'This is a real team': Plymouth North's baseball stars have a storied past of winning big

Former youth coach John Hallissey remarked many years ago that the 11-year-old Plymouth baseball All-Stars united together without any cliques.

"This is a real team," he told The Old Colony Memorial in 2017.

Longtime Plymouth North High coach Dwayne Follette has similar compliments for his current-day varsity team, which on Monday clinched its 11th consecutive win.

"It's just a good group," Follette said. "They're all great character kids."

Some things never change.

Seven years ago, the upperclassmen on this season's Plymouth North team won the second of back-to-back Cal Ripken Eastern Mass. titles. The seniors, now in the stretch run of their high school careers, are now out to compete for the program's third-ever state championship (2008, 2011).

“That’s our goal. They know it. We talk about it," Follette said. "We’ve got to win a league title, then (focus on) a state title. These kids want it. We all want it. But we know there’s good competition.”

Pitcher Sean Hallissey (son of the youth coach), third baseman George Slauson, pitcher/first baseman D.C. Brown, second baseman Killian Murphy, pitcher Cody Quinn and infielder Brennan Keefe are the remaining players from the title-winning Cal Ripken team, which finished that run by competing for the New England championship in Maine.

Flash-forward to today: Six Eagles, an "unheard of" number according to Follette, are off to play college baseball next year, headlined by Slauson (St. Anselm), Brown (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) and Quinn (Keene State).

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, Plymouth North (12-2) is ranked third in the MIAA's Division 2 power rankings behind No. 1 Walpole (13-3) and Hopkinton (13-3). The team ushered in 12 seniors and 10 juniors after last year's run to the Elite Eight, where D.C. Brown no-hit eventual champ Milton, although North suffered a 1-0 season-ending defeat.

“Last year we got hot at the right time," said Slauson, who hit .489 as a junior. "We’ve got to get hot now, and keep it going."

“We have to worry about (approaching it) one game at a time, but I think, at the end of the run, we’ve got something special here," said Sean Hallissey, a lefty arm.

More: 'He was an icon': Former Braintree High baseball coach Don