By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Southern Alamance’s baseball team took another big step in the Central 3-A Conference by defeating visiting Orange 12-5 in Monday night’s completion of a suspended game.
That puts the Patriots at 8-0 in conference games with four games to go. All the other teams in the league have at least three losses.
“We’ve just got a good group,” coach Jason Smith said. “They’re doing a good job of playing with each other. We’ve got to kick in for that final two weeks.”
Orange and Southern were co-champs last year, but the Patriots have won both 2025 meetings.
“I had a feeling coming into the season it was going to be special,” senior Mark King said.
King shut out Orange last week. The teams began the rematch last Thursday, but the game was suspended in the top of the third inning with Southern leading 5-1. Orange put up three more runs in the third.
“We’re going to punch right back,” Southern center fielder Ethan Mann said.
King was eligible to be back on the mound Monday. He worked until Eli Gilley took over in the sixth.
By then, the Patriots had tacked on more runs. Camden Whittemore had provided a key triple in a five-run second inning before the game was halted.
Whittemore doubled off the wall in the third, but despite runners at second and third with no outs the Patriots were denied more runs at the time.
Then Mann drove in a run in the fourth, Cooper Partin’s fielder’s choice grounder and an error produced two runs in the fifth before another RBI single from Mann.
Kaden Parker launched a two-run homer in the sixth.
“We have a lot of confidence in each other,” said Mann, who had clutch hits in consecutive innings. “Go up there with no worries, a free mind.”
King, who also plays at shortstop, didn’t pitch last year following 2023 surgery. Now, he’s producing in various roles in his final season.
“Our seniors, we’re tight,” King said. “Our chemistry has been the best.”
On Tuesday, Southern suffered a 12-2 loss to Ragsdale in the ZooKeepers Classic at McCary Park in Asheboro. That outcome dipped Southern’s overall record to to 14-3.
