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For the third year in a row, the Orange baseball team has won a conference championship. And that may not be the only milestone the Panthers achieve this year. On Tuesday night, the Panthers defeated Eastern Alamance 10-1. It secured Orange’s 19th win of the season. The last Orange team to win 20 games in the regular season was the 2014 squad, which played 23 games in the regular season. This Orange team will end the regular season with 22 games. Senior pitcher Ryan Hench made his return to the mound against the Eagles after being injured on March 8 against Greensboro Grimsley. Hench blasted a two-run homer in the sixth inning to put the Panthers ahead 7-1. Junior centerfielder Cameron Guentensberger had another strong night at the plate, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs. Guentensberger also had five catches in centerfield. Josiah Gibbs earned his team-leading sixth win of the season, throwing three innings and allowing only one hit. Orange will finish its regular season tonight (Thursday) against Eastern Alamance. With the conference championship, Orange will have a bye into the semifinals of next week’s CCC Tournament. They will also have home-field advantage for the tournament.

Orange baseball’s Ryan Hench and Cameron Guentensberger discuss winning the CCC Championship

For the third year in a row, the Orange baseball team has won a conference championship. And that may not be the only milestone the Panthers achieve this year. On Tuesday night, the Panthers defeated Eastern Alamance 10-1. It secured Orange’s 19th win of the season.

Baseball: Cedar Ridge 11, Eastern Alamance 5:  After a gallant but disappointing loss to Orange last week, the Cedar Ridge baseball team got a big effort from senior B.J. Thornton on the mound and at the plate to roll past Eastern Alamance.

Thornton earned his third win of the season with a season-best ten strikeouts over five-and-two-thirds innings. At the plate, Thornton went 3-for-5 with five RBI as Cedar Ridge (7-6, 4-5 in the Central Carolina Conference) scored four runs in the first inning to take control early.

Thornton also knocked in the first run off a sacrifice fly to score Issac Anderson, who opened the game with a single to centerfield. Mason Cats, who reached on an infield single, scored off a base hit by Landon Dalehite to left field. Nick Aitkin drove a single up the middle to bring in Dalehite and Grant McGuffey.

Cedar Ridge loaded the bases to open the second. Cates and Quinn Finnegan each walked. Thornton lined a single to left field to bring in Tippin.

Eastern Alamance reduced its deficit to 5-3 at the end of the third inning, but Cedar Ridge recovered in the top of the fourth. Tippin walked and Anderson got aboard off a single to left field. Thornton looped a single to right field to score Tippin to put Cedar Ridge ahead 6-3.

Thornton set the Eagles down in order in the fourth. Aitkin lined a one-out double to right field to start the fifth. With two out and Tippin at bat, Aitkin scored off a passed ball. Tippin went on to single on a hard grounder to centerfield. Anderson and Cates walked to load the bases. Finnegan lined a single to centerfield to bring in Tippin and Anderson.

The Red Wolves added two more runs in the seventh. Anderson was hit by a pitch. Cates reached on an infield single. With two out, Thornton sent a double that one-hopped the left field wall that brought in Anderson and Cates.

Cedar Ridge put up 12 hits. Aitkin, a sophomore, went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a double. Anderson, hitting leadoff, scored three runs. He finished 2-for-2 with a walk.

It’s the second straight year that the Red Wolves have won at Eastern Alamance. Last year, the Red Wolves opened a doubleheader against the Eagles by rallying from a 5-2 deficit in the seventh inning The Red Wolves scored six runs in the final inning to pull away with a 8-5 win. Quinn Finnegan earned the save as Cedar Ridge eventually earned the sweep of the doubleheader, which helped them reach the state playoffs for the first time since 2018.

Softball: Falls Lake 14, Cedar Ridge 4: For the second straight night, the Falls Lake Firebirds came to Hillsborough and emerged victorious.

On Monday, Falls Lake defeated Orange. On Tuesday, they puled up 19 hits in a win over Cedar Ridge. Freshman Mia Best hit an inside-the-park home run to lead off the first inning. Sophomore Kimber Shambley went 2-for-2 with a triple. Senior Anaya Carter, playing centerfield, went 2-for-4 with a run scoresd.

Reagan Simmons finished 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Falls Lake’s Kennedy Teasley. who hit two home runs against Orange, had two doubles. Ashbee Standrige homered for the Firebirds, who improved to 7-5.

Men’s Tennis: Northwood 5, Cedar Ridge 4: In a tight match in Pittsboro, the Chargers held off the Red Wolves.

