North Andover’s Todd Dulin has won a state championship and coached a tremendously impressive group top-tier pitchers — like Mike Hashem, Sebastian Keane, Brett Dunham and others — who went on to elite Division 1 collegiate programs and some into the pros.
But none of them delivered the season his 2024 ace — Dylan Lawrence — produced this spring.
None.
“We have had a lot of great pitchers, but Dylan’s single season might be the best,” said Dulin.
He has a valid point.
The flame-throwing senior southpaw, who is headed to play at Bentley University, finished the season with a 6-1 record and a 0.14 ERA. In 50 innings he gave up eight runs — and only one was earned. He struck out 69 batters, walked only 12 and gave up just 38 hits.
“Last year, he set the (program) record for saves in a season with seven,” said Dulin. “And this year he came up huge as a starting pitcher.”
Last year in relief, Lawrence tossed seven shutout innings in the epic extra inning, playoff win over Bishop Feehan. After Dom Pefine graduated, Lawrence moved to the No. 1 spot in the rotation. In seven outings, he consistently threw strikes in unhittable spots.
He started the season out on fire with six scoreless innings and seven strikeouts in a win over Framingham, before tossing a four-hit complete game shutout over Chelmsford, the eventual Division 1 state champion.
“He was nasty (against Chelmsford),” said Dulin.
A month later in the first round of the playoffs against Lawrence High, which had already defeated the Scarlet Knights twice, Lawrence the pitcher utilized his fastball and unhittable slider and tossed a complete game shutout with 10 strikeouts to push North Andover to the Round of 16.
To top that off, he also provided a big bat. He finished the season with a .313 average, knocked in 16 runs and scored 20 times.
Besides baseball, Lawrence was a member of the North Andover High golf team.