Orange Baseball

Joey Berini: Berini saw action for #12 East Carolina during its Super Regional series against #4 Vanderbilt at Hawkins Field in Nashville, TN. The Commodores swept the best-of-three series to advance to the College World Series in Omaha, NE. On Saturday, Berini entered the game as a pinch-hitter replacing Bryson Morrell. He flew out to right field. Berini played the 9th inning at shortstop. Berini also played in Friday’s game, a 2-0 Vanderbilt win, pinch-hitting for Ryder Giles. He grounded out to second base. The Pirates struggled against Vanderbilt pitching all weekend. ECU managed just three hits on Friday and two on Saturday. East Carolina ends the year 44-17. In his freshman year, Berini played 15 games for the Pirates. He hit .250, including an RBI single against Charlotte in the Greenville Regional on June 5. On May 13 against Cincinnati, Berini had a putout and three assists at shortstop. Berini will play summer baseball with the Asheboro Copperheads of the Coastal Plain League, who played its home games at McCrary Park. 

Bryse Wilson: Wilson won his third game of the season for the Gwinnett Stripers of Triple-A East on Wednesday. The Stripers defeated the Memphis Redbirds 5-4 in a seven-inning game at AutoZone Park in Memphis. In five innings, Wilson gave up four runs off seven hits. He had one strikeout with one walk. In 79 pitches, Wilson threw 51 strikes. Wilson is 3-1 this season for the Stripers. Gwinnett entered Sunday’s game against Memphis with an 18-17 record. 

Phillip Berger: The Elizabethton River Riders of the Appalachian League started its second full week of the season. On Wednesday, the Kingsport Axmen defeated the River Riders 4-3. Berger faced five batters. He threw one-and-one-thirds shutout innings with two strikeouts and one walk. On Saturday, Elizabethton defeated the Bluefield Ridge Runners 6-2 at Northeast Community Credit Union Ballpark to end a four-game losing streak. Elizabethton is 3-5. The River Riders will travel to Burlington to face the Sock Puppets on June 22 and June 23 at Burlington Athletic Stadium. 

Jaden Hurdle: Hurdle was named to the Region X All-Academic team for the Patrick Henry Community College softball team. In her freshman season with the Patriots, Hurdle played 40 games. She hit .328 with ten home runs and 32 RBIs. She also made 17 pitching appearances with two starts. In the circle, Hurdle went 4-3 with a 4.61 ERA with 40 strikeouts and 17 walks. The Patriots finished 2nd in the Region X Western Division with a 13-7 record, one game behind Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute. Patrick Henry was 22-20 overall. Hurdle was a member of two Big 8 Softball Championship teams at Orange and started at first base as a freshman on the 2017 3A State Championship team. 

After graduation ceremonies over the weekend, there will be some Cedar Ridge Red Wolves and Orange Panthers who will make their debut for Alumni Update this August. Congratulations to all of these graduates. Among them will be:

Emerson Talley-Lenoir-Rhyne women’s soccer team

Kessel Summers-Bluefield College Wrestling 

Grady Ray-Methodist baseball

Will Walker-Pitt Community College

Bryce Clark-Lenoir Community College

Matt Hughes-Brunswick Community College 

Ivy Gardner-N.C. State women’s soccer team

After making the state baseball playoffs for the 19th consecutive year, Orange will hit the road to Randolph County.

The Panthers will face Mid-Piedmont Conference co-champion Asheboro in the opening round of the North Carolina School Athletic Association 3A State Playoffs. The preliminary brackets were released at 4:10PM Sunday afternoon. 

The Panthers will face the Blue Comets at 6PM on Tuesday night at McCrary Park, also the home of the Asheboro Copperheads of the Coastal Plan League. 

Orange, the co-champions of the Big 8 Conference, received a #11 seed in the predetermined brackets released by the NCHSAA. The winner of this game will meet the winner of #3 D.H. Conley vs. #14 Jacksonville in the second round. 

It’s a meeting between two teams that shared their respective conference championships. Because of the pandemic, last January the Big 8 Conference’s athletic directors approved a format for all sports where only the first meetings between conference rivals would count in the league standings. Orange clinched a state playoff birth on May 11 when they defeated Chapel Hill 5-0 at Tiger Field. Northern Durham earned the #1 seed from the Big 8 Conference when they shut out the Panthers 4-0 in Hillsborough on May 18 behind a mammoth pitching performance from senior Matthew Lombard, who threw a 3-hit shutout in six-and-two-thirds innings with eleven strikeouts. 

