By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Eastern Alamance’s Delani Straughan struck out 10 batters and the regular-season champion Eagles nipped visiting Western Alamance 2-1 in Tuesday night’s Central 3-A Conference Tournament semifinal for softball.
Kinley Henderson had two hits and drove in a run and Rachel Byrd had the other run batted in for the Eastern.
The Eagles (16-7) face second-seeded Cedar Ridge, a 15-14 semifinal winner against third-seeded Orange, in the championship game at 6:00 p.m. Thursday at Eastern.
Ryan Justice had two hits and knocked in a seventh-inning run for fourth-seeded Western Alamance (11-10).
Western Alamance eliminated fifth-seeded Southern Alamance 12-6 in Monday’s quarterfinal with Camryn Rodriguez doubling and tripling in a five-RBI night and Kyndal Wilborn driving in three runs. The Patriots fell to 11-14.
Last-place Williams (4-16) was ousted in a 19-1 quarterfinal loss at second-seeded Cedar Ridge.
** In the Mid-Carolina Conference Tournament, Southeast Alamance topped fourth-seeded North Moore 8-3 on Monday to advance to Wednesday’s semifinal against top-seeded and host Chatham Central. The final is at 6:00 p.m. Thursday.
Brooke Hardister and Gracyn Lee both drove in two runs and Tatum Shelton pitched a complete game vs. North Moore.
Girls’ soccer
Western Alamance won three games in a six-night stretch, capped by Monday night’s 8-0 handling of visiting Williams in the Central 3-A Conference with Alison Thomas posting three goals and Callie Athas and Cana Kaffenberger with two goals each. Kayley Lee had a goal and two assists.
The Warriors scored four goals in each half, stretching their record to 14-0-1 overall and 8-0-1 in the league.
Last week, Western claimed a 3-0 non-conference road victory at Lee County on goals from Athas, Alison Thomas and Kennedy Vaughn. Lee had two assists.
Then the Warriors returned to conference play by defeating visiting Cedar Ridge 8-2 as Kaffenberger, Lee and Thomas all had two goals. Lee added three assists and Thomas had two assists.
- Eastern Alamance won two straight, topping host Williams 7-1 last week and visiting Cedar Ridge 6-2 on Monday.
- Southern Alamance lost its fourth in a row with last Friday’s 2-1 home setback to Orange.
Boys’ tennis
Central 3-A Conference rivals Western Alamance and Orange were to meet Wednesday in the East Region’s second round of the Class 3-A dual team state playoffs.
The winner advances to Monday’s third round.
No. 2 seed Western Alamance hammered No. 31 seed Havelock 6-0 on Monday, while No. 15 seed Williams fell to No. 18 seed Orange by 5-4 at Burlington Tennis Center. It marked the first state-playoff victory in program history for the Panthers, who gained the decisive team point when doubles partners Ryan Jouannet and Jackson Coleman defeated the Williams duo of Samuel Wolff and Matthew Coble 8-6.
In Class 1-A, No. 10 seed Clover Garden was set for a first-round encounter at seventh-seeded Wake Prep on Wednesday.
Individual regionals are set for Friday and Saturday.
