They were 2 of the Triangle’s best pitchers. Now their rivalry will continue as pros

The Fight for 55 rivalry between Green Hope High School and Panther Creek High School — located about two miles from each other on either side of N.C. Highway 55 — spans every sport in which the two schools compete.

In recent years, though, the baseball rivalry has gained extra, outside attention thanks to two pitchers: Liam Norris (Green Hope) and Koen Moreno (Panther Creek).

“Every time me and Liam have faced each other, it’s a very highly anticipated game,” Moreno said. “It’s a lot of fun. You know it’s gonna be a pitching duel for sure.”

That rivalry now has the potential to move to a bigger stage.

Moreno and Norris were both selected in the 2020 MLB Draft on June 11, making Wake County’s Triangle-6 conference the only high school conference in the nation to have two players taken in the draft, according to Moreno’s coach. Norris was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks as the 90th pick overall, and Moreno was taken by the Chicago Cubs as the 147th pick.

“There was just a lot of quiet anticipation throughout the night,” said Moreno, who intends to sign with the Cubs rather than play at ECU next season. “A lot of nerves. The house was pretty quiet leading up to that moment but once we officially got the call it was an amazing feeling. We were very happy.”

Green Hope and Panther Creek were scheduled to play each other twice in the week following a March 12 announcement that all high school sports in North Carolina were postponed. The first of the two games was scheduled to take place at the USA National Baseball Training Complex in Cary.

“That was gonna be really fun to see,” Panther Creek coach Stephen Zimora said. “I mean there was probably gonna be hundreds of scouts there watching those guys.”

When the two pitchers met in 2019, Zimora said he joked with Green Hope coach Mike Miragliuolo that the game would be a quick one with who was on the mound. The teams split the two-game series, each winning the matchup on their home field. Both games were also decided by a single run, with Panther Creek winning 3-2 and Green Hope winning 4-3.

Despite the rivalry between the schools, Moreno said him and Norris being drafted was a great opportunity to showcase the baseball talent produced in the Triangle.

“I’m very happy about it and glad that me and him can, kind of, you know, make people realize how good baseball is in North Carolina and in this area because there’s been a ton of talent come out of here that people just don’t really realize,” he said.

Moreno is the first Panther Creek baseball player to be drafted out of high school. Josh Maciejewski, who was taken in the 10th round of the 2018 MLB Draft after spending four years at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is the only other alumnus to be drafted.

Norris, on the other hand, is the 10th Green Hope player to be drafted since 2013. Major league scouts first noticed him at the 2018 NHSI Tournament while scouting teammate Jordyn Adams, who was taken as the 17th overall pick that year in the draft.

Miragliuolo said Norris had a good performance in the tournament, and that he figured he’d see some of the scouts again down the road. When Norris found out this season was canceled, Miragliuolo said his ace pitcher was “visibly shaking;” he had a strong opening game in front of professional scouts.

“I have a feeling that, again, if we had been able to play out this season, it would have been similar craziness to the way it was with Jordyn two years ago,” Miragliuolo said. “[We] would have had almost every team at a lot of our games when Liam was starting.”

Moreno has never visited Chicago, but said there are two things he wants to do when he gets there: Visit Wrigley Field and try some Chicago deep-dish pizza.

With the league still trying to finalize a deal with the player’s association, what comes next for the newest draft picks remains uncertain. There’s no timeline for when this year’s draftees — let alone current MLB players — will be called to play, or if they’ll be called to play this year at all. In the meantime, Moreno said he’ll continue to make the best of his situation.

“Being a professional baseball player has been a goal and a dream of mine since I was super little so this is something that I’ve always wanted,” he said. “So I’m just really excited to get going, get within the Cubs organization and just get to work and, you know, just make myself a better baseball player and just work my way through the system, make it to the big leagues.”

Liam Norris did not respond to interview requests.