It’s a game that hits close to home for Orange Coach Jason Knapp on several levels. Asheboro Head Coach Brett Hoogkamp played on Knapp’s junior varsity baseball team at Southwestern Randolph High School. Hoogkamp was also a quarterback for Southwestern Randolph’s football team.

On top of that, Knapp’s wife, Selina, graduated from Asheboro High. The Knapps celebrated their anniversary last week. 

Former Orange High star Joey Berini, who just finished the season with East Carolina in the Super Regionals of the NCAA Baseball Tournament, will spend his summer at McCrary Park. Berini has committed to play with the Asheboro Copperheads of the Coastal Plain League, a summer collegiate wooden-bat league. 

This season, Asheboro tied with Southeastern Guilford for the Mid-Piedmont Conference Championship. The Blue Comets are 12-2 overall, 10-2 in the Mid-Piedmont Conference. Asheboro opened the season 1-2 with losses to Southeastern Guilford and Southern Alamance, but concluded with eleven consecutive wins. Last Tuesday, the Blue Comets defeated previously undefeated Randleman, the champions of the 2A PAC-7 Conference. Asheboro ended the regular season with a nonconfence win over Chatham Central. 

Asheboro pitcher Caleb Walker, a senior who started against Randleman last Tuesday, has signed with Division II Catawba College. Another senior, Avery Jones, has made eight pitching appearances this season, including the season-ending win over Chatham Central last week. Jones has signed with Bluefield State College in West Virginia. 

The 3A State Tournament, paired down from 64 teams to 32 teams because of the pandemic, will start Tuesday. Even though Northern Durham captured the #1 seed from the Big 8 Conference, the Knights will not host a game in the opening round. Instead, the Knights will travel to Wilson to face Hunt. Northern received a #9 seed. The winner of Hunt-Northern will face either top-seeded Northern Guilford, the champions of the Mid-State Conference, or Cape Fear. 

Orange ended the regular season with a disappointing 12-8 loss to Northern Durham on Thursday. The Panthers led 5-0 going into the bottom of the third inning. Trailing 8-5, Northern scored seven runs in the sixth inning, going through three Panther pitchers. 

Orange senior starter Pierson Kenney had the longest stint of his career against the Knights. Kenney threw four inning and surrendered four runs off six hits. He left the game with Orange leading 6-4. 

Orange catcher Davis Horton singled in the sixth inning to conclude the year with a 15-game hitting streak. Horton had a hit in each regular season game this year. Panther second baseman Connor Funk went 3-for-3, including a two-run single in the third inning that brought in David Waitt and Will Walker to push Orange’s lead to 5-0. Funk also scored Orange’s first run after he reached on a bunt single in the 2nd inning. After Jaren Sikes hit a grounder to Northern third baseman Colin Scoggins, Funk scored off a throwing error, along with Joey Pounds.

You can hear Orange-Asheboro on Tuesday night on Hillsboroughsports.com.

Why does it keep getting denied?

That seemed to be the question that Cedar Ridge senior catcher Tucker Cothran asked himself as he stared at the ground in left field while an assistant coach tried to console him after the most painful loss of his career.

It seemed like Cedar Ridge’s first baseball win over Orange since 2018 was a mere formality. They were the first team to score more than one run against Panther sophomore starter Ryan Hench all season. In fact, they put up six.

Did Cedar Ridge outplay Orange on Tuesday night? To put it mildly, yes. The Red Wolves’ hitting was more timely. Orange barely had any offense at all–until the end. In the resumption of a game suspended due to rain May 28, the Panthers had just one hit before the seventh inning after action resumed Tuesday night. Cedar Ridge rattled Hench to the point where he committed two balks, both directly leading to runs. Junior Will Berger resembled his older brother Phillip, the winningest-pitcher in school history, in delivering a fundamentally strong performance against his crosstown rival. It would have been a classic final Big 8 Conference game for the six Red Wolves seniors to finally beat Orange, and they were one strike away from doing it.

Twice.

With two out in the seventh inning and Cedar Ridge leading 6-3, second baseman Conner Funk was saddled with an 0-2 count when he barely tipped a Berger fastball to the backstop. It seemed like it was delaying the inevitable at the time, but Funk would foul off another pitch before finally drawing a walk.

That started a string of nine consecutive Panthers to reach base.

After Hench drilled a double to left field to score Jackson Berini and Jacob Jones (running for catcher Davis Horton), to put Orange within a run, Orange third baseman Cezar Lozano was hit by a pitch. Then centerfielder Jaren Sikes had a 2-2 count, where the Red Wolves were again a strike away with the bases loaded. Sikes would go on to walk and tie the game.

