Orange Baseball

In a sport that’s as fickle as baseball, there are some mistakes you don’t stop paying for.

Orange jumped right on Cape Fear left hander Caden Jeffrey in the opening inning on Tuesday night, scoring five runs. It proved to be enough for the Panthers to advance to the state quarterfinals for the first time since 2014.

Orange senior Ryan Hench struck out nine over six innings, and added an RBI single for the opening run of the game as the Panthers defeated the Colts 5-0 in the third round of the 3A State Playoffs. The Panthers poured on so many runs early on, the fact they didn’t put another runner in scoring position in the final six innings didn’t matter.

The Panthers are 25-2, their most wins in a season since the 2013 team that went 27-4.

The last time the Panthers went to the state quarterfinals, it was 2016 during Bryse Wilson’s senior year. That squad finished 21-7 and lost to Topsail in the playoffs.

Orange will host Southern Lee on Friday night in the fourth round of the state playoffs. The Cavaliers defeated Currituck County 10-7 in Barco on Tuesday night.

Hench, a UNC commitment, improved to 4-0 with a 0.55 ERA in his sixth appearance of the season. Senior Joey Pounds tossed a perfect seventh to complete the Panthers’ first shutout since they beat Person 3-0 on April 5.

“Ryan was able to locate the fastball real well,” said Orange coach Jason Knapp. “He had his slider working well to compliment it. It was really, really good. Those guys (Cape Fear) battled. They had nine hits, but we played well behind Ryan. Our gloves played well.”

Just the fact Orange was playing at all on Tuesday night was miraculous in and of itself. On Friday, Triton led the Panthers 8-3 going into the bottom of the tenth inning before Orange staged the rally of a lifetime. They scored six runs in the bottom of the tenth, off five walks, three hits and a hit batter, to emerge with a 9-8 win in the greatest comeback in team history.

Word of the rally spread like wildfire, even for those who left the game early, and it became the talk of the community during Mother’s Day weekend. By Monday afternoon, Knapp said his team had largely put it behind them.

“This is a seasoned team,” Knapp said. “We’ve been through some battles. When we came in Monday, we talked about it for a second. Then we went out and had a great practice. I wasn’t a bit worried about that.”

Cape Fear (18-11), the champions of the United 8 Conference, mounted the game’s first threat when Mason Hughes lined a two-out single to right field. Hughes advanced to third on an errant pickoff throw by Hench, who responded by striking out Evan Bunce to end the inning.

Orange had six of its ten hits in the opening inning, starting with a leadoff single by senior Jackson Berini. David Waitt sent a hard grounder to right field, easily moving Berini to third. Hench’s single got through to left field to score Berini for the opening run. Pounds came on for Hench as a courtesy runner while Waitt moved over to third on a passed ball. Cameron Guentensberger walked to load the bases. With two out, Ryan Honeycutt hit a bouncing ball though the 5-6 hole to score Waitt. Neo Best reached on an infield hit where Colts third baseman Hunter Darden made a diving stop but couldn’t come up with a play. Pounds crossed the plate to make it 3-0. Wyatt Hedrick, who had the game-winning hit in the 10th inning against Triton, continued his hot streak with a soft liner that dropped in front of left fielder Ethan Wienand. Ty Walker, running in place of Honeycutt, just beat the throw from left field to score along with Guentensberger.

That was all Orange needed, but their defense put in work. Jackson Rainey and Spencer Perez each had singles to start the second, but Hench struck out Darden. Wienand flew out to Waitt in right field.

Bunce led off the fourth with a single to left field, but was thrown out by Honeycutt trying to steal second.

The Colts biggest threat came in the fifth when Wienand led off with a double down the left field line. Ethan Colletti went opposite field for a single, where Wienand was held at third. Mason Hughes sent a grounder to Best at third base. Best held Wienand at third while he threw out Colletti at second. Bunce advanced on a dropped third strike, but Hughes was thrown out at second to end the inning

Orange’s Elijah Santos made a superb catch in left field in the sixth to retire Perez. It came after Jackson lined a single to right field. Santos made another big catch on Darden to end the threat.

Berini and Waitt each finished 2-for-3.

Now Orange will face Southern Lee, who the Panthers have occasionally played in non-conference games over the years.

