RallyNorth.net

Tue, Jun 18, 2019 07:00 PM @ St. John's

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Final
North Andover	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	4	6
St. John's	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Knights win Super 8!

Thursday, May, 27 By Jeff Hamrick
Correspondent

HAVERHILL — A North Andover school year that began last September with great optimism couldn’t have ended more superbly.

Six months after the football team won a Division 2 state championship, the baseball squad book-ended the year of Scarlet Knight titles with a dominating 6-0 victory Wednesday evening over St. John’s Prep before an estimated 1,500 spectators at Trinity Stadium, wrapping up a stellar, undefeated run through the Super 8 tournament.

And if you recognize that score, it’s because the Knights won the football title with a 6-0 victory over King Phillip at Gillette Stadium — the field where baseball head coach/football assistant Todd Dulin was standing when his then quarterback and soon to be shortstop pulled him to the side after winning.

“At the end of that game, (Jake) McElroy came over and gave me a big hug and said ‘We’re going to win one in baseball this year also,’ “ Dulin said. “Then he just asked me if I remembered what he said at the end of the game. And I said, ‘Yes, Jake.’ ”

The baseball title required another outstanding start by sophomore Brendan Holland who got the call instead of Boston Red Sox draft choice Sebastian Keane, the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year, who had last pitched six days earlier.

“We went back and forth a couple times, but we thought that if we’re hedging we should start Holland and then if we’re up bring Keane in,” Dulin said. “If not, bring Keane in (to start a possible second game).”

Facing the only team that’s played in every Super 8 tournament since its 2014 inception, Holland allowed only three hits in his six innings while striking out four and walking one. In earning victories over second-seeded St. John’s (21-5) and BC High, Holland did not allow a run on eight hits in 14 innings during the tournament with one walk and six strikeouts.

“I found out (a few) days ago when (Dulin) walked into my first-period (English) class and said I was starting,” said Holland, who finished the year 5-0. “I jumped on the opportunity and in the following days I got ready to prepare for this game.

“There were a lot of nerves. But once I got here, they all went away because I love playing this game and I felt great.”

Holland allowed only two base runners the first four innings and escaped a fifth inning jam with runners on the corners and then finished his night by retiring the second, third, and fourth-place hitters in order in the sixth.

“I was just pounding the strike zone,” Holland said. “Jack Morin did a great job (moving) things around. My off speed wasn’t really working, but I just threw my fastball and with a blank mind just threw strikes.”

The eighth-seed Knights broke the ice in the first when Thomas Finn walked and scored on a Keane double. Erik Whitehead added an RBI double in the sixth that plated Brett Dunham for a 2-0 lead.

Keane took the mound to start the seventh and after two hits and a walk was facing a bases-loaded, two-out situation. The senior righthander got out of trouble with his third strikeout of the frame on a 3-2 pitch.

“Nothing is ever easy,” Dulin said. “I was a little worried about him not being warm enough … not being in a groove. They put pressure on him, but he survived it.”

North Andover broke open the score in the ninth when a Finn walk, Jack Morin single and Keane fielder’s choice loaded the bases for freshman Trevor Crosby, who had been picked off second for the first out an inning earlier. But the undaunted freshman drilled a bases-clearing double to the left-field fence.

“I just went into that at-bat trying to get a hit,” Crosby said. “The bases were loaded and I wanted to drive them in. I got a fastball middle in — one of the first I’ve gotten all year — and did what I needed to do with it. I was really happy about it.”

Crosby wound up scoring the game’s final run on a Dunham single.

Keane then sent the Knights into the trophy presentation with his fifth and sixth strikeouts in the ninth to earn his first save of the season to go with 11 victories.

“We were underrated,” Crosby said of the Knights being the final Super 8 selection. “We’re a good band of boys and we just play together. We love each other.”

****

North Andover 6, St. John’s Prep 0

Super 8 Championship

North Andover (6): Jake McElroy ss 3-0-1, Thomas Finn rf 2-2-0, Jack Morin c 5-1-1, Sebastian Keane 2b/p 5-1-1, Trevor Crosby 3b 5-1-1, Brett Dunham lf 3-1-2, Eric Whitehead dh 4-0-2, Will Fitzgibbons cr 0-0-0, Jason Faro ph 1-0-1, Jackson Berberich 2b 0-0-0, Justin Connolly 1b 4-0-0, Joe Quinlan cf 5-0-0. Totals 37-6-9

St. John’s Prep (0): Brady O’Brien 3b 4-0-0, Will Potdevin ss 4-0-0, Alex Lane c 3-0-1, Will Frain 1b 4-0-0, Jake Miller dh 4-0-0, Jack Cairns 2b 4-0-2, DJ Brooks lf 2-0-0, Zeke OConnell ph 1-0-0, Max Freedman rf 4-0-1, Noah Schott cf 3-0-2. Totals 33-0-6

RBI: Crosby 3, Keane, Whitehead, Dunham

WP: Brendan Holland 5-0 (6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K); Save: Keane 1 (3,3,0,0,1,6); LP: Gieg.

North Andover (20-4): 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 4 — 6

St. John’s Prep (21-5): 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0