Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The accolades have started to roll in after the Northside baseball team’s trip to the 1A state finals as the North Carolina Baseball Coaches Association named pitcher/shortstop Brandon Arthur and center fielder Jamie Corprew to its 1A All-State team.

Arthur, a Barton College signee, was the Panthers pitching ace and played shortstop when he wasn’t pitching. He went 6-0 during the regular season with an 0.61 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 68.2 innings to lead the Coastal Plains Conference in most pitching categories.

“He was our team leader, both vocally and by example,” coach Parker Boyd said. “We missed him during our off-season workouts while he was playing basketball and the guys responded immediately when he joined us. He was a four-year guy in our program and set the tone for what we accomplished by working hard every day.”

Corprew, who will play football and baseball at North Carolina Wesleyan, batted .411 with 28 runs scored and 22 stolen bases as the Panthers lead-off batter. He also didn’t make an error while covering a lot of ground in center field.

“I knew we had the gaps covered with him out there,” Boyd said. “He really settled in at the top of our order after transferring from Southside last year and only struck out once during the regular season. Anytime you make that much consistent contact, you have a chance to get on base. He was the spark plug for our offense and really made the pitchers work by seeing a lot of pitches.”

The seniors helped the Panthers to a 22-8 record and a trip to the state finals for only the second time in school history. The 1994 Panthers won the 2A state championship.