Cedar Ridge High School

For the 2nd year in a row, the Cedar Ridge Red Wolves have won a share of the Big 8 softball championship. On Wednesday night, they defeated Northern Durham 12-6 at Knights Softball Field in Durham to finish the regular season 18-2. Senior pitcher Taylor Barnes threw a complete game for her 15th win of the season. Barnes also went 2-for-4 with a double. On Monday night in Cedar Ridge’s 12-2 win over the Knights, Barnes went 3-for-3 and scored three runs. Barnes is hitting .462 this season. After playing twice in two days, Cedar Ridge will sit back and watch crosstown rival Orange on Wednesday night. The Panthers host East Chapel Hill. If Orange wins, they will Cedar Ridge on Thursday for the #1 seed in the Big 8 Conference in the upcoming 3A State Tournament.

One day after winning his 21st career game at Cedar Ridge, Red Wolves pitcher Phillip Berger formally signed with William Peace University out of Raleigh. Berger, who has been a varsity pitcher for four years, was joined by several of his former coaches during the ceremony at Red Wolves Gymnasium. That included Jamie Athas, who was the baseball coach at Cedar Ridge until last summer. Current Red Wolves coach Mitchell Frazier presided over the ceremony. Ironically enough, one night earlier, Berger defeated the Williams Bulldogs, where Athas is now the coach. Former Cedar Ridge football coach Scott Loosemore, who coached Berger in the fall of 2017 when he was a quarterback, drove up from Laurinburg for the ceremony. This week, Berger will complete the regular season with two games against Northern Durham and a make-up game against East Chapel Hill.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is softball junior right fielder Emma Roby. This season, Roby is hitting .438 and has 21 hits. Earlier this season, Roby was forced to play catcher for six games after starter Kymberlie Thacker suffered a concussion against Cardinal Gibbons. Cedar Ridge went 6-1 in those games, including a 11-1 victory over Orange at Red Wolves Territory. Roby has had four consecutive multi-hit games, including going 3-for-3 at East Chapel Hill on April 10. She went 4-for6 against Hillside last Tuesday. Cedar Ridge opened this week with a win over Vance County on Monday night in Hillsborough. 

Baseball is a numbers game. It’s 511 wins by Cy Young. Or 73 home runs by Barry Bonds in a season. Getting 20 wins in a high school career isn’t easy, but it’s a plateau that Cedar Ridge senior Phillip Berger reached last week in a 13-1 win at Hillside in Durham. Consider that Berger has only started 25 games in his varsity career and made 43 pitching appearances. Berger is now 3-4 this season in six starts. In his sophomore season, Berger earned a win in the state playoffs when the Red Wolves defeated Nash Central 4-1. Berger will wind down his accomplished varsity career over the next few weeks. He will face Southern Durham on Tuesday in a doubleheader at Red Wolves Territory.

Cedar Ridge centerfielder Jackson Strowd is the leading hitter for the Red Wolves this season with a .429 average over eleven games. Strowd leads the team with 12 hits and is tied for the team lead with eleven runs. He has three multi-hit games this season, the most recent against Eastern Guilford on March 25. Last Thursday, Strowd went 1-for-2 against Hillside in a 13-3 victory in Hillsborough. He also went 1-for-2 with a run scored in a 9-6 loss to Chapel Hill. On Tuesday, Cedar Ridge will host Southern Durham in a doubleheader in Hillsborough as the Red Wolves continue their pursuit of a 4th consecutive state playoff birth. Action between the Spartans and the Red Wolves starts at 5. You can hear the game here on Hillsboroughsports.com.

The Cedar Ridge baseball team swept its first Big 8 Conference season of the year last week. They defeated Hillside 13-1 on Tuesday in Durham, then defeated the Hornets 13-3 in Hillsborough on Thursday. Chris Pearce earned his first varsity pitching win for the Red Wolves on Thursday. Pearce threw four-and-two-thirds innings, striking out five while surrendering four hits and three runs, one earned. Pearce made his first varsity start on March 6 in a loss to Carlisle (VA). This week, Cedar Ridge will look to maintain its momentum when they face Southern Durham in a doubleheader in Hillsborough on Tuesday. That doubleheader will be broadcast live here on Hillsboroughsports.com.

Cedar Ridge senior centerback Geri Messinger asked head coach P.J. Michaelson to move up to midfield in the midst of the first half of the Red Wolves 7-0 win over Orange on Wednesday night. She got the opportunity and turned it into a goal as the Red Wolves completed a season sweep of the Lady Panthers. Messinger is winding down her Cedar Ridge career. She aims to push the Red Wolves into the state playoffs for the second year in a row. Last year, Cedar Ridge won a state playoff game at West Carteret. Emmy Talley scored a hat trick for the Red Wolves against the Lady Panthers. Cedar Ridge will travel to Northern Durham on Monday night.

Cedar Ridge junior Giselle Solis Morales assisted on three goals as the Red Wolves women’s soccer team defeated crosstown rival Orange 7-0 on Wednesday night. With the win, Cedar Ridge completed a season sweep of the Lady Panthers. Solis Morales had three assists in Cedar RIdge’s 5-0 win over Orange on March 25 at Orange Soccer Park. This season, Solis Morales has two goals and ten points. Cedar Ridge followed the Orange win with a 7-2 win at Southern Durham on Thursday night. The Red Wolves are now 6-7-1 overall, 4-5 in the Big 8 Conference.