Cedar Ridge senior Josh Mayhew improved to 9-1 on the season with a 6-0, 6-0 win. In doubles, Mayhew teamed with Bowen Wood to win 8-2, which put the Red Wolves ahead in the dual match 4-3.

Mayhew, who played for the 3A State Singles championship last year, was the CCC Men’s Tennis Player of the Year in 2022.

Senior Walker Richards-Baker also won at #3 singles 6-4, 6-4. Sophomore Colin Fulcher defeated Northwood’s Colt Tudor 4-6, 6-1, 10-8 in a 10-point tiebreaker.

The Red Wolves are 3-7 overall, 2-5 in the CCC.

WILSON–For a change, Orange baseball’s ride home from Wilson was a pleasant one.

Games inside Historic Fleming Stadium haven’t simply been loses for Orange. There have been ugly performances. Last year’s 13-0 loss to Perquimans, the eventual 1A State Champions, was so ignominious, it led Coach Jason Knapp and his staff to do some soul searching that eventually led to a conference championship.

This year, Knapp came into Fleming Stadium with a sour taste in his mouth following a tight 4-2 loss to Western Alamance last Thursday. The obstacles going into Saturday were high ones for Orange. It was their third game in five days with their top two pitchers still battling nagging injuries.

Knapp called up a junior varsity hurler to start, used a senior who had never pitched in a varsity game to carry the middle innings, relied on a senior making his first appearance on the mound this season for the final six outs and somehow came away with a victory over the defending Big East Conference champions.

Junior Connor Nordan lined a two-run single to left field to score Elijah Santos and Jackson Berini to carry a three-run fourth inning and the Panthers held on to win 7-6 over South Central. It was a strong all around performance from senior Cameron Guentensberger, who went 2-for-4 at the plate and finished the game with his first career save after he threw two perfect innings in the sixth and seventh.

It would be erroneous to say that there was a joyous Orange dugout afterwards. Neither the Panthers not the Falcons could sit in their respective dugouts because Fleming Stadium in under renovations. Teams were required to sit on benches along the first and third base lines. The grandstand was also blocked off, forcing fans to watch from picnic areas.

It was still a joyous moment for Knapp, who had lost in two previous trips to Wilson.

“I looked at (Jackson) Berini and (Ryan) Hench and Guentensberger and (Ty) Walker and (Ryan) Horton and told them they all did something their older brothers couldn’t do. Get a win here,” Knapp said. “It feels good.”

Joey Berini, Cooper Hench, Colin Guentensberger (who was in attendance on Saturday), Will Walker and Cooper Hench played on Orange’s 2019 team that was thumped by Wilson Fike 6-0 at Fleming Stadium. Davis Horton, now a catcher at Rockingham Community College, was on last year’s team.

It was the first carer win for Walker, a senior threw the second and third innings after the Falcons scored two runs in the opening inning.

South Central (5-4) reached the 3A Eastern Regional Championship series last spring, where they lost to South Brunswick.

Trailing 2-0, Orange loaded the bases in the second inning against South Central starter Nicholas Mayo. Connor Nordan drew a walk while Guentensberger lined a single to left filed. Cross Clayton walked, leading to Ryan Horton lining a single to the game in left field to tie the game. With two out, Jackson Berini smoked a double over the head of shortstop Dalinh Nguyen-Brown to bring in Clayton and Joey Pounds, who was running for Horton, to put Orange ahead 4-2.

Berini, Orange’s leadoff batter, is second on the team with ten RBIs through eight games.

Walker, in his first pitching performance, calmly set down the Falcons in the second courtesy of a strong play by Ryan Honeycutt, making his season debut at first base. With one out, Honeycutt snatched a grounder hit by Falcon designated hitter Jackson Brunch, flipped it to Berini to retire Mayo and threw to Walker covering first for a 3-6-1 double play.

Orange (7-1) pushed its lead to 7-2 with four runs in the fourth inning. Clayton drew a leadoff walk and went to second after a sacrifice bunt by Horton. With two out, Berini reached on an effort. Elijah Santos, batting second, lined a single to left field to score Clayton. Following a walk to David Waitt, Nordon sent a hard grounder to left field for a two-run single.

Nordan has RBIs in seven of Orange’s eight games.

The Panthers had to hold on as the Falcons mounted a comeback. They started with a two-out rally in the fourth when pinch-hitter Marcus Byrd was hit by a pitch. Bunch walked and catcher Josh Britt singled. Nguyen-Brown drew a bases-loaded walk.