Orange senior left fielder Tyler Lloyd, who started the seventh inning with a single to right field, hit a 3-2 fastball to left to score Hench and Mason Thompson (running for Lozano). And the floodgates were wide open.

After being shut out the prior four frames, the Panthers would eventually score eleven runs in the 7th to stun the Red Wolves 13-6 at Red Wolves Territory. It was a tense night where tempers flared between former teammates who now find themselves on opposite sides of the rivalry, as well as the coaches.

“That’s a first for me right there,” said Orange Coach Jason Knapp. “These guys can do that. It just took them a while to wake up tonight. We grew up tonight. Our young guys grew up and learned some valuable lessons”

It was the most disappointing result imaginable for the Red Wolves (5-8), who have lost five times this year when they’ve had the lead or the winning run on base during the 7th inning.

“It hurts so much because our guys have put in so much during the year,” said Cedar Ridge Coach Bryson Massey. “To judge come up three outs short against a team like Orange….This rivalry is one of the best baseball rivalries I’ve been a part of. You know it’s going to be a good game. It means a lot to each kid. That’s why it hurts. It does.”

Orange (10-3) has won four in a row. Senior Jordan Underwood replaced Hench on the mound in the fifth inning and earned his third win in 14 days. In two-and-two-thirds shutout innings, Underwood allowed one hit and two walks with four strikeouts.

“We leaned on our seniors,” Knapp said. “Jordan came out and pitched well. Jaren drew a walk late. The bottom of our order found a way to get on base and the hitting became contagious.”

The game resumed with Orange leading 2-1, but the Red Wolves jumped right on the Panthers with four runs in the third inning. Cedar Ridge loaded the bases after walks to Aidan McAllister and Bryce Clark, while B.J. Thornton was hit by a pitch. Centerfielder Garrett Ray sliced a 3-2 fastball to the right side of the infield to score McAllister and tie the game. Massey, who took his chances every chance he could on Tuesday, signaled for Thornton to steal home with Christian Macias at bat. As Thornton dashed for the plate, Hench committed a balk, much to the protest of Knapp, to put Cedar Ridge ahead 3-2. Macias out Cedar Ridge ahead 5-2 after he sent a dribbler into right field to bring in Clark and Ray.

Clark would add another run in similar fashion in the fifth inning. He drew a leadoff walk, stole second, and went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Ray. Like Thornton, Clark made a dash down the third base line, which led to Hench being called for another balk and Clark scored.

Berger kept the Orange offense in check most of the night. Until the seventh inning, Hench was the only Panther to reach third base. That came in the fourth after he drew a leadoff walk. The threat ended when Clark fielded a grounder hit by Jackson Berini and dove on second base to retire Lloyd, who had reached on a fielder’s choice. Horton, who went 3-for-4 and increased his hitting streak to 14 games, had Orange’s only hit after the resumption—until the 7th inning.

That’s when Lloyd started with a single to right. After a Berini walk, David Waitt flew out to left field. But Horton lined a double to left field to score Lloyd and trigger an epic Orange rally.

When the game started May 28, Clark hit a solo homer in the first inning, the first run that Hench allowed in four starts this season. Hench responded with a two-run homer in the second inning, just before the contest was suspended.

The game was also a benefit for Vs. Cancer. Organized by Massey wherever he’s served on a coaching staff, the event raised over $5,000 for the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Afterwards, despite enduring the most painful loss of his young head coaching career, Massey sat down and had his head shaved at home plate for cancer awareness. This happened while the results of a raffle were announced, which included autographed merchandise from current Major League players, as well as gift cards from businesses throughout Hillsborough.

“I think baseball is one of the best sports to teach life lessons,” Massey said. “There are so many ups-and-downs. Tonight, it didn’t go our way. It hadn’t gone our way quite a bit. But you move on to the next day. You can’t dwell on what happened. It’s going to hurt, but it teaches you a life lesson. There are things in life that will be tougher than a baseball game.”

It was the most memorable comeback in many a moon for Orange baseball. Trailing 6-2 in the 7th inning, the Panthers scored eleven runs in the 7th to beat Cedar Ridge 13-6. The Panthers trailed 6-3 with two out and were down to its last strike when Conner Funk was at bat. Funk fell behind 0-2 and fouled off three pitches to draw a walk. After Jaren Sikes tied the game with a bases-loaded walk, senior Tyler Lloyd put Orange in the lead with a two-run single to left field to bring in Ryan Hench and Mason Thompson. After Jackson Berini was walked, right fielder David Waitt singled to left field to score Thompson and Lloyd, and the Panthers never looked back. Lloyd had two base hits in the 7th inning alone. He led off the 7th with a single to right field and scored two runs. Orange has now won four in a row and will conclude its regular season on Thursday at Northern Durham. Jordan Underwood earned his third win in four games for Orange on the mound.