“They have a new coach, but he has them playing great,” Knapp said. “He has them playing as hot as a firecracker right now. Anytime you can travel all the way down to Currituck County and find yourself a way to win, you know you’ve got a great program.”

Southern Lee has become a sentimental favorite in the state tournament after head coach Tommy Harrington suffered a near-fatal ATV accident in December. Harrington, who replaced David Lee as head coach last year, finished 2nd in the Sandhills Conference behind Pinecrest, a 4A school.

No rally caps. No hokey chants from the dugout. No pep talks.

Orange didn’t need any of that for the greatest comeback in the baseball’s team history on Friday night. They just needed a reminder of who they were and what they were playing for.

Even if the hole they were in couldn’t have been much darker or deeper.

Triton, who had only four losses all year, had just scored five runs in the tenth inning in the second round of the 3A State Playoffs. It appeared that Kenneth McCoy had delivered the death blow with a three-run triple that bounced into the right field corner. It put the Hawks up 8-4. Then centerfielder Wyatt Avery lined a single up the middle to score McCoy for extra measure.

It was the most runs Orange had given up in an inning all year.

It seemed like a certain ending to a successful season, but not in the Orange dugout. That’s where Ryan Hench and assistant coach Matt Roberts told the team things weren’t over—even if it took a miracle.

Roberts reminded the players the pressure wasn’t on them, it was on Triton.

Hench knew from experience. As a sophomore in 2021, he was the pitcher when Cedar Ridge led Orange 6-3 with the Panthers down to its last strike at Red Wolves Field. Hench drove in the game-tying double and Orange went on to score eleven runs in the seventh to win 13-6.

“You draw off of experiences like that,” said Orange coach Jason Knapp. “Ryan took over ownership after that in the dugout talking to players. That’s something I haven’t seen around here since I’ve been here. Seniors taking ownership. All of them.”

Two years later, the Panthers would chip away at seemingly insurmountable odds 90 feet at a time.

In the most dramatic way possible, junior Wyatt Hedrick became the unlikely hero. He lined a single up the middle with the bases loaded to bring in Cameron Guentensberger in front of a raucous crowd at Panther Field. The Panthers won 9-8 in ten innings to advance to the Round of 16 in the 3A State Playoffs. Orange scored six runs in the bottom of the tenth, its longest game since 2017.

“I didn’t think it was over,” Knapp said. “I’m not going to sit here and say I felt great. But we have watched ourselves be able to do stuff like that, especially on this field. We can erupt at any time with a big, crooked number. We knew the guy they were throwing had some good velocity, but we knew he could walk some games.”

Orange will face Cape Fear, the champions of the United Eight Conference, on Tuesday night in Hillsborough.

Wherever the Panthers go from here, Friday night will be the source of discussion for years to come at reunions and get togethers amongst the players and coaches, not only because it was a giant comeback in the playoffs, but also the sheer craziness of it all.

There was Garrett Sawyer, who hadn’t had a plate appearance all season, somehow batting cleanup in the 10th inning of a state playoff game. Or Hedrick, who had been a part-time starter behind Cross Clayton at second base, with his first career three-hit game. Or Henry Huffman, making his varsity debut after playing on the JV team the whole season, nearly scoring the game-wining run in the ninth.

The Panthers’ season was on life support several times. Triton broke a 2-2 tie in the seventh when leadoff man Jalen Evans scored off a single to right field by Braxton Davis.

Connor Nordan led off the seventh with a liner to left field. Elijah Santos came on to run for Nordan. Santos reached second and third base off consecutive wild pitches. Ryan Honeycutt sent a soft pop fly to shallow centerfield that dropped between Evans and Avery. Santos scored the game-tying run and Honeycutt reached second on the throw. After Ryan Horton was intentionally walked with one out, Neo Best flew out to Avery. Hedrick nearly won the game in the seventh, but Avery made a diving catch in center to extend the game into extra innings.

Nordan led off the ninth with a single to centerfield that somehow got past Avery to the centerfield fence. After Nordan got an extra base, Orange coach Jason Knapp gambled. He pinch-ran Huffman for Nordan to get a faster runner at second. That meant Nordan, who leads the team with 38 RBIs would leave the game permanently.

“That’s was a tough call,” Knapp said. “He gave me a hug after the game. I told him I felt like we needed to get a little more speed out there and try to end it. He was like ‘Coach, I love you and you did what you had to do.'”

