By Preston Mullins, Stentorian Staff Writer
Durham Athletic Park, the former home of the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team and Bull Durham, the iconic film, now hosts a different tenant: the NCSSM Unicorns. In a ballpark steeped in winning history, a struggling high school baseball team sought to capture a bit of that magic for themselves. The players entered the 2025 season starving for a win; the Unis hadn’t tasted victory in three years. The team underwent a preseason of practice and preparation in hopes of finally breaking the streak that had haunted them for so long.
The losses began to roll in as games began for NCSSM, but hope was not lost. The margins of defeat for the team were not what they had once been; the players realized they had the one thing they needed the most: a chance. When a matchup arrived at home against Triangle Math and Science Academy in early March, it initially felt like any other game. The Unis warmed up and took their usual positions on the field. Each and every player held a sliver of hope for the possibility of victory, but no one dared to get their hopes up. The streak had lasted for years, what would make them think it could be broken now?
That chilly night at the DAP was one that the NCSSM baseball team wouldn’t soon forget. Not only was the streak broken, but it was obliterated. The Unicorns routed the TMSA Tigers 18-2. This result came out of nowhere; one moment the streak was alive and well, and the next it was gone. NCSSM had piled up loss after loss for over 1000 days and just like that, the win column was no longer home to an enormous goose egg. The members of the team were unfamiliar with the sweet taste of victory; they would cherish it forever. The ghosts of the old ballpark came through for the Unis that night.
The NCSSM baseball team had been the running joke of the school for ages, but following the win, the taunts and jeers quieted down, at least for a little while. The losses returned in the next few games, and a new streak began, but the team was able to pick another win later in the season, this time 6-4 on the road against Neuse Charter in late April. While the Unicorns were still far from a great baseball team, they had restored a bit of pride to their name, and the streak that had hung over their heads since 2022 was finally over. After all of the suffering the team had gone through in recent years, 2025 Uni baseball rode off into the sunset with a glimmer of hope for the future in hand.