in with an RBI groundout.

In the fourth inning, Morales drove in McAllister with a double to right field. Braedyn Jacobson, who reached on an error to start the frame, scored off another error. B.J. Thornton added another run.

Thornton finished 3-for-4, while McAllister, Ray and Morales were each 2-for-4.

“I love this team,” Massey said. “They’re going to fight and they’ve been through it together. There’s a lot of seniors and they’ve gone through the battles. They’ve suffered some tough losses and this year they’ve won some games. I couldn’t be more happy with the first half of the season.”

On Friday, Northwood defeated Cedar Ridge 5-2 to split the two-game series in Hillsborough. Northwood coach David Miller started Salvador Delgado, who also started Tuesday’s game. This time, Delgado keep the Cedar Ridge bats quiet through two-and-two-thirds innings, conceding only a triple by Morales in the first and a single by McAllister in the third.

Northwood jumped out to a 5-0 lead at the end of three innings. In just the second at-bat of the game, Charger third baseman Zach Barnes doubled to right field to score Mason Bae, who drew a leadoff walk. Luke Smith would knock in Barnes on a sacrifice fly.

Morales went 3-for-3 for the Red Wolves on Friday

Cedar Ridge will start play in the Hilltop Invitational against Holly Springs on Wednesday night at 6PM. The Red Wolves are scheduled to host Chapel Hill on Thursday at 6, then will travel to East Chapel Hill Friday afternoon at 4PM.

The Red Wolves (6-4 overall, 3-3 in the CCC) will return to conference play against Eastern Alamance on April 5 in Hillsborough.

A year ago, the Cedar Ridge baseball team found itself in defining moments game after game.

Time and again, they came up on the short end when they needed a big play. It led to a frustrating and choppy season where it was impossible to gain a rhythm because of the pandemic.

Just two games into 2022, there’s already been a reversal of fortune for the Red Wolves, and they have some new faces to thank for it.

On a typical chilly early-season night game, the Red Wolves pulled out a 9-8 decision in eight innings over Chapel Hill on Wednesday night. In his first game in a Red Wolf uniform, freshman Quinn Finnegan earned the win by throwing four-and-two-thirds innings of relief. Finnegan conceded only three hits and two runs with four strikeouts during his first high school appearance.

In the eighth inning, Cedar Ridge manufactured two runs starting when sophomore catcher Efrain Morales lined a two-out single to centerfield. Designated hitter B.J. Thornton walked and right fielder Nick Nolan was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Senior Garrett Ray walked on four pitches to bring in Morales. Cristian Macias was hit by a pitch to plate Thornton.

In the bottom of the frame, the Tigers got within one run when Tyler Stillson knocked in Evan Hansen with a single to left field. With one out, Finnegan calmly struck out senior Taran Coyne Smith. Macias, playing second base, recorded the final out on a grounder hit by Chapel Hill’s Will Epstein to end a game that surpassed three hours with temperatures in the upper-40s by the time it finally ended.

“We know what we have in Quinn,” said Cedar Ridge coach Bryson Massey. “He’s a freshman and one good thing already about this year is we got to do some scrimmages. I got to put him in a situation in a scrimmage where he came in with the bases loaded. We wanted to see what he’s got. I have the most confidence in that kid. I’ve seen him grow up. I’ve seen him in travel ball. I know what he’s about.”

Cedar Ridge jumped out to a 4-0 lead when each of its first six batters got aboard in the first inning. Morales led off the game with the first of a combined 15 walks on the night. Thornton singled, followed by a Nolan walk to load the bases. Garrett Ray, who just finished basketball season, singled to centerfield to score Morales. Macias got a one-run single to bring in Thornton. Mason Cates did the most damage when he reached on an errant throw that led to Ray and Nolan scoring.

“Efrain (Morales) is a lightning bolt,” Massey said. “He brings a lot of energy to this team. Our team feeds off of it. He’s a great guy to have around.”

The Tigers came back to tie the game with four more runs in the second inning, and pulled ahead 6-4 after three frames. Cedar Ridge came back with three runs in the fourth inning. Third baseman Bryan Flores singled to lead of the frame and scored off a throwing error on a ball it by Braedyn Jacobson. Morales evened the game with an RBI single to left field. Carlo Garay put Cedar Ridge into the lead when he scored on a passed ball.

While the Chapel Hill win was a back-and-forth affair, the Red Wolves’ 2-1 win over Bartlett Yancey on Thursday night in Hillsborough was a classic pitcher’s dual. Once again, Macias came up big.

With the game tied 1-1, Macias drew a leadoff walk to start the bottom of the sixth. With Jake Mergenthal at bat, Macias stole second. After two more pitches, Macias raced for third base and ultimately scored when the ensuing throw wound up in left field.

Macias replaced Cates as the pitcher in the seventh inning and earned the save. He surrendered only one hit with a strikeout.

Cates threw six innings to pick up his first varsity win. He surrendered three hits and one run with seven strikeouts and four walks.

Trailing 1-0 going into the fifth, Cedar Ridge tied the game when Garay led off with a double on a line drive to centerfield. After Jacobson advanced the runner on a sacrifice bunt, Morales knocked Garay in with a sacrifice fly to centerfield.

The Red Wolves will play its first Central Carolina Conference game against Willams in Burlington on Tuesday.
“Last year was a year where we couldn’t find a way to win a one-run ballgame,” Massey said. “We lost a lot of those games. The thing about this team is we have a lot of guys who were a part of that team. They remember that. They knew how to win that close game. It comes down to the little things and we talk about that everyday. In the eighth inning, we executed what we had to execute to get those runs.”