In the fifth, Mason Hobbs lined a leadoff single to left against Orange’s Josiah Gibbs. After a strikeout of David Horvath, Brody Stallings lined a single to left. Scooter Waters belted a double that would have left most high school ballparks, but not in Fleming Stadium with a 335-foot right field line. Waters had to settle for a double and Hobbs scored. New pitcher Carter Hale grounded out to Best, which brought in Stallings. Waters then made it a one-run game on a throwing error and the Panthers lead was reduced to 7-6.

Guentensberger came in cold from centerfield to throw the sixth inning, but induced three long flyouts to retire the Falcons in order for the first time all night. Knapp could have gone with Pounds, who replaced Guentensberger in centerfield, to throw the seventh. But he stuck with Guentensberger, who delivered another 1-2-3 inning in the 7th against the heart of the Falcons order.

It was Guentensberger’s first career save.

“He’s got great poise,” Knapp said. “He just seems to be around the strike zone every time we go to him since he was a freshman. He’s mature beyond his years. We weren’t to him in the sixth and things went smoothly. We went right back to him because you don’t want to give that team an opportunity.”

Orange will resume conference action in Burlington tonight to face Walter Williams.

If Friday night had a 90s retro theme inside Orange High Gymnasium, an apt musical selection would have been songs from Boys II Men.

On December 20, the Orange men’s basketball team pulled away from Southern Alamance and won 80-63. By the time the Panthers returned home on Friday night, a month had passed.

Through heartbreak and narrow victories, the Panthers have grown up a lot. And the proof was in living color on Friday night.

The Panthers tore through Western Alamance 84-36 to start the second half of the Central Carolina Conference slate. Orange stomped out to an 8-0 lead in the opening 1:34 and led by double-figures nearly for the balance of the game.

In Elon, the Panthers gradually pulled away from the Warriors to win 57-45, but it was still a contest the entire 32 minutes. On Friday in Hillsborough, it was a first-round knockout as opposed to an unanimous decision with the 1-2 punch of freshman Coleman Cloer and sophomore Xandrell Pennix landing the haymakers.

Cloer drained a three-pointer on Orange’s opening possession, followed by a jumper from Kai Wade. Pennix sank a three-pointer from 21-feet after an illegal screen call against the Warriors and the rout was on.

Cloer, a freshman who has scored in double-figures in 18 of Orange’s 19 games, led all scorers with 19 points. Pennix finished with 15.

Orange had a season-high 16 3-pointers. It was the most points scored in a conference game for Orange since Derryl Britt became the head coach in 2018. It was Orange’s most lopsided conference win since they defeated East Chapel Hill 82-32 on December 17, 2019. Among the highlights was Cloer draining a 35-footer, with a defender right in front of him, from the midcoast logo along with Thomas Loch sinking a 3-pointer from the corner as the first quarter expired.

Kris Barnwell led the Warriors with 15 points. He was the only Western Alamance player in double figures.

Orange started this season with an abundance of youth and hopes to simply make the state playoffs for the first time in six years. Now, they’re 13-6, 5-2 in the Central Carolina Conference, tied with Person for second place. With six games remaining in the regular season and a postseason birth all but sewed up, Britt said afterwards the focus on the remainder of the season will be on mental strength for the playoffs.

“We talked about flipping the switch, going to another level, landing in another gear,” Britt said. “We did what we said we wanted to do. Now we have to maintain it. It can’t be for one game.”

Defensively, Orange didn’t led up in the second half. The Warriors got only four points in the third quarter. Pennix drained three 3-pointers in the third quarter, the last of which started a running clock with the Panthers got its lead over 40 points. Pennix has been in double-figures in eight of Orange’s last ten games.

On Tuesday night, the Panthers will host Walter Williams in another big game. Orange upended the Bulldogs 66-59 on December 16. The Bulldogs are one game behind Orange for third place in the CCC and are coming off a 31-point home loss to Northwood. If Orange wins, they will control the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Bulldogs with four conference games remaining.

Orange hasn’t hosted a game in a conference tournament since 2016.

“None of my guys have been to the playoffs,” Britt said. “My goal is to start to prepare for that now. They’re going to see a different level of intensity, a different level of physicality. We started preparing for that over the past week-and-a-half. The first time around the conference, we finished 4-2. Now, we have to validate that. We have to confirm that. We can’t have a letdown.”

There wasn’t quite the sense of finality for the Cedar Ridge wrestlers that they would have ordinary felt on Senior Night.

In two weeks, Cedar Ridge will host dozens of schools for the 3A Mideast Regionals. One Red Wolf senior, Fernando Martinez, will be defending his regional championship at 113-pounds.

