Ferrell Knuckles Plymouth North Past Xaverian

By Matt Feld (@Mattyfeld612)

Westwood, Mass. -- As Brendan Ferrell toed the rubber to begin his start on Thursday afternoon, the events of two years ago were still on his mind.

Nearly two years to the day that Ferrell saw the Hawks complete a three run comeback off him that culminated in a walk-off single, the left-hander got his revenge twirling a complete game shutout as Plymouth North defeated Xaverian, 4-0, at Xaverian Brothers High School.

Ferrell worked quickly and efficiently throughout his start throwing just 92 pitches. 

The performance came at a much-needed time for the Blue Eagles (8-1) who were coming off their first loss of the season – a 6-4 decision to Duxbury on Wednesday afternoon.

"We were winning that game two years ago, and I just missed a (pickoff) play our coaches called and it cost us the game," said Ferrell. "I knew coming back here I had to battle back for us and get it done."

The senior showcased primarily a fastball-breaking ball mix but occasionally offered a knuckleball that he effectively threw for strikes.

"I dont throw the knuckleball often, its really where so I was surprised when the coaches wanted me to throw it," said Ferrell. "It's fun to throw. It gets me energetic on the mound."

Offensively the Blue Eagles showcased a deep lineup with seven of the nine guys in the order getting on via a hit.

Plymouth North threatened in three of the first four innings versus Hawks’ starter Dylan Vaglica, but proved unable to scrape anything across. That changed in the top of the fifth when the Blue Eagles scored all four of their runs.

Sean South led off with an opposite field triple down the right field line, and moments later Cam Shaughnessy grounded a single up the middle to put Plymouth North up 1-0.

Two batters later, Ryan McLoud provided some insurance knocking an RBI base hit back through the box. After McLoud stole second, Connor Sullivan kept the line moving drilling an RBI double into the left center field gap to make it 3-0 Plymouth North.

Blue Eagles’ two-way star Donnie Cohoon capped off the four-run frame with his team’s third extra base hit of the inning, an RBI triple to right.

“(Sean) South had a great game, he's been a part time starter for us," said Plymouth North coach Dwayne Follette. "He sparked us. We just played clean today. Made some nice plays in the field. (Donnie) Cohoon was awesome."

Xaverian (5-6), meanwhile, struggled to muster any sort of consistent offensive pressure on Ferrell. The Hawks put a pair on in the second, but a pair of groundouts got Ferrell out of trouble. The third and fourth innings each saw Xaverian strand a man in scoring position, but its best opportunity came in the bottom of the sixth.

Jack Whorf led off a ground ball single to center and Charlie Bean followed by slicing a base hit to left.

Trailing 4-0 the Hawks looked poised to mount a similar come-from behind rally that sunk Ferrell in Westwood two years ago.

This time, however, Ferrell battled through. On an 0-1 offering to Kyle Sylvester he generated a comebacker for a 1-5-3 double play before getting a pop up to shortstop off the bat of Matt Joyce to wiggle out of trouble.

Ferrell tossed a 1-2-3 seventh to finish off the shutout.

“We have a lot of good senior leadership this year," said Follette. "We were down against Silver Lake, down against Whitman-Hanson and we battled back. It starts with Cohoon. Ferrell was just a bulldog on the mound today. He has not lost on the mound. McLoud always does something good for us. Senior leadership just excellent.