North Lincoln baseball out to strong start, defeats Seaforth in Game 1 of 5A championship

BURLINGTON, N.C. — Things were rather quiet to start Game 1 of Wednesday’s 2026 N.C. High School Athletic Association 5A baseball state championship. But that all changed in the bottom of the second inning.

North Lincoln sophomore Cole Nemire reeled back and connected to send a line drive toward right. It got caught up near the wall and was ruled a double. That was enough to score Beckett Rinkus at the plate for a 1-0 lead. From that point on, it was the Knights’ to lose.

Top-seeded North Lincoln’s (29-3) pursuit of back-to-back state championships was well-supported by its 11-1 victory over (9) Seaforth (15-10) on Wednesday. The Knights are the defending 3A state champions. That championship marked the program’s second all-time, joining 2019. The Knights are 2-0 in their championship appearances, and look to improve to 3-0 tomorrow.

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A season ago, North Lincoln lost Game 1 of the 2025 NCHSAA 3A state championship to J.H. Rose, 5-4. The Knights went on to win the next two, but the first loss served as a lesson learned for the defensding champions. Now, with roles reversed, North Lincoln head coach Charlie Goss said his team has to keep its foot on the gas heading into Game 2 on Thursday.

"Last year we had a lead, kind of blew it in the field there at the end.," Goss said. "The kids bounced back, it was a great experience. We took care of business on day two, but [today] feels really good. The kids were up for the challenge to come out here and made a statement in Game 1."

Seaforth has represented the Cinderella story of this postseason. Its very appearance in the state championship is quite noteworthy. The Hawks are the lowest seed (No. 9 in the 5A East) remaining in the baseball championships, regardless of classification. In fact, the Hawks finished third in their own league: the Big Seven 5A/6A.

Seaforth is making its first-ever state championship appearance in just the program’s fifth year of existence. The Hawks were 15-9 in the regular season before winning all six playoff games before Wednesday, including a pair of wins over (3) Rockingham County in the 5A East Regional Final: 6-3 in Game 1 and 4-0 in Game 2.

"That was us last year," Goss said about being the Cinderella team. "Honestly, it was a roll reverse kind of. We were the Cinderella story. We got hot at the right time. We knew that we did everything the right way, that we couldn't be beat. And we took that into Game 1 and the other team kind of slept on us."

"So my main message today was to make sure that no matter who you're playing, what the record says, what the seeds are, all that stuff, it don't matter," Goss continued, detailing his message about matching up with Seaforth. "You don't make it to the state championship without being a great team. And that's a great team."

But even for great teams, the magic can start to wear thin.

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Through the first 3 1/2 innings, North Lincoln’s defense was air-tight. The Hawks had no problem creating contact, but the Knights vacuumed ground balls, pop flies and foul balls alike to keep Seaforth at zero. In fact, the Hawks tallied just one hit through four, compared to six for North Lincoln.

Though, the Knights were stranding many of those runners early. Seaforth’s infield was solid and did a good job limiting North Lincoln when it got runners on.

That changed with a leadoff double from Knight sophomore Bryson Summey in the bottom of the fourth. He was scored shortly after by a double from Rinkus that ripped fair down the left field line. With that, NLHS led 2-0.

And they were just getting started.

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A well-placed bunt from North Lincoln senior Blake Mincey scored Rinkus. Then, an error deep in left at the wall helped Caleb Hancock reach second and put two in position. Junior Greyson Evans brought them home with a double to make it 5-0. Just like that, the Knights were running away with Game 1 — and they weren’t done.

UNC-Wilmington commit Cason McGinnis doubled to put two in position. Elliot Dellinger placed a sacrifice bunt to score another. Shortly after that, Seaforth’s defense closed the frame, but not before NLHS grew a 6-0 advantage.

"We will steal, we will bunt, we will squeeze, we will hit pop flies when needed," Goss said about what makes his team's offense so potent. "We'll hit balls on the ground when needed. When we're in a hitter's count, we're trying to do damage. Every guy, top to bottom in the lineup, and honestly, other guys in the dugout as well are good at all facets of the game offensively."

Despite North Lincoln's offensive success, Seaforth continued to pitch junior Bryce Huneycutt into the sixth inning. Meanwhile, sophomore Knight Bryson Schmidt only had one strikeout through five innings. Yet, he had given up just two hits and zero runs.

"Bryson Schmidt threw his butt off, super proud of him," Goss said.

A big reason for Schmidt's success without flashy numbers was the superb defense behind him. It seemed like the Knights turned a ground ball every time you blinked. And the result was an impressively restricive defense.

"Guys in the field played behind their pitcher," Goss said. "All energy in the dugout. They're all teammates and brotherhood. I'm just really proud of them."

However, like most things in life, that soon changed. With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Schmidt gave up a pair of hits. The latter of which, a double by Hawk senior Jaedyn Rader, helped score the lone run of the game for Seaforth to make it 6-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth.

That jolt of momentum was short-lived, though. North Lincoln loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth and Dellinger scored two with a double that dropped just fair in right. That brought the lead to 8-1 and prompted the first pitching change of the evening. Seaforth brought in sophomore Tritan Cooper in relief to close the inning. However, his first pitch was ripped for a single by Tucker Sigmon. That scored two to make it 10-1 as the hits kept rolling with no outs.

A sacrifice fly by Rinkus scored the 11th run. which ended the night 11-1 through 6 1/2 innings. Game 2 will be in Burlington tomrorow, Thursday, May 28, at 2 p.m. If necessary, Game 3 will be later that night.

Box Score

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