“I’ve coached four years of freshman baseball and this is my fifth year of varsity, and I’ve never had a greater group of kids,” said North Andover head coach Todd Dulin yesterday.
That pretty much sums up the season for the Scarlet Knights who sandwiched 23 straight wins between two harsh losses to begin and end the season.
Yesterday in the Division 2 North Semifinal the Knights fell 15-4 to Plymouth North.
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“He’s got a great program,” said Plymouth North’s long time head coach Dwayne Follette of Dulin and the Knights.
“His kid’s didn’t play their best game and we took advantage of it,” Follette said.
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Mike Weisman was tagged for nine runs, but many were unearned. Nine errors for North Andover’s defense spelled disaster for North Andover with a shot at the state championship game on the line.
The game took a turn for the worse in the second inning.
With one out and a runner on second in the top of the second, Knights starting pitcher Mike Weisman gave up a base hit.
The Eagles’ senior captain Doug Maccaferri raced home and David Foote’s throw from centerfield was right on the money.
Junior catcher Brandon Walsh applied the tag and Maccaferri was called safe at the plate.
Luckily, Patch was there to photograph and take video of the play.
Replays and still pictures showed that Walsh appeared to tag the runner in time. Unfortunately for the Knights, the runner was called safe despite arguments from Walsh and head coach Dulin.
The run made it 1-0 and it opened the flood gates as Plymouth North scored four runs in the inning and did not look back.
Dulin did not think that was a contributing factor in the end result.
“That wasn’t the issue; we couldn’t field a ground ball today,” Dulin said.
“It kind of spiraled out of control really quick,” Dulin said.
Plymouth North scored four runs in the second and six more in the fourth. By the middle of the fourth inning it was 11-1 Eagles, and the Knights were beaten.
A three run rally in the bottom of the sixth was the only highlight of the day for Knights fans who were hoping to see their squad earn a berth in their first ever state championship game.
North Andover was forced to use four pitchers in the game. Mike Weisman got the start. His poor performance was perhaps due to a lack of rest from pitching at LaLacheur Park in the .
Dulin was asked if Weisman’s lack of rest had anything to do with his performance.
“That probably had something to do with it,” he said, although Dulin added, “He didn’t throw a lot of pitches in his last game.”
Dulin went with his ace, and the senior will have to head to Columbia University in the fall with a harsh loss and some experience under his belt.
As for the coach Dulin, life will be pretty difficult in the coming weeks now that baseball season is over.
“What the heck am I going to do with myself?” Dulin asked himself after the game.
“It’s going to take a while to figure it out,” he continued.
It is back to World Civ. class for the remainder of the school year until next spring when the Knights will be back with both new and old faces.
North Andover loses key seniors Dom Nicolosi, David Foote, Alec Jillson, and Mike Weisman. Juniors Brandon Walsh and Danny Laorenza will be the senior leaders next spring.
