The varsity baseball team, despite a fourth-place regular season finish in the DAC-VII conference, won three games in a row against East Chapel Hill High, Southern Alamance High and Jordan High School—a championship game on May 10 where the Tigers won 7-5 in an extra eighth inning—to win the conference tournament and qualify for the NCHSAA state playoffs.
“I felt like we deserved it after four years,” senior and second baseman Michael Ciocca, who played all four years with the Tigers, said. “Beating Jordan on their own field for the conference championship was one of the most shocking moments [of the season]. I felt like most of us couldn’t believe we did it.”
In the state playoffs, the Tigers entered as underdogs, ranked 28 out of the 32 teams on the East side of the bracket, but upset both fifth-seeded Corinth High School on May 10 in a 2-0 shutout and Green Level High School with a 7-5 victory on May 13.
“Our team exceeded expectations this season, despite having had some major injuries to some key players early in the year,” the team’s coach Bryan Tuck said. “We hope to continue building on this year’s team’s success.”
The Tigers’ season came to an end, however, on May 17, when they fell to Fuquay-Varina High School in a 16-6 scoring barrage where both teams batted over .300. Despite putting up a good offensive fight, the Tigers were overcome by the Bengals’ ten hits during the game.
“I hope the players in our program learned valuable life lessons this year and also in the previous years,” Tuck said. “I hope all of our guys know and understand how much we care about them as a person and that we can never thank them enough for the sacrifices they made to our program.”
The Tigers proved that rocky starts can’t completely stop a team’s success. Early in the season between March 11 and April 1, the Tigers didn’t win a single game, losing eight games in a row and dropping to a worrying record of 3-9. The stretch of losses included a 12-1 loss against Rolesville, a 10-0 shutout against New Hanover and a 18-6 loss against Northern Durham, where Northern Durham senior Jackson Bishop had eight RBIs.
However, once the team finally felt the sensation of a win again in a 5-1 victory over Jordan-Matthews High School, the Tigers never let go, carrying that momentum into a six-game win-streak, which included wins over conference opponents Hillside on April 8–whom they beat 4-1 and 7-0 in a double-header–and Riverside–whom they beat on consecutive days, April 12 and 13, 11-1 and 10-6 .
“We just kept at it and didn’t lose hope,” senior Liam Carruthers said. “We know that the teams coming up were beatable and the ones we were playing before were some of the top teams in the state, so we just trusted ourselves and bounced back.”
On their winning streak, the Tigers batted with tremendous efficiency, scoring five or more runs in five out of the six wins. In the April 12 game against Riverside, sophomore Sam Elston had three hits in four at bats, and senior Teddy Hall, who batted .397 on the year, had three RBIs.
For the team’s seniors, having their last season be such a successful one, with a deep state playoff run and conference title, makes their departure celebratory, as they can reflect on improvements and memories made throughout their high school careers.
“Getting to know my teammates–it’s kind of like growing up with everyone,” Ciocca said. “When I look back at old pictures [of the team], everyone looks like a kid.”