Guentensberger drilled a single up the middle that appeared to be enough to win. Yet Avery threw a frozen rope to the plate, where catcher Anthony Jones tagged out Huffman and deny the game-winning run. Relief pitcher Tucker Brown struck out Honeycutt and Horton to send it to the tenth.

Orange appeared to run out of arms in the tenth. Jones got a leadoff walk. Xander Johnson laid down a bunt where Sawyer slipped while fielding it. Ross Stevens loaded the bases off another walk. Diminutive second baseman William Meredith got a bases-loaded walk to score Hayden Campbell, running for Jones, to put the Hawks ahead 4-3 and things were just getting going. McKoy pulled a fastball from Guentensberger, who replaced Sawyer, for a bases-clearing triple. Johnson, Stevens and Meredith all came in to make it 7-3. With still no outs, Avery singled to right field to bring in McCoy.

In retrospect, what seemed like a harmless sequence with Triton ahead 8-3 turned out to be monumental. After Evans doubled, Davis grounded out to Hedrick for the second out. Evans, running at second, took off for third thinking that Avery would try to score from third. Avery wound up in a rundown where Horton tagged him out at the plate for your basic 4-3-6-2 double play.

By that point, Triton probably didn’t care. It seemed they had a surplus of runs and were ready to start a joyous bus ride by to Erwin for a game that had already surpassed three hours.

Braxton Davis, who threw six innings on Tuesday night in the Hawks 12-2 win over Scotland County in the first round, started the tenth for Triton. He induced Neo Best to ground out to Stevens at first base.

Then six straight Panthers reached base.

Hedrick and Jackson Berini walked. David Waitt, who leads the team with 33 hits, drove a fastball into the outfield to load the bases. Hench got drilled on the left knee with a fastball for a run battered in to score Hedrick.

That left Sawyer, in his first plate appearance of the season, in a bizzaro world at-bat with the season on the line. Sawyer worked the count until he got ball four outside to score Berini. Guentensberger ripped a fastball to left field to score Waitt and Hench and reduce the Hawks lead to 8-7.

Triton coach David Reece called in Avery from centerfield to pitch. The Hawks got within one out of the win when Honeycutt flew out to Jones, who moved to right field.

Best, who led off the frame with a groundout, came up to bat 0-for-5. He stayed patient as Avery, who didn’t warm up in the bullpen before going into the game, walked up with ball four well outside of the plate. Sawyer scored amid the loudest crowd pop you’re likely to hear following a walk.

Hedrick returned to the plate, the 11th Panther to hit in the inning. On a 2-2 pitch, Hedrick smoked a liner to centerfield to complete the most miraculous comeback in school history. Guentensberger, who earned the win on the mound, touched the plate for the game-winning run as Triton players collapsed in shock.

Orange, whose last loss was on March 21 is now 24-3. They have now won 17 in a row, but no one in attendance on Friday night will ever forget the Panthers’ latest victory.

Jason Knapp’s latest state playoff win as Orange baseball coach was unlike any he’s had before.

It wasn’t a first round nail bitter that went nine innings against Cedar Ridge.. It wasn’t decided in the late innings like last year’s thriller against Terry Sanford.

Instead, the Panthers went about business against Croatan thoroughly, efficiently and best of all, quickly.

Orange scored eight runs in the second inning, capped by a three-run blast by junior centerfielder Cameron Guentensberger, en route to an 16-2 win in five innings over Croatan in the opening round of the 3A State Playoffs on Tuesday night in Hillsborough. Orange, the #2 seed in the East Region, advance to host Triton on Friday night.

Triton defeated Scotland County 12-2 in six innings on Tuesday night.

Orange is 23-2, their most wins in a season since 2013, when they reached the 3A Eastern Regional final series with freshman Bryse Wilson.

Ryan Hench threw five innings to earn his third win of the season. Hench, who missed 12 games because of an injury suffered against Grimsley on March 9, struck out eight in only five innings. He allowed just two hits. Both runs he surrendered were unearned.

“Ryan looked great,” Knapp said. “He’s coming right back into form. He commanded the strike zone well. He had them out front with his slider. It looked the same old Ryan we’ve had forever.”

Croatan ends the season 12-13.

Hench finished 3-for-4 with five RBIs and a solo homer that led off the bottom of the fourth, which put Orange ahead 9-2.