It was typical early season baseball at Chapel Hill Field on Wednesday night. Fans were bundled up in blankets as Cedar Ridge and Chapel Hill battled into extra innings. The Red Wolves fought until the end and came away with a 9-8 win in eight innings over the Tigers. In his first game, freshman Quinn Finnegan threw four-and-two-thirds innings of relief and came away with the win. Finnegan struck out four and conceded only three hits and two runs, one of them earned. Sophomore catcher Efrain Morales scored the game-winning run when Garrett Ray drew a walk in the eighth inning with the bases loaded. Morales, in his first Cedar Ridge start, led off the eighth inning with a single to centerfield, setting up two runs in the lone extra inning. Morales went 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Cedar Ridge earned another narrow win on Thursday night when they defeated Bartlett-Yancey 2-1. Cristian Macias scores the game-winning run off a throwing error, then picked up the save when he threw a scoreless seventh inning. Cedar Ridge will start play in the Central Carolina Conference against Williams on Tuesday in Burlington.

Aidan McAllister has had a long relationship with baseball. It didn’t start well.

“If I’m being honest, when I first started playing baseball, I was not good at all,” McAllister said. “I was originally a soccer player and I enjoyed that. It was my stepbrother who got me into baseball.”

Somehow, McAllister made the Hillsborough Youth Athletic Association Hawks in Hillsborough when he was ten years old, but his relationship with the game hasn’t always been smooth over the years. There were time he wanted to quit.

Yet baseball is a game of failure. In the Major Leagues, the best teams will lose 60 times a year. The worst teams usually win 60 times.

Bryson Massey, McAllister’s head coach at Cedar Ridge High School, was barely out of his mother’s womb when his beloved Atlanta Braves lost 97 games in 1990. The next year, they won the National League West and got within one win of a World Championship.

Though he’s been tempted to walk away, like any relationship worth preserving, McAllister have found that baseball is the thing he can’t leave behind.

“I wasn’t as gifted as others,” McAllister said. “I felt like I had to work a lot harder at it. I just wanted to prove to everyone else that I could be good at it. You have to be very mentally strong to play baseball. I’ve done things during slumps that I thought would help me and it only made me worse. I’ve learned from it and it had made me better.”

Last October, McAllister formally committed to play with Hofstra University in Nassau County, NY. On Thursday at the Cedar Ridge Media Center, McAllister formally signed his letter of intent with the Pride, a member of the Colonial Athletic Association.

Massey, Cedar Ridge Athletic Director Andy Simmons and Principal Dr. Carlos Ramirez were on hand for the ceremony, along with McAllister’s teammates and other students.

“He’s a kid that’s going to outwork a lot of people,” Massey said. “We’ve talked a lot about focusing on proving some people wrong. We talked about that at the end of last season. Last summer, he got in the gym and worked on his body and his swing. He got a lot better at baseball and that’s what you have to do.”

While his high school career has consisted of just 16 games over two seasons because of the pandemic, McAllister has continued to work on his game as a first baseman with Cedar Ridge and the Canes Baseball showcase squad during the summer.

“It was definitely the coaching staff,” McAllister said of his reason for committing to Hofstra. “I formed the best relationship with them. I really enjoyed the Hofstra campus. The school is definitely different from North Carolina. it was very big. It was more rural than I expected.”

Officials from the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore and various schools across North Carolina had also contacted McAllister about playing.

McAllister briefly played with Team Elite, a showcase team coached by Andrew Cook, who spent last season as the Director of Baseball Operations with North Carolina Central. The Eagles’ shut down its baseball program in June.

Before classes at Cedar Ridge, McAllister is a daily morning presence at the Edge Sports Complex in Durham, where he’s worked on the mechanics of his swing.

“When I came here, we set a plan to reach his goals,” said Massey. “I’ve spent a lot of time with him on and off the field. Throughout this offseason and into the fall, we really focused on finding somewhere to fit him. We talked back-and-forth and felt that Hofstra was the best school that gave him what he needed and the opportunity he deserved.”

Though McAllister hasn’t had as much time in a Red Wolf uniform as he would hope through his first three years at Cedar Ridge, he credits Massey with helping him grow into a Division I-caliber player.

“I was pretty immature when I first came to high school,” McAllister said. “He helped me in that aspect. Maturing was a big part of it for me. That helped a lot. He’s also given me a lot to work on, like with drills. He’s helped me with the recruiting process.”

Next spring, McAllister will get a chance to play a full schedule. It’s something he hasn’t done at Cedar Ridge. The Red Wolves’ season begins at Chapel Hill on March 2.

“I definitely want to make a statement and show my ability,” McAllister said. “I’m just going to continue to put in the work.”

After verbally committing to play baseball at Hofstra University in October, Cedar Ridge first baseman Aidan McAllister formally signed with the Pride during a ceremony inside the Cedar Ridge Media Center on Thursday afternoon. The event included Cedar Ridge baseball coach Bryson Massey, Athletic Director Andy Simmons, Principal Dr. Carlos Ramirez and member of the Red Wolves baseball team. McAllister has played for the Red Wolves varsity squad for three years. Last season, he hit two home runs in the opening two innings against crosstown rival Orange. Just a few years ago, McAllister was unsure if he was capable of being a college baseball player, much less a Division I caliber player. McAllister credits his improvement to The Edge Sports Performance in Durham, as well as Coach Massey. McAllister and the rest of the Red Wolves will start their season on March.2 at Chapel Hill.