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is catcher Davis Horton. A transfer from Riverside, Horton has provided a reliable presence behind the plate for Orange in his first season with the team. He has hit safely in all ten games this Panthers have completed this year. Extending all the way back to his freshman year at Riverside, Horton is on a 13-game hitting streak. Currently, he leads Orange in six offensive categories, including a .541 batting average, 20 hits, 14 RBIs, five doubles, a .571 on-base percentage and a .756 slugging percentage. Last week in a 3-2 win over Chapel Hill, Porter lined a single to left field. Jackson Berini scored off a errant throw, and Horton rounded the bases after another throwing error. Horton also doubled in the fifth inning. Orange is 9-3, 6-1 in the Big 8 Conference with a trip to the 3A State Playoffs already in the bag. The Panthers will complete a suspended game against Cedar Ridge on Tuesday, then wrap up the regular season on Thursday at Northern Durham.

Phillip Berger: After completing the season with Division III William Peace University, Berger has started play for the Elizabethton River Riders of the Appalachian League. Following the reshaping of minor league baseball over the winter, the Appalachian League has rebranded from Rookie-level professional baseball into a collegiate wooden bat league. Berger has already collected two wins, including the first win in franchise history. On opening night for Elizabethton on Thursday, June 3, Berger earned the victory in a 5-2 decision over the Greenville Flyboys at Northeast Community Credit Union Ballpark in Elizabethton, TN. Berger came out of the bullpen to throw one-and-one-thirds innings. He surrendered one run on two hits with two strikeouts. On Saturday, Elizabethton defeated the Bristol State Liners 4-0 at DeVault Memorial Stadium in Bristol, VA. Once again, Berger pitched in relief and took the win after he threw two shutout innings. He surrendered one hit with one strikeout. Elizabethton is 2-2 and will host the Kingsport Axmen on Tuesday. Berger, the winningest pitcher in Cedar Ridge history, will almost visit his old hometown when the River Riders face the Burlington Sock Puppets (finally get to type that nickname) on June 22 and June 23 for a two-game series at Burlington Athletic Stadium.

Joey Berini: The East Carolina Pirates swept its regional series this weekend to open the NCAA Baseball Tournament. Early Monday morning, East Carolina defeated third-seeded Maryland 9-6 to advance to the Super Regional. It is East Carolina’s sixth regional championship since the current format was introduced in 2001. On Saturday, the Pirates defeated Charlotte 7-5 at Clark-LeClair Stadium in Greenville. In the 7th inning, Berini hit a pinch-hit single to left field to score Lane Hoover. It was Berini’s first RBI of the season. Berini was immediately replaced by pinch runner Ryley Johnson. On Friday, the Pirates came from behind to defeat Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Champion Norfolk State 8-5. Berini entered the game as a pinch-hitter to lead off the seventh inning and grounded out to the pitcher. It was ECU’s 11th comeback win of the season. Berini, the 2019 Big 8 Conference Player of the Year for Orange, has played in 13 games this season. East Carolina will travel to Nashville this weekend to face #4 Vanderbilt in a best-of-three Super Regional starting Friday.

Landon Riley: The Liberty Flames baseball team competed in the Knoxville Regional of the NCAA Tournament over the weekend. The Flames avenged two losses to Duke by beating the Blue Devils twice. On Friday, Liberty defeated the Blue Devils, who came into the tournament ranked #19, 11-6. On Sunday, in an elimination game, the Flames scored eight runs in the first inning to prevail 15-4. #2 Tennessee defeated Liberty 9-3 on Saturday, and 3-1 on Sunday at Lindsay Nelson Stadium in Knoxville, TN to advance to the Super Regional round. Riley played in Saturday’s loss to the Volunteers. He pitched to one batter, which led to a groundout. Liberty, the regular season champions of the Atlantic Sun Conference, finished with a record of 41-16. It was the second regional final in program history. The Flames finish the year with over 40 wins for the seventh time. Riley concludes the year with 19 pitching appearances, all in relief. He had a 2-0 record with a 4.00 ERA and five saves. Riley had 19 strikeouts and nine walks in 18 innings. He will be a senior next season.

