RALEIGH - Over the past 50 years, there were seven 4A state baseball champions from Mecklenburg County.

You can add third-year Ardrey Kell to that list.

The Knights got a four-hit complete game shutout from junior pitcher Ryan Butler and beat Raleigh Sanderson 1-0 Saturday at N.C. State to win the 2009 title.

Ardrey Kell, which lost in last year's state final to Greenville Rose, joins Garinger (1965), North Mecklenburg (1966), Myers Park (1970), Independence (1984), Harding (1988), South Mecklenburg (1989) and Providence (1995) as the county's champions of the past half century.

“How does it feel? Oh my God. It feels great,” said Knights senior Zico Pasuit, who will play football at East Carolina next fall. “After what happened last year (in the finals), this is amazing. This is the last baseball game I'll ever play. This is simply amazing.”

The Knights (27-8) won the first team sports state championship in their school's brief history and won the 73rd baseball game.

They recorded the winning run in the first inning. Alex Bartolomeo led off with a double. Zack Reinheimer's sacrifice fly moved him to third. Another sacrifice, by Ryan Stetson, scored Bartolomeo.

Sanderson (19-13) threatened throughout the game, but never could score. The Spartans left 10 runners on base and had a runner advance at least to second for the game's first six innings.

Ardrey Kell got out of bad situations twice with double plays – and a few times with some terrific fielding from first baseman Josh Case, who turned some semi-wayward throws into ground ball outs.

“We wiggled out of so many jams,” said Ardrey Kell coach Hal Bagwell, who won his first state title in his fourth try. “We had a few double plays and we overcame (two errors). That was huge.”

When Sanderson's best player, Charles Wolfe, grounded out to short to end the game, the Knights' team manager, Jabril Jones, came running out of the dugout ahead of his team. Jones, known as “J.J.” at school, has cerebral palsy but has found a home with the players. They carried J.J. on their shoulders as he pumped his fist in celebration as the crowd chanted his name. Standing to the side, Bagwell looked nearly in tears as he hugged his wife and two children.

“This feels better than I thought it would,” Bagwell said. “It's a culmination of everything you do. This is the highest level you can earn and so we've accomplished the best that we can accomplish. Man, this feels great.”

Bagwell had to sit in the dugout, soaked from a postgame water shower. As he tried to dodge the water, he tweaked his Achilles' tendon and was limping. The pain couldn't wipe the smile off his face.

“This brings back memories of my seniors last year who missed this (state title),” Bagwell said. “I think most of them were here today and to send this year's seniors to college with a legacy, and the way we'll be attached for the rest of our lives is irreplaceable. This is a beginning for us. We're not going to start to prepare every year to win a conference championship. This is our goal every year and now we know how to do it, and not a lot of people can that.”

Raleigh Sanderson shortstop Kyle Wigmore was just a few inches away from hitting Butler's third pitch of the game for a home run down the left field line.

“I threw a change-up,” Butler said after a four-hit shutout and a 1-0 win. “He got onto it. When it went foul, I just said, ‘It's a long strike and you've got to get in there and battle.'”  The next pitch was a swinging strike three.

Butler's a 6-foot-2 junior who has pitched in two N.C. 4A Western Regional championship series. So he knows about pressure. He spent Friday night getting ready.

While the rest of his teammates were polishing off several extra large Domino's pizzas, Butler went back to the hotel and turned out the lights around 10:30 p.m. He wouldn't normally go to bed until midnight.

He slept until 8:30 Saturday morning, and when he woke up, he stuck his iPod headphones in his ears and listened to rap to get ready.

“I needed a good night's sleep,” Butler said. “And I got up focused, and all I could think about was the game. That's all I wanted to think about.”

After the first inning, Butler got a little better. But his pitch count was high and Sanderson had a runner reach at least second base in the first six innings. Each time he got in trouble, though, Butler was able to force a fly out or a double-play ball, something to keep his shutout going.

“Butler's been that way all year,” Knights right fielder Zico Pasuit said. “He's probably the scariest pitcher I've ever played for. He starts getting behind, 2-0 and 3-0 (balls to strikes) and then he works his way back. I hated him at the beginning of the year for that, and then I got used to it. You start to shut up and trust him.”

Sure enough, Butler followed Pasuit's script.

Of the final 11 batters he faced, Butler retired nine, including the final three. He ended up giving up four hits and striking out three. And not many kids are going to throw a shutout in a state championship game.

“Ryan's been big for us for two years,” Ardrey Kell coach Hal Bagwell said. “He's the one we want in that situation. He's big, man. We got out of a lot of trouble and that's a credit to him bearing down and locating his pitches.”

After the game, Butler said he could pitch eight more innings, he felt so fresh (perhaps it was all that sleep). He also said he could split his MVP trophy up about nine ways to include his teammates.

“These guys are unbelievable,” he said. “That's the best defense I've ever played with. They won the game for me.”

Actually, they all won it for each other.