Orange took control of the game going station-to-station in the second inning until, before you knew it, they had eight runs. It started when Ryan Honeycutt drilled a double down the left field line. With Ty Walker serving as a courtesy runner, Ryan Horton reached on a booted grounder at third base. Neo Best’s soft liner to right field loaded the bases. Cross Clayton drove in the opening run with a base hit that floated over second base into the outfield. Senior Jackson Berini, who went 2-for-3, lined a single up the middle to bring in Horton.

Senior David Waitt sent his team-leading 31st hit of the season through the 3-4 hole for another RBI single. With Orange leading 3-0, Hench ended a six-pitch at-bat with a liner to left field to score Clayton and Berini, leading to Croatan starter Broderyk Miller getting pulled.

Guentensberger poked a 1-0 pitch over the left field fence, which Knapp labeled”a classic Orange High home run,” for a three-run blast to score Waitt and Joey Pounds. It was the first home run of Guentensberger’s career.

The Cougars fought back with Owen Woodruff scoring off a sacrifice fly in the third inning hit by Nathan Michalowicz. Ben Boyette, who reached on an error in the outfield, reduced Orange’s lead to 8-2 off a squeeze play bunt by Nathan Griffin.

After Hench’s leadoff homer in the fourth, Connor Nordan had a single. Guentensberger was hit by a pitch, and Horton walked to load the bases. Best drove in Nordan and Guentensberger with a sharp liner to left field. Clayton put the game in run-rule territory with a seeing eye grounder that reached right field that brought in Horton. After Berini walked, Waitt knocked in Best with an RBI fielder’s choice where Berini was thrown out at second. Hench drilled a doubled on a ball that just missed getting out of the ballpark, plating Waitt and Clayton. With Pounds running for Hench, Nordan drove in his 37th run of the season with a single to centerfield.

Hench has home runs in three of Orange’s last four games.

It was Orange’s first run-rule victory since they defeated Cedar Ridge 12-2 on March 28.

“The guys were loose and focused,” Knapp said. “I have a lot of these guys in my weight training class and I saw it early today. They were feeling good and it came out right on the field. It was a lot different than last year.”

Connor Nordan had his first grand slam since middle school at the right time on Thursday night. It came in the Central Carolina Conference Tournament championship game, where Orange defeated Walter Williams 9-4 in Hillsborough. Nordan had a team-high 36 RBIs this season and is third on the team with 26 hits. Nordan’s grand slam in the first inning erased an early 3-0 deficit for the Panthers. Catcher Ryan Honeycutt finished 3-for-4 with a double. Honeycutt has alternated between catcher and designated hitter this season and is hitting .297 on his first full season at the varsity level. Orange is now 22-2 as it awaits its seeding for the 3A State Playoffs, which will be released on Monday by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. The Panthers are currently seeded #2 in the 3A East Region. They will open at home on Tuesday night in the state playoffs against an opponent to be determined. The Panther senior class, which Nordan is a part of, has now won 52 games over the past four years. They have won four championships, including the tournament title on Thursday.

No Title

Connor Nordan had his first grand slam since middle school at the right time on Thursday night. It came in the Central Carolina Conference Tournament championship game, where Orange defeated Walter Williams 9-4 in Hillsborough. Nordan had a team-high 36 RBIs this season and is third on the team with 26 hits.

In the two-game series between Orange and Williams back in March, the two teams split 1-0 victories.

In Burlington on March 21, the Bulldogs prevailed after pitcher Nate Billings threw a two-hitter. Just one Orange batter reached third base.

Three days later, Orange prevailed when the only run scored off a dropped ball in left field. Again, the Panthers were held to two hits, this time in victory.

So when Orange and Walter Williams met for the Central Carolina Conference  Tournament championship on Thursday night in Hillsborough, there was every reason to think the final score would resemble your average soccer game. Especially with Billings starting for Williams.

A funny thing happened on the way to the pitcher’s dual. A slow-pitch softball game broke out.

Despite no noticeable wind, the two teams combined for four home runs in the first two innings. There were 13 overall runs in the opening three innings–only to have both teams go scoreless in the final four frames.

Orange finished with ten hits, its third-highest total of the season, and didn’t trail again after senior Connor Nordan belted a grand slam in the first inning. Senior Ryan Hench put the Panthers ahead for good with a two-run blast in the second as Orange defeated Williams 9-4 to win the CCC Tournament title on Thursday night at Orange High Field.