Dante DeFranco: Two former Orange High teammates were on opposing sides on Saturday in the NCAA Tournament. As East Carolina faced off against second-seeded Charlotte, Berini suited up for the Pirates and Dante DeFranco was in uniform for the 49ers. DeFranco didn’t play in any games this weekend. The 49ers, ranked #20, opened with a 13-10 win over Maryland on Friday, but it was its final victory of the season. After the loss to ECU, Maryland edged Charlotte 2-1 on Sunday in an elimination game. Charlotte, the regular season champions of Conference USA, end the year 41-20. It hasn’t been publicly announced whether DeFranco, a freshman, will redshirt this year.

By his own admission, it was the best game Jordan Underwood has thrown in his life.

The fact that it happened in his final game on Orange High Field was poetic justice considering all that he’s had to overcome.

That includes more than just a pandemic, which took away most of his junior season in 2020, when he would have been Orange’s top starting pitcher. There have also been arm troubles that he’s still working his way back from. Even on Friday night against Chapel Hill, Underwood was on a pitch coach as mandated by Orange Coach Jason Knapp.

Despite that, Underwood needed just 44 pitches to complete five innings against the Tigers, tying the longest start of his career.

Underwood earned his second win of the season, while sophomore Joey Pounds picked up his second save as Orange (9-3) defeated Chapel Hill 3-2 in Hillsborough. It was the final game between the two longtime rivals as Big 8 Conference opponents. The Tigers will return to 4A in August.

“I’m proud of him,” said Orange Coach Jason Knapp said of Underwood. “He wanted the baseball. He’s come back from injury and has been itching to get back on the mound. I was tickled to be able to give him more than just a couple of innings. I felt like it was time to let him roll and he did a great job.”

The only other time in Underwood’s career that he completed five innings was his first varsity start against Hillside on March 22, 2019 in Durham.

It was another near miss for Chapel Hill (7-5), who have lost three one-run games this season.

Orange struck for two runs in the first inning. Jackson Berini, whose brother Joey played for East Carolina earlier in the day against Norfolk State in the NCAA Tournament, drew a leadoff walk. With one out, catcher Davis Horton extended his hitting streak to 13-games with a line drive to left field. As Berini reached third base safely, Horton raced for second, which drew an errant throw that rolled all the way to the centerfield fence. Horton scored easily.

“That was the longest I’ve run in a long time,” Horton said.

The 2-0 lead stood through four innings because of the Orange defense. Underwood only allowed three baserunners in five innings. Midway through the game, Underwood retired seven in a row until an error led to Will Epstein getting onboard to start the fifth inning. Panther right fielder David Waitt had a season-high five putouts, and second baseman Connor Funk had five assists.

Third baseman Ryan Hench led off the fourth inning with a solo blast to the porch in left field that straddled the line but stayed just to the right of the fair pole to push Orange’s lead to 3-0.

Trevor Liebe, who had Chapel Hill’s only two hits in the first matchup against Orange on May 11, blasted a two-run homer in the sixth off Pounds to reduce the Chapel Hill deficit to 3-2. Pounds, a sophomore, remained composed and smoothly retired the final five Tigers he faced. Senior Jaren Sikes made a big catch in centerfield on a tricky line drive to conclude the sixth. Pounds quickly set down Chapel Hill in order in the seventh for the win.

“He bailed us out down in Pittsboro the other night,” Knapp said about Pounds. “He’s thrown strikes and that’s the name of the game. It sounds simple but that’s what you have to do. We have the defense behind us and it usually plays good like they did tonight.”

Orange will conclude the regular season by completing a suspended game against Cedar Ridge on Tuesday at Red Wolves Territory. The game will resume in the top of the third inning with Orange leading 2-1 in the top of the third inning with runners and 1st and second base with two out.

Orange will travel to Northern Durham next Thursday before starting play in the 3A State Playoffs. The Knights handed the Panthers its only conference loss on May 18.

After battling injuries and the pandemic over the past year, Jordan Underwood had a farewell to remember on Friday night. In his final game at Orange High Field, Underwood pitched the best game of his career as Orange defeated Chapel Hill 3-2. Underwood tied his career-best with five shutout innings. It was a total he hadn’t reached since the first game of his sophomore year. Underwood needed only 44 pitches and surrendered just one hit. Sophomore Joey Pounds replaced Underwood in the sixth inning and retired the last five Tigers to earn his second save of the season. Pounds struck out two batters and set Chapel Hill down in order in the seventh inning in the final game between the two teams as Big 8 Conference rivals. Orange is now 9–3 going into the final week of the regular season. The Panthers will complete a suspended game at Cedar Ridge on Tuesday night, then travel to Northern Durham to finish the regular season on Thursday before starting play in the 3A State Playoffs.