Third time the charm as North Andover avenges two losses to Lawrence

LAWRENCE After leaving runners on base in its first meeting with Lawrence and dropping both regular season games to it the North Andover baseball squad didn t waste any opportunity in Round against its Merrimack Valley Conference foe with the season on the line Monday night Sparked by seven runs in the first two innings and a dominant outing on the mound from senior Bentley-commit Dylan Lawrence the th-seeded Scarlet Knights - ran away with a - upset win over the No Lancers in the Div state tournament s first round Lawrence fanned in a complete-game shutout allowing just four hits and two walks in an efficient performance His -for- day at the plate with two doubles and three RBI also paced a lineup that featured three multi-hit performances North Andover playing with a chip on its shoulder for earning a low seed heads to No King Philip for the second round We didn t swing the bat in the first two games reported Scarlet Knights head coach Todd Dulin They re a great company league champions and all that and they ve got a lot of kids that can play But the first two games we just didn t hit We took advantage early on just getting guys in on particular big hits Ability is everything Dylan Lawrence added From the first pitch honestly when we got here we had good potency We kind of keep the momentum in our dugout and kind of just keep playing downhill North Andover jumped all over Lawrence early as Zach Faro -for- double two runs two RBI and Jake Jackson -for- double three runs each reached base to lead off the first inning Mike Phelps -for- RBI pushed them into scoring position and Dylan Lawrence pulled a two-run double over the right fielder s head to get on the board The first two batters hit into outs in the second inning but the next six reached safely in a five-run frame for a assured cushion Nine-hitter Ben Iglesias started it with a single and a steal followed by singles from Faro Jackson and Phelps before another Dylan Lawrence RBI-double An error and a balk gave North Andover two more from there for a - lead It scored four total runs against Lawrence in the first two meetings It s awesome Dylan Lawrence revealed of the five-run showing with two outs It started with the bottom of the order Iglesias got on with a two-out single and that kind of just gives us capacity Like I mentioned keep that momentum in our dugout That would ve been a one-two-three inning for them and it would ve given momentum to them But we stayed down with our foot on the pedal and just kept going Much of what the senior brought on the mound came to no surprise for Dulin He struck out the side in both the second and the fifth innings including two strikeouts with a runner in scoring position in the fifth Six of the seven shutout innings he tossed needed or less pitches to get through and he held the Lancers to a -for- mark with runners in scoring position He had a day Dulin explained He had a day he ll remember He s been nasty Together the top four hitters in North Andover s lineup Faro Jackson Phelps and Dylan Lawrence combined for hits and six RBI Dylan Lawrence felt a responsibility to contribute the way he did to help the Scarlet Knights advance He didn t disappoint I m a captain of this unit people look up to me he explained So I just kind of represent North Andover and kind of help my company however I can