Orange (22-2) will go into the 3A State Tournament on a 15-game winning streak. While conference tournaments weren’t contested during Orange’s years in the Big 8 Conference and the Carolina 6 (ranging from 2010-2021), this is still the Panthers first conference tournament title since 2006 when they were a 2A team playing in the Mid-State Conference.

With the state tournament still to come, Orange has already won more games than all but three squads in school history dating back to 1987.

The 2008 team, which won the 2A State Championship, holds the school record with a 27-3 record.

Orange’s journey to the tournament title was no joyride. The vehicle they traveled in didn’t arrive at the finish line safely in a pretty and well-defined body on the exterior. Instead, there were bumps and unexpected turns along the way, along with the best power-hitting catcher Orange has faced this season.

Williams had 13 hits, the most conceded by the Panthers in 2023.

Orange won three games in three days, including a victory over crosstown rival Cedar Ridge in the semifinals on Wednesday night that grew heated after a Hench home run in the sixth inning led to angry words being exchanged between opposing players, coaches and fans.

“We saw some adversity last night,” said Orange coach Jason Knapp. “We dealt with some adversity from the opposing dugout and opposing fans. I thought last night made us better. Our hats are off to that team across town that made us better. They made us better going into tonight and moving into next week.”

Williams catcher Dan Mahan took the first pitch of the game and parked it over the left field fence against Orange starter Josiah Gibbs, and the Bulldogs were just getting warmed up. Tate Jones followed with a single to left field and immediately advanced to second on a wild pitch. After Angel Mora grounded out to Gibbs to move Jones to third, Vince Coker nicked a cue shot left of the mound for an infield single, beating out the throw from 3rd baseman Neo Best. Jones scored. Coker stole second, then scored off a fly ball that dropped into centerfield in front of Cameron Guentensberger.

Orange tied its largest deficit of the season at 3-0, but it was wiped away quickly. In the bottom of the first, Jackson Berini ripped a fastball down the right field line all the way into the corner for a stand-up triple. Hench reached on an error on a grounder to the shortstop, but Berini held up at third. Following a walk to Guentensberger, Nordan stepped up and slapped a high fly that sailed over the left field fence. It was his first grand slam since middle school.

“I knew it was gone when it left my bat,” Nordan said. “I just sat there and watched it and took off running.”

But Mahan wasn’t finished yet. In the second, he sent another fastball over the left field wall for his second home run in three swings to tie the game.

It wasn’t even for long. Berini lead off with a walk. Hench belted his second home run in as many nights, this one over the centerfield wall that landed just a few feet away from fans watching Orange’s State Playoff Lacrosse game from adjacent Auman Stadium.

Gibbs threw five innings and didn’t surrender another run to earn his team-best seventh win of the season. He now has ten win in his career.

“Josiah was nervous,” Knapp said. “I love that kid. He was nervous, but he finally settled in. He got his nerves calm after the first inning. He didn’t have his best stuff, but that’s part of pitching. Getting through those outings when you don’t have you best stuff. And he just battled and grinned. That’s who he is.”

Cross Clayton drew a walk to lead off the third. Elijah Santos tried to move Clayton over on a sacrifice bunt, but the throw by the pitcher was offline. With runners at first and second and one out, Waitt smashed a single to left to load the bases. Hench grounded to second, where there was another misguided throw. Clayton and Santos scored, while Waitt raced to third. Guentensberger delivered a perfectly executed squeeze play to bring in Waitt and increased the Orange lead to 9-4.

Then the slow-pitch softball game ended and the regularly scheduled pitcher’s dual finally emerged. The Bulldogs had their chances, loading the bases in the third with Mahan up at bat. Again, he pulled the ball to left field, but this one landed a few feet shy of the fence and into Santos’ glove.

Williams loaded the bases in the fifth, but Santos retired Ethan George to quell the threat. Williams left 14 runners on base.

Trace Hicks, who relieved Billings in the second inning, struck out eight in four innings of middle relief.

The nine Orange seniors have now won four championships: the 2021 co-Big 8 Conference title, the 2022 and 2023 CCC regular season championships and the tournament title.

The field of 64 for the 3A State Tournament will be released on Monday morning.