Holly Springs wins with youth

Hawks down Southeast in baseball, 4-1

Even without a senior class, Holly Springs' 11-6 baseball squad is in third place in the Greater Neuse 4-A Conference. Coach Rod Whitesell's Hawks are 6-3 in the league and trail West Johnston and Smithfield-Selma after Friday's 4-1 win over Southeast Raleigh.

Freshman Justin Manning (4-3) was the winning pitcher against the Bulldogs, while freshman third baseman Jesse Sykes had two hits and freshman left fielder Kyle Byrd, the team's leading hitter at .330, drove in two runs.

"I'd say we're maybe a little bit ahead of schedule from where I thought we would be," Whitesell said of his team's success. "We've got five freshmen in our main rotation of players."

GREEN HOPE WINS, PLAYS TWO TODAY: Green Hope scored the winning run in the sixth inning on a wild pitch to edge Panther Creek 5-4 Friday and will play two games today with a thin pitching staff.

Chris Perry (4-2) pitched six innings for the win, and Dylan Kipp pitched the seventh for the save.

Today the Falcons host Southeast Raleigh at 1 p.m. and then travel to Millbrook to face Apex in the Bobby Murray Invitational championship game at 7:30 p.m.

"I'm not sure who's going to pitch, but somewhere we're going to have a pitcher who's never thrown in a varsity game," Green Hope coach Mike Miragliuolo said.

WIGMORE DELIVERS: Kyle Wigmore's bases-loaded single in the bottom of the seventh lifted Sanderson to a 4-3 Cap Seven baseball win over Wakefield.

ACE FOR VIKINGS: Pratt Maynard and Josh Darroch teamed to throw a five-inning no-hitter for South Granville in an 11-0 win over Oxford Webb.

EAGLES EDGE PRIDE: Enloe's Kirsten Lemons dropped a hit into right field to deliver the winning run, and the Eagles survived a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh for an 8-7 softball win over Leesville Road.

Lemons' single drove in Rebecca Foil, who had reached on a fielder's choice.

MILLBROOK NETTERS STUN CAPS: Millbrook swept the three doubles Thursday to upset top-ranked Broughton 5-4 in a Cap Seven 4-A tennis match.

Broughton is ranked No. 1 in the state among 4-A schools in the N.C. High School Tennis Coaches Association poll.

The Caps had defeated Millbrook 9-0 earlier this season.

"We talked about that before the match," Millbrook coach Chris Grimes said. "Four of the matches went to tiebreakers, but it was still 9-0.

"I told the fellows they know we are better than that, and we needed to show Raleigh and the world."

Millbrook, which starts six underclassmen, trailed 4-2 after singles and needed to win all three doubles to win the match.

Millbrook's Tom Orban and Srini Iyengar quickly won at No. 3, 8-1. Michael Allen and Quinn Carmen went up 6-1 at No. 2, and the attention shifted to No. 1, where Millbrook's Sean Weber and Jeff Cobb were battling Jack Parks and J.B. Weaver.

The No. 1 doubles went to a tiebreaker that Weber and Cobb won 7-1 to even the match at 4-4.

By that time, Broughton's James Coxe and Phil Cardella had won six straight points at No. 2 doubles to take a 7-6 lead.

Millbrook reeled off the next three points for the 9-7 win at No. 2 doubles and the 5-4 team win.

(Staff writer Tim Stevens contributed to this report.)