Nonetheless, for Martinez, Nick Meyer, Jalen Williams, Justin Hartsell, Gavin Mintz, and Louis Tedder, it was their final dual match at Cedar Ridge High School. Together, they’ve helped the Red Wolves bridge from the Big 8 Conference into the Central Carolina Conference. They’ve reached the brink of qualifying for the Dual State Tournament playoffs this year, finishing 3rd behind Orange and Person.

It’s possibly Cedar Ridge’s best 3A squad.

For Martinez, it was a poignant moment as the Red Wolves defeated Eastern Alamance 66-12 inside Cedar Ridge’s Auxiliary Gymnasium on Thursday night. The most successful Cedar Ridge wrestler since Josh Collins, who won 151 matches from 2001-2005, Martinez earned a pinfall victory over Kaitlyn Watson in 41 seconds at 113 pounds for his final victory as a Red Wolf in a dual match. Martinez now is in third-place in career wins at Cedar Ridge with 135. He has an outside chance of catching Collins for second-place at 151 career wins.

Martinez and Tedder have been teammates for six years going back to their days at Stanback Middle School. Tedder, a heavyweight who also played football this season, improved to 24-16 after he pinned Noel Jennings in 34 seconds.

“I’ve grown to have a great relationship with my coaches,” Martinez said about his time at Cedar Ridge, where he has started since he was a freshman. “Aidan Kearns and a couple of those guys have been on the team for a long time. So the relationship with them over the years has been pretty awesome. I’ve developed my skills in this room.”

All four of the Red Wolf seniors claimed wins in their final dual match. In addition to Martinez and Tedder, Williams claimed a forfeit win at 126 pounds. Justin Hartsell pinned Aidan Clark in 5:11 at 152 pounds. Hartsell improved to 23-16 with 13 pins.

At heavyweight, Cedar Ridge’s Connor Womble pinned Jeff Giovani in 3:05. Red Wolf sophomore Ryan Rakouskas improved to 29-16 with a pin against Chasen Phillips in 1:19. Rakouskas has 22 pins this year. At 160 pounds, Edwin Huerta pinned Chris Solomon in 5:34.

Kaden Tatro notched his team-leading 46th win of the season with a forfeit at 182 pounds. Angus Pritchard and James Este-Wittinger also had forfeit victories for the Red Wolves.

Cedar Ridge ended its dual season with an overall record of 24-11, 4-2 in the Central Carolina Conference.

This afternoon, Cedar Ridge will join the other six teams for the 1st annual Central Carolina Conference Tournament at Orange High School. The first match begins at 10AM.

Orange, the regular season champions of the Central Carolina Conference, will have Acoya Isley as the favorite at 195 pounds. Isley was the runner up at the Tiger Holiday Invitational in December at 195.

At heavyweight, Person’s Trevquan Gary figures to be a frontrunner. Last week, Gary outscored Orange’s Hugo Vazquez 3-1 in a dual match in Roxboro, which Orange won 43-25 to sew up its third straight conference title. Gary also pinned Tedder earlier this year.

Cedar Ridge’s Pierce Prescod will compete at 120 pounds. Prescod, a sophomore who claimed the individual championship at the Silver Fox Invitational at Riverside High last week, is 39-9 for the Red Wolves. Orange’s Quadir Medley is also a contender at 120 pounds.

Kaden Tatro also claimed an individual championship at the Silver Fox at 182 pounds. Tatro went undefeated against conference opponents this season. Ethan Kuball of Northwood and Malakai Newman of Person may be Tatro’s main challengers.

Jared Hutchins of Orange will be a contender at 132 pounds. Orange senior Sam Crawford will be a contender at 152 pounds. On January 4, Crawford held off Northwood’s Abraham Owusu Tu 6-5 in Pittsboro, which may be a preview of the championship match at 152.

After all this time, Katie Belle Sikes is still surprising herself.

In her second dual meet for the Orange swimming team last month, Sikes competed in the 500 yard freestyle, largely on a whim. She had never done it before in club swimming with the Hillsborough Aquatic Club or her new team, Eastern Carolina Aquatics.

It’s a marathon event compared to her forte, the 50-yard freestyle, where she won the 3A State Championship last year.

“I really like the 500,” Sikes said. “As a club swimmer, that’s not considered one of my prime events.”

Swimming against Cedar Ridge, she got out of the pool at the Orange County Sportsplex and saw a time of 5:19.81 on the digital scoreboard–a new school record.

“I think I’ll do the 500 one more time this year,” Sikes said.

When Sikes started her college recruitment, she wasn’t sure what schools would show interest. Her travel coach, Claudio Battaglini of ECA, told her she would hear from plenty of schools and encouraged her to see as much of the country as she could. She went into the process with her eyes wide open and unsure of what was ahead.

