Think of famous baseball duos.

There’s Mantle and Maris. Mays and McCovey. Koufax and Drysdale. McGwire and Canseco. A-Rod and I-Rod.

And now, Doug Sokolowski and Jared Barnette.

Wait, what was that last one?

Sokolowski and Barnette. Or maybe, Barnette and Sokolowski.

West Rowan’s Sokolowski, the first and only West winner of the Mark Norris Memorial Award, finally got some record-book company from a fellow Falcon when Barnette outpolled North Rowan’s slugging junior outfielder Aaron Rimer 5-3 this week to claim the Norris and the title of Rowan County’s top baseball player for 2001. Barnette broke a 14-year West drought since Sokolowski won in 1987.

The five county coaches and three Post sportswriters did the voting. Other POY nominees included East Rowan junior catcher Drew Davis, Salisbury senior pitcher Boo Blount and South Rowan junior shortstop Ronnie Shore.

“It’s a great honor,” said Barnette. “When Coach (Chris Cauble) told me, I was shocked. I really was.”

Okay, so who would Barnette have voted for?

“I can’t say,” he laughed. “I can’t single anyone out. There were at least 10 great players in the county and every one of them had hits off me.”

Local baseball fans were not shocked that Barnette won, because he was the one guy you could point to who was the difference-maker for a winning team.

East had a pair of bookend bombers in Davis and shortstop Cal Hayes Jr. It was impossible to say one was more valuable than the other. And down the stretch, you could have argued that right fielder Nick Lefko was better than either.

North was in the same boat. No clear-cut flag-carrier. Rimer hit an amazing .507, but fellow junior outfielder Jimbo Davis posted equally incredible numbers. Then there was senior pitcher-third baseman Tad Ogg, who was coach Bill Kesler’s nominee for Central Carolina Conference player of the year.

But it was Barnette who was clearly heart, soul and right arm of the Falcons. He was the man. He had four roles, really. Ace pitcher, cleanup batter, shortstop, team leader.

“Jared was our go-to guy on the mound last year, so we had high expectations for him,” said Cauble. “He fulfilled them — and then some.”

The Falcons took 16 games and Barnette was on the hill for half of them. He led the county in wins, innings (70) and strikeouts (90) and posted a 1.88 ERA. And he did it while facing the toughest teams in a tough league.

As East coach Jeff Safrit offered, “When Barnette pitched, they won. What else can you say?”

Well, you could say that Barnette also batted .312 with four homers and a team-leading 18 RBIs.

Winning the award that is given annually by the Norris family in memory of Mark Norris who was killed in an auto accident in 1977, caps a phenomenal senior year for Barnette. He also quarterbacked the Falcon football team to a school-record 12 victories last fall.

“I love both football and baseball,” said Barnette, who played four varsity years in each sport. “This last year has been a successful way to go out. I know I’ll never, ever forget it.”

Still, there’s been some pain with the fame. Barnette is likely to miss the entire American Legion season at South Rowan, because of a knee injury suffered during football, then aggravated in a baseball playoff win at Asheboro. He goes for an MRI Tuesday to determine if he can get by with arthroscopic surgery or if cutting is required. If it’s arthroscopic, there’s an outside chance he could join South for the playoffs.

“If they win enough, I’ll be there for them,” he said.

Barnette hopes his future includes a college baseball career at Appalachian State. I things work out, he’ll transfer to the Boone school after a year at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. Until school starts, he’ll just be a good ol’ country boy, doing a little fishing, getting the riding lawn mower cranked up for Mom and answering questions about Sokolowski.

“Doug Sokolowski? I never heard of him,” said Barnette. “But I’ll bet my parents and my older brother and sister have.”

Probably they have. The first Norris winner to wear Falcon blue was one heck of a player back when Terry Osborne was coach at West. Chances are also pretty good that Sokolowski’s heard about this new guy.

n

Fourteen players are on this year’s all-county team.

Barnette, East lefty Julian Sides (5-3, 3 saves) and North senior right-hander Phillip Goodman (6-1) are the pitchers.

The catcher is East’s Davis (.386, 22 RBIs).

Around the infield are West senior first baseman Shawn Trosper (.321), slick-fielding South senior second baseman Greg Deal (.274), junior Hayes (.395, 26 steals) at short and Ogg (.377) at third.

The outfield consists of Rimer, Jimbo Davis (.449, 6 homers, 41 runs) and the rocket-armed Lefko (.354, 20 RBIs).

The three utility players named were Blount (5-4, 1.85 ERA for a team that won six games), Shore (.381) and West junior outfielder Matt Morgan (.354). Just missing the team by one vote were West’s Ben Hampton and Cory Ruff.

It’s an almost entirely new squad with only three returnees from 2000 — Hayes, Drew Davis and Barnette.

It’s also a young team with just six seniors and eight juniors. That should lead to some more history in 2002.

n

Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com