Leavitt pitcher Noah Carpenter delivers a pitch to a Poland batter during a Class B South preliminary round game in Turner on June 4. Carpenter pitched a no-hitter and struck out 11 batters. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Sometimes this season when Leavitt baseball coach Chris Cifelli submitted a lineup card with Noah Carpenter listed as the starting pitcher, he would soon hear nervous chatter from the opposing dugout.

“He really did bring an aura to the mound sometimes, whether it be from baseball or football,” Cifelli said.

Carpenter earned the right to be feared and inspire awe on high school baseball diamonds this spring.

Part of that probably can be attributed to the mystique that came from Carpenter being the state’s best football player and leading the Hornets to a legendary season in the fall, and the fact that he’s committed to play football and baseball at the University of Maine.

But he more than lived up to the hype in the spring and has been chosen as the 2024 Sun Journal Baseball Player of the Year.

The hard-throwing senior right-hander went 5-1, struck out 53 batters and had an ERA of 1.29. He also pitched a postseason no-hitter.

At the plate, he batted .396 with a 1.315 OPS (on-base-plus-slugging). He hit four home runs and two triples, drove in 16 runs and scored 21. He also stole 10 bases.

The KVAC Class B coaches voted him player of the year, and he was a key part of the best Leavitt baseball season in recent memory: the Hornets went 14-2 in the regular season and 15-3 overall.

“At the beginning of the year,” Carpenter said, “we knew that we had a great group of guys coming into the season. … Just kind of coming together as a team and actually like, playing good baseball is probably the best moment of my senior year.”

As he typically does, Carpenter began to turn his focus to baseball soon after the football season ended. He spent a lot of time in his neighbors’ batting cage and came into the spring seeing the ball better and throwing it harder.

Cifelli said Carpenter’s mental approach to the game, and even his leadership were even stronger than they had been the spring before.

“He’s just a really competitive kid that is going to go out there and try to win,” Cifelli said. “And I think the thing that really did separate him is doing the extra to prepare to win as well.”

Carpenter’s improvement was evident early in the season. In the season opener, he hit a two-run home run during a seven-run fifth inning that propelled the Hornets to a 9-1 win over Gardiner.

“Oh, it feels amazing,” Carpenter said of hitting homers. “Over the years, I’ve kind of (learned) what it feels like to hit a home run from off the bat, because when you swing, you really don’t feel like you hit the ball, you kind of feel like the bat just went through the ball.

“Then you look up, and you notice that you hit it pretty well. And just to hear the crowd and everything, it’s truly special to put one over the fence.”

When talking to the Sun Journal in December about committing to play two sports at UMaine, Carpenter said that the skill of his that the Black Bears baseball coaches like the most is his hitting.

Leavitt’s Noah Carpenter crushes a pitch that sailed over the fence for a two-run homer on April 16 against Gardiner in Turner. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

“The ball comes off his bat just a little bit differently,” Cifelli said. “It does. And when we’d go to some of the other places and take batting practice at other people’s fields, you could even see, some of the opponents and their coaches would pause what they’re doing for their game prep to kind of take a look at what was going on, because they could (tell) it was just a little bit different.”

Opposing coaches didn’t want to hear that sound during the games, and to avoid it they sometimes resorted to intentionally walking Carpenter.

Carpenter said that, like football, one of the things he likes about baseball is “you have to rely on your other teammates to step up and make plays.” Obviously, he wanted to be the one getting big hits, but he didn’t sweat it too much. The Hornets’ lineup was loaded this spring, and him getting a free base made them even more dangerous and gave his teammates a chance to make a big play.

“I felt like this year, one through nine could hit the ball,” Carpenter said of Leavitt’s lineup. “And with me batting third in the lineup, if they had intentionally walked me, I knew that the other team made a mistake, because I knew that the other guys behind me could hit the ball and put it in play.”

Catcher Luke Gladu batted fourth and many times made opponents pay for putting Carpenter on base. Gladu drove in 20 runs while batting .327 with five doubles and a home run.

“Luke had a great season this year,” Carpenter said. “I honestly think that every guy in our lineup had a really good year and really showed, you know, why we were one of the better teams in Class B this year.”

Will Keach (.391 average, four doubles, three triples, 26 RBIs and 26 runs) also had a standout season. Jace Negley, Trent Holst, Colton Taylor and just about everyone else in the lineup had big moments for the Hornets.

The pitching staff was just as loaded. Carpenter, Keach, Taylor and Holst were a formidable foursome. So Cifelli and the rest of the coaching staff could be strategic in how much and when Carpenter pitched.

They wanted him on the mound for their playoff opener, a Class B South preliminary against Poland. Carpenter was locked in and shut down the Knights, pitching a no-hitter and striking out 11 and out-dueling Poland’s Adam Gwarjanksi in a 2-0 Leavitt victory.

“I thought the game went by a lot quicker than it normally did,” Carpenter said, “because it was the bottom of the seventh and we ended up going out, and I think I ended up striking out the side. And my catcher came up to me and was like, ‘That’s the game.’ I’m like, ‘You’re joking.’

“Because the game just, I was so relaxed and so confident in our team that I could just go out there, kind of forget about everything and just pitch.”

Cifelli said that Carpenter was “very, very aware of how their lineup was built,” and how to pitch to Poland’s batters.

“To finish your baseball career pitching a no-hitter at home in a playoff game, you know, it’s kind of fitting for what his senior year has been athletically,” Cifelli said.

Leavitt’s season ended with a 14-3 quarterfinal loss to York. Carpenter went down swinging, hitting a two-run homer.

“Just truly honored to be a part of that team this year,” Carpenter said. “And, you know, to have the coaching staff behind us, supporting us every game, the run that we made, it’s truly special.”