“We wanted to get off to a good start against Wolfe and that first inning was big for us,” Knights coach Hal Bagwell said.

With one out, shortstop Jack Reinheimer singled, centerfielder Ryan Stetson walked and Zico Pasut got an infield single to load the bases.

After designated hitter Alex Wood singled in two runs, first baseman Josh Case hit a ball that the Sanderson right fielder dove for, but missed, allowing Case to end up at third with two more runs across the plate. It gave Kell starting pitcher Ashton Lover (6-2) a 4-0 lead before he took the mound.

Kell kept the pressure on by getting runners on base in every inning. Pasut singled in Reinheimer, who had walked in the second. In the third, Case doubled and scored on a squeeze bunt by catcher Taylor Patterson for a 6-2 lead.

Sanderson scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth to cut the lead to 6-5, but the Knights added three more in the top of the seventh.

“We wanted to get Wolfe to get his pitch count up and I think that helped us get to him in the seventh,” Bagwell said.

In the of the seventh, Wood led off with a double and Cody Shelton walked before Patterson singled in a run. Brett Lang then singled in two runs for the final margin.

Bagwell said the starting pitcher for Game 2 will be either Wood (10-2) or Ryan Butler (7-1).

Sanderson (19-12), which also lost the first game of the Eastern Regionals finals to Greenville Rose last week, will got with its No. 2 starter, Max Gagnon (6-1).

“Giving up that four spot in the first inning really hurt,” Sanderson coach Todd Laughlin said. “But for us, being down is nothing new. We'll just need to play our game tomorrow. We knew coming in Kell is a good team, or they wouldn't be here.”

Ardrey Kell likely will begin the N.C.4A baseball championship series today without two key players.

Ace pitcher Alex Wood (tender arm) and shortstop Logan Ratledge (illness) aren't expected when the Knights play Raleigh Sanderson in Game1 of the best-of-3 series at 8p.m. at N.C. State.

“Obviously they're two great players and if you lose top guys, other people have to step in,” coach Hal Bagwell said. “That happened for us Monday. We talked about playing big in big situations.”

Wood (a Georgia signee) didn't pitch Game3 in the semifinal-clinching victory against North Davidson on Monday, but played as the designated hitter.

Ratledge, a sophomore who started all season, didn't play.

Ardrey Kell (25-8), a third-year school, won 5-3 to advance to the state final for the second straight year.

“We had four two-strike, two-out hits that produced runs,” Bagwell said. “I think we're seasoned for close games, and we expect them. We'll have to pitch well and play good defense.”

Alex Baker, Ashton Lover and Ryan Butler are starting pitchers, and Nick Forst is a top reliever. If Wood can't pitch, Bagwell said any combination is possible.

Sanderson (19-11) is seeking its first baseball championship. The Spartans, third seed from Cap Seven 4A, are led by Charles Wolfe, who is hitting .450 and is 7-6 on the mound.

Ardrey Kell has thrived in tough situations. The Knights rallied from a 5-0 deficit to beat rival Providence in the playoffs, then won the next game at perennial power South Caldwell. They dropped the first game of the semifinal series, then won the next two on the road.

“We have an unbelievably resilient group of kids that understand the moment and my expectations,” Bagwell said.

It's Wednesday afternoon, the hottest day of the year, and Ardrey Kell High's baseball team is going about the business of preparing for tonight's state 4A championship series against Raleigh Sanderson.

The Knights are working on fielding and catching and pitching. There's a big net behind home plate, where players take batting practice. About every 10 seconds, you can hear the ping of an aluminum bat sending a dirty white ball soaring into the outfield.

All but one player wears purple-and-white practice gear. Jabril Jones, a 16-year-old in the school's exceptional learning program, wears royal blue shorts and a matching yellow and blue striped shirt.

He's also wearing the biggest smile.

“These guys are the best,” J.J. said, grinning. “They're my buddies, you know.”

“J.J.,” as the guys call him, is the team manager. He was born with cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects body movement and muscle coordination. He nearly died twice at birth, and doctors resuscitated him both times. As a baby, he couldn't open his eyes.

J.J., who is about 5-foot-3, didn't walk until he was 4. He didn't talk until he was 5. Growing up in school, J.J. was always in special education classrooms, his stepfather Robert Williams said, shut out from the regular student population.

All J.J. ever wanted, Williams said, was to meet other students and fit in.

That has happened at Ardrey Kell.

Knights coach Hal Bagwell teaches an adaptive physical education class for the school's exceptional learning students.

On the first day of school in 2007, he took a special interest in J.J., and soon afterward invited him to join the team. “I knew right when I saw him, he was special,” Bagwell said. “He's just a kind, gentle-hearted kid. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body.”

Bagwell has a soft spot for special-needs kids like J.J. When Bagwell was at South Mecklenburg, he took an interest in another special-needs student named Steven Struble, who was given the nickname “Cheeseburger” because he would do an impromptu dance during Sabres' games, always to the song “Cheeseburger in Paradise.”

J.J. likes to say “Dyn-o-mite!” when something good happens, like J.J. Evans, the character from the '70s sitcom “Good Times.”

During games, J.J. sits in the dugout in his uniform. He's No.10. He shouts instructions. He high-fives players. He's become an inspiration.

“Sometimes, it's almost like we want to win more for him than for us,” Knights senior second baseman Derek Ham said. “Everybody just loves J.J.”

Just maybe not as much as J.J. loves them.

His parents say being a part of this team for the past two years has brought J.J. out of his social shell and given him hope.

“This has changed his whole life,” Williams said, “by being out here and interacting with the other players. He's never had that before.”

Bagwell requires J.J. to have good grades to participate with the team. His mother, Monica Williams, said that has not been a problem.

“It's just been amazing,” she said. “It's to the point now where I have to learn to let go. J.J. is his own man. He's learning to do things on his own and he's proving things to me even now. Like I didn't know he could pitch like that.”

Behind her, on the mound, J.J. is pitching. And smiling.

Today, J.J. wears glasses and his still eyes barely open. He doesn't say much until you bring up baseball.

He loves baseball.

“I look forward to coming out here every day,” he said. “I think we're going to win state.”

Three weeks ago, J.J. told his teammates that he'd never been to a Charlotte Knights game and said he “really, really” wanted to go. Ten players got together and asked his parents. They agreed. And J.J. had the time of his life.

“He was just looking around and asking a lot of questions,” said Ham, the second baseman. “It was just really fun to see him like that.”

It was the first time J.J. had ever gone anywhere, other than school, without his mom or dad.

“That was hard for me to do,” Monica Williams said. “He's never been alone. But with these guys, he's one of the boys. This is his domain.”

It's getting late Wednesday, and his parents are about to leave. That means J.J. has to leave practice, too. He waves to his guys. Everyone waves back, calling his name. “See you tomorrow, J.J.” “Take it easy, J.J.”

J.J. calls coach Bagwell his second dad (“he's does everything for me. He takes care of me, you know?”). Just as he walks off the field, he walks into Bagwell's open arms.

“I'll see you tomorrow,” Bagwell said.

On Friday night, Ardrey Kell High baseball coach Hal Bagwell will go chase his dream again.

Ever since he was a kid playing baseball in Charlotte, Bagwell dreamed of winning a state championship, dreamed of it the way some of us dream of winning the Powerball.

He was a good enough player at South Mecklenburg to be offered a scholarship to play at Lenoir-Rhyne, and the Sabres' teams he played on reached the state semifinals twice. Bagwell graduated in 1986. Three years later, the Sabres won the state title he craved.

By 1989, Bagwell's baseball playing career was over. He walked away from his scholarship at Lenoir-Rhyne to walk on at Appalachian State. A torn rotator cuff ended his playing career before his freshman year started.

As Bagwell watched the Sabres celebrate the 1989 state championship win against Wilson Hunt, he could only think of one thing: Someday he was going to bring South Meck another one, as a coach.

Bagwell was hired by his alma mater in 1997. Until then, I thought that Tom Knotts, then football coach at West Charlotte, was the most passionate high school coach I knew. Bagwell was a ball of fast-talking, gum-chewing emotion, determined to make his school great.

By 1999, he'd pushed an overachieving Sabres' team to the finals, where they lost to Greenville Rose, which might have been the nation's best team that season.

In 2005, South Meck lost to Greenville Conley in the finals. It was close and mistakes did the Sabres in. That loss, Bagwell said, is still tough to talk about. Two years later, Bagwell reluctantly left South Meck to coach at Ardrey Kell, falling in love with then Principal Mike Mathews' vision for the new school. Ardrey Kell was a mile from his house.

At the new school, he welcomed some former Sabres players who understood his system and others from Providence, whom he said “had been coached the right way” by Panthers coach Danny Hignight, his good friend who lives down the street.

In just its second season, Ardrey Kell lost to Greenville Rose in the 2008 finals. And after several come-from-behind wins in this postseason, Bagwell has his Knights back playing for a championship. This is his third trip in five years. And he's still chasing.

“I don't want to say I'm snakebit,” Bagwell said. “I think ‘unfortunate' is a better word. But I want this really bad. You want to be playing in June. That's the goal. If I didn't, we would just start practicing in February (right before the season). But it's tough. I've won 267 games but don't remember many of them. As a coach, you remember all the losses.”

Those losses fuel Bagwell. They keep him up at night watching film. They keep him coming back to chase that vision he's had all his life.

On Friday, he goes to N.C. State with his team to face Raleigh Sanderson in the best-of-three state championship series. He wonders if this is his time.

“I do,” he said, “I really do, but at the end of the day, we want to set ourselves up to play well at the end of the year – to get momentum and gain confidence and let that carry you to the state championship.”

And hopefully live your dream.