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Andover Golden Warriors Baseball '11

Fri, Apr 15, 2011 03:30 PM @ Central Catholic
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Final
Andover 2 2 0 0 0 2 0 6
Central Catholic 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 5

Mashing McQuillans power Andover to 2-0 start

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CARL RUSSO/Staff photo. Andover defeated Central Catholic 7-6 in baseball action Friday afernoon. Andover's right fielder, Jimmy Walsh has trouble handling the ball giving Central the base hit. His teammate, Burton Deady backs him up. 4/15/2011.  » Staff PhotographerMore photos

Friday, April, 15 By Hector Longo

NORTH ANDOVER — Soon this pair will separate, going separate ways on their road to adulthood.

For now, and at least the rest of spring, the Andover High baseball team will reap the benefits of the McQuillan twins.

“I’m going to Bowdoin, and Sean is going to Middlebury, so it’s a little bit of NESCAC rivalry,” said Mike. “We both were looking for a small, liberal arts school, and we both wanted to play baseball. It’s kind of weird to end up at two rivals.”


Yesterday in the Merrimack Valley Conference opener for the Warriors against rival Central Catholic, it was Mike smacking the decisive blow, a two-run single in the top of the sixth that gave Andover a 6-5 victory here at Merrimack College.

Sean and Mike each are off to 4-for-9 starts through two games for the Warriors. Table-setter Sean has scored six runs while Mike put his first four RBIs of the season on the board yesterday, from the five-hole.

No at-bat was bigger than Mike’s in the sixth with one out and the bases juiced. McQuillan rapped a two-hopper through the shortstop-third base hole, turning a 5-4 deficit into the 6-5 lead.

It had to be considered a character-building moment for the 2-0 Warriors, who broke to a 4-0 lead only to have it all disintegrate when Central rallied for four in the fourth and another in the fifth. “We had a great team atmosphere in the dugout, and we kept bouncing back even after the rough fourth inning,” said Mike. “We came back and hit the ball. Their guys through a lot of good pitches, we just hit the ball today.”

As he did in the opener against North Andover, coach Dan Grams put the game on the right arm of Dustin Hunt, who came on in the fifth to snag his second career win out of the pen with three shutout innings of one-hit relief.

“We’re hitting the ground running, but that doesn’t guarantee anything. We have to keep it going,” said Mike McQuillan, who plans on savoring this spring season.

Next fall, they try something new.

“We didn’t want to go (to college) together,” said Mike, who noted the twins’ 4.5 grade-point-averages place them in the top three percent of their class. “We figured this would be a good time to break up. We’re still best friends, but I think we’re both ready to try something new, to be known as Mike and Sean and not as the McQuillans.” GAME NOTES

Four Central errors in the first two innings made life difficult for Raider righty Dan Shields, who pitched well and didn’t allow an earned run over five innings of five-hit ball. …

Andover’s Hunt wasn’t the only Warriors sophomore who was sharp yesterday. Andrew Deloury went 2 for 4 and scored a pair of runs. …

Each of the Raiders’ top-3 hitters had two hits in their opener. Leadoff man Zach Bardwell was 2 for 4 with a pair of steals, a run and an RBI. Colin Walsh roped a single and an RBI double. And Connor Perry, debuting behind the plate, singled twice and drew a walk. ...

 Junior Tucker Schell put the Raiders up 5-4 in the bottom of the fifth with a sacrifice fly to center, chasing home Matt McDermott, who led the frame with a triple.

Game Statistics:

Andover (6):  Alex Driscoll cf 3-2-0, Sean McQuillan ss 4-3-2, Andrew Deloury lf 4-2-2, Greg Calabro lf 1-0-0, Ned Deane 3b 4-0-1, Mike McQuillan 1b 4-0-3, Jimmy Walsh rf 4-0-0, Andrew Risman dh 3-0-0, Burton Deady 2b 2-0-1, Ryan Halloran ph 1-0-0, Tom Dempsey c 4-0-1, Jonathan Levenson p 0-0-0, Dustin Hunt p 0-0-0, Totals 34-6-10

Central Catholic (5):  Zach Bardwell cf 4-1-2, Colin Walsh 2b 4-0-2, Connor Perry c 3-0-2, Paul Trabucco lf 3-0-0, Matt McDermott 1b 2-2-1, Brian Allen ss 3-1-1, Tucker Schell 3b 1-0-0, Andrew Hamel p 0-0-0, Andrew
Breen ph 1-0-0, Alex Valenti rf 3-0-0, Ryan Sullivan dh 3-1-1, Dan Shields p/3b 0-0-0, Totals 28-5-9

RBI:  A — Deloury, M. McQuillan 4, Valenti; CC — Bardwell, Walsh, Valenti, Schell

WP: Hunt (3 ip, 0r, 1h, 0bb, 3k) also Levenson (4ip, 2er, 8h, 2bb, 2k)

LP:  Hamel (2ip, 2er, 5h, 1bb, 3k) also Shields (5 ip, 0er, 5h, 3bb, 2k)

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