North Attleboro wins pitcher’s duel with Canton

CANTON — In a duel between two of the state’s finest hurlers, it was a JV call-up who made the difference in Monday’s clash between Hockomock League rivals North Attleboro and Canton.

Tied in the top of the seventh inning, sophomore catcher Aidan Conrad laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to put the Red Rocketeers ahead, and senior Dennis Colleran finished off a three-hit, 13-strikeout gem in the bottom half for North Attleboro in a 3-1 win.

The showdown between Northeastern-bound right-hander Colleran and Canton junior southpaw Andrew Middleton, both 3-0 on the season heading into the game, didn’t disappoint.

Middleton, who tossed a perfect game in his varsity debut to open the season and will play for prep powerhouse Dexter Southfield next year, matched Colleran pitch for pitch for the most part, allowing just two hits and fanning 12.

“I look forward to playing all the GBG kids, especially him,” said Colleran, who knows Middleton through the GBG Northeast Hawks program. “He has been dominating the Hock, too, so it was definitely a good matchup. It was a great game.”

But Tyler Bannon worked Middleton for a leadoff walk to begin the seventh and stole both second and third — two of nine steals for the Red Rocketeers in the contest. With one out, Conrad squared around and managed to get a high heater from Middleton on the ground and bring home Bannon for the go-ahead run.

“This is Aidan’s second varsity game,” said North Attleboro coach Mike Hart. “He has worked hard in practice and he is a big-time competitor so we had absolute faith in him being up there because he is a guy that wants to be a part of the action in that scenario.”

North Attleboro added an insurance run on a Jared Penta sacrifice fly, his second RBI after plating a run in the third with a single, which was plenty of cushion for Colleran. After rearing back to punch out the last two batters of the sixth with a pair on, he made it four straight strikeouts to begin the seventh then got a fly out to seal it.

“I definitely got a second burst of wind there at the end,” said Colleran.

North Attleboro (4-4) and Canton (6-2) are now in a four-way tie with Foxboro and Oliver Ames at the midway point of a heated Davenport Division race at 3-2 in league play and will be right back at it with a rematch in Red Rocketeer country on Tuesday.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3yz8JyF