When the University of Georgia reached out, Sikes was pleasantly surprised.

It also caused a flashback of memories, or as much of one as a 16-year-old can have, anyway.

At the age of 12, Sikes competed at the University of Georgia’s Gabrielsen Natatorium for a national competition. It’s still her favorite place to swim.

“I knew back then that my dream was to swim in college,” Sikes said.

Sikes wasn’t sure if she was a Southeastern Conference-caliber swimmer until the recruitment process told her otherwise. She discovered that not only was she someone who could compete at the highest level of college swimming, but she could do it at the very place where her dream of swimming at the next level started.

“Honestly, it took me a really long time,” Sikes said. “I definitely didn’t think I was at that level. I kind of had other people tell me I could do this. I was like ‘OK, I guess?’ I didn’t want to set it as my goal because what if I don’t get there? It was pretty shocking.”

As part of her recruiting trip, Sikes attended Georgia’s football game against Auburn at Sanford Stadium on October 8. Of course, she also returned to Gabrielsen.

Days later, Sikes formally committed to Georgia. She also had recruiting trips to the University of North Carolina, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Virginia and Michigan.

Before deciding on Georgia, Sikes listened to Battaglini and saw the country. She stood inside massive Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor during the change of seasons as the leaves started to change colors.

“It was so cool,” Sikes said. “Honestly, I think it was just a little too cold for me. My parents said ‘I thought you liked the cold.’ I said ‘Not that level of cold.’ Hearing stories from swimmers about how they had to walk in the snow if they didn’t have a ride to the pool made me think I didn’t want to be around that.”

Sikes met one-on-one with Georgia head swimming coach Stefanie Williams-Moreno.

“I feel like there wasn’t a wrong decision at the end of the day,” Sikes said. “They were all such amazing experiences. Georgia was definitely the best option. There wasn’t a wrong answer, but Georgia was definitely the right one.”

Her decision didn’t just come down to swimming. Georgia has a college of veterinary medicine, which Sikes has in mind for a post-swimming career. Having grown up around dogs, her family fosters a pit bull mixed puppy named “Penny” that they got during the pandemic.

“I think she’s the favorite child,” Sikes said.

She also wanted a college town. Growing up next to Chapel Hill, she understood how special a college community can be.

“I wanted my own personal bubble,” Sikes said. “That’s what I like about Chapel Hill. In Athens, it feels like the college is the center of the town. I wasn’t interested in being in a big city where I’m secluded. Georgia is a good balance of all of that.”

Last February, Sikes became the first female swimmer in Orange High history to win a state championship when she captured the gold medal in the 50-yard freestyle in Cary. The only other swimmer to win a state championship in school history was Ben Scott, the 2018 3A 100-meter freestyle champion.

“Kristin and I are just so grateful to her current coaches here in North Carolina,” said Sikes’ father, Tommy. “We’re appreciative of her future coaches in Georgia for supporting her and allowing her to follow her dream of swimming in college. She has worked extremely hard, in and out of the water, and we are both so proud of her accomplishments.”

In her freshman year, Sikes was an immediate sensation amid quirky circumstances.

Starting her high school career in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sikes couldn’t compete with other swimmers across from her in opposite lanes like a standard dual meet. She was only able to attend a handful of practices. For much of the year, a  meet consisted of Sikes swimming in an empty pool competing only against a clock.

She won the 50-yard Central Regional championship, finished second in the state, and did all of it before she even had her first in-person class at Orange. As a freshman, she was named the Big 8 Conference Swimmer of the Year.

Sikes has plenty to accomplish before she packs the family SUV for Athens. This year, she has already qualified for six events in the Central Regionals, though she can only compete individually in two of them. She wants to set the state record in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle.

Perhaps what scariest for her competition is that Battaglini has encouraged Sikes to continue high school swimming, unlike previous travel coaches.

“High school swimming is a lot less stressful than club swimming,” Sikes said. “Claudio really wants me to do well in high school.”

Battaglini has gone as far to design a training plan for Sikes right up to the state championships next month. This season, in addition to the 500 yard freestyle, she has broken her own school record for the 50 yard freestyle, the 100 yard freestyle, the 200 yard freestyle and the 100 yard backstroke.

With one more year ahead of her and a 4.4 grade-point average, there’s still new ground that Sikes is trying to break for herself.

Her story is far from complete, but Sikes can rest assured that all the times that Sikes trained at the Sportsplex six days a week has paid off. Not just with a state championship and whatever else may come in the future, but also in how her dream as a 12-year-old came true.