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Orange junior Brendon Worsham has reached the 3A State Wrestling Tournament for the second year in a row. On Tuesday at Eastern Guilford High School in Gibsonville, Worsham defeated Gage Raley 15-3 to officially reach the state tournament. Worsham also reached the 3A Mideast Regional final for the first time his his career after he pinned Northwood’s Cliff Davis in the regional semifinals. Davis jumped out to an early 4-1 lead, but Worsham came back and scored a pin at 3:30. This season, Worsham is 16-3 with seven pins. He has been active through an unusual year. This year, Worsham was the starting left tackle for the Orange football team. He also played cornerback and returned kickoffs. Next week, he will be one of six Orange wrestlers competing in the 3A State Wrestling Championships, which will also be held at Eastern Guilford High School on June 26.

Our Retro Orange Panther of the Week is Orange rising senior Avery Miller. Last year, the Orange volleyball team defeated defending 3A State Champion Chapel Hill 3-1 inside of an empty Orange High Gymnasium. Ordinarily, the gym would have been raucous after the Lady Panthers gained a long-awaited win over the Tigers, who had dominated the Panthers since the two teams became conference rivals again. Miller, playing the first game of her junior season, had five kills, four aces, five blocks and a team-high 29 serve receptions. Miller, the daughter of Orange High graduates Bobby and Jennifer Miller, had eight kills the following weeks in a 3-1 win over Northern Durham at Poe Gymtorium. She matched the eight kills in a 3-1 loss to Cedar Ridge. Like many volleyball players across the area, Miller has spent weekends during the spring playing across the region with her summer travel team. As soon as travel season ends, Miller will return to action to prepare for the upcoming season, which will start in August as Orange prepares for new league opponents in the Central Conference.

On the night where seven Orange seniors were honored in pregame ceremonies, the Panthers played its most complete game of the season in a 7-0 win over Walkertown. Will Walker went 3-for-3 with a ground rule double that bounced over the left field wall in the sixth inning. Walker also had 3 RBIs. Jordan Underwood earned his first win of the season. He threw two scoreless innings, ending with a strikeout. Pierson Kenney relieved Underwood and added three scoreless innings. Kenney conceded only one hit and one walk. Tyler Lloyd started in left field and had a single in the fifth inning. Centerfield Jaren Sikes hit a leadoff single in the fourth inning and scored off a two-run double by catcher Davis Horton. Jacob Jones served as the courtesy runner for Horton and scored two runs, in the first and sixth innings. And Will Crabtree came off the bench to pinch-hit in the fourth inning. Crabtree is preparing for an even bigger role in life, to serve as a fireman, which he’s actually done while attending Orange. Crabtree will attend Appalachian State in the fall, along with Sikes. Orange is 7-3 and will face Cedar Ridge on Friday.

An offensive barrage carried the Orange baseball team to a 19-9 win in six innings over crosstown rival Cedar Ridge on Wednesday night at Panther Field. Sophomore David Waitt lit the spark with a 3-run homer in the first inning, the first home run of his varsity career. Waitt went 4-for-5, including another RBI single in the second. Shortstop Jackson Berini went 3-for-6 with an RBI with three runs scored. All nine Panthers who started registered base hits and Orange finished with 19 hits against the Red Wolves. Waitt and Berini have been teammates for years on summer travel teams, as well as at Stanford Middle School, where they captured the 2019 Orange-Person Athletic Conference Northern Division Championship. Orange is 3-0 and will look to remain undefeated when they host Northwood on Friday night in Hillsborough. You can hear that game on Hillsboroughsports.com starting at 5:55.

The Orange softball team became the first squad in school history to go through the regular season undefeated on Thursday night. The Lady Panthers defeated Northern Durham 12-0 to finish the regular season at 12-0. It was Orange’s sixth shutout of the year. Junior second baseman Mary Moss Wirt helped preserve the whitewashing with an unassisted double play in the 7th inning after Northern placed its first two batters aboard with no one out. Catcher Lauren Jackson hit two home runs. She led off the second inning with a line drive laser that barely cleared the fence in centerfield. Orange scored six runs in the third inning, getting all of its baserunners after two outs were recorded. Jackson hit a two-run homer to left field. She later added a double off the centerfield fence as the Lady Panthers piled up 17 hits. After an undefeated regular season and claiming the Big 8 Conference Championship, the Lady Panthers now await the announcement of the 3A State Championship bracket. Orange will be the #1 seed from the Big 8 Conference and will host a playoff game next week in Hillsborough.