Gazette baseball coach of the year: Jon Carpenter, North Lincoln

North Lincoln has had plenty of high expectations that never panned out. Jon Carpenter wanted to see results in his first year as head coach.

“I told them I was tired of them talking about it at the beginning of the year,” he said. “It was time to do it.”

The Knights sure did it this spring, nearly sweeping the Southern Piedmont 1A/2A Conference regular season for the school’s first baseball championship.

For getting them there, Carpenter is recognized today as the Gazette’s area baseball coach of the year.

Carpenter guided the Knights to a 16-8 overall record and an 11-1 mark in the SPC for the outright regular-season title. Immediately after North Lincoln clinched the championship with a late-season win against Cherryville, Carpenter said it would have been a disappointment not to win with this bunch.

The standouts were numerous. Drew Belk pitched a 7-1 record and batted .333. Johnny Walker led the team with a .451 batting average and two home runs. Andrew Stidham (.390), Daniel Courtney (.371) and Byron Sherrill (.339) all delivered at the plate.

“It helped me out a lot by the way they came out and changed their attitudes,” Carpenter said. “That part made it easy, and it was enjoyable to have that much talent. A lot of talent is what got us there. It was just steered in the right direction.”

The Knights had so much talent that Carpenter said his biggest challenge as a coach wasn’t actually coaching — it was juggling baseball with his athletic director duties.

But he had help, and Carpenter gave credit to assistant coach David Rutledge for his contributions.

Carpenter, 35, served as a North Lincoln assistant coach the previous two years. Prior to that, he was head JV coach at Bessemer City, where he said he learned a great deal from now-retired Bessemer City head varsity coach Mike Mahaffey.

Carpenter guided North Lincoln to a seven-game winning streak to close the regular season. About the only thing that didn’t go right was the postseason. The Knights lost their first game in the Southern Piedmont Conference tournament, then made a quick from the state playoffs, losing in the first round against West Caldwell 12-1.

“It was a shock that it happened like that. We didn’t play a good game,” Carpenter said. “But that doesn’t detract from the good year the kids had.”

You can reach Phillip Gardner at 704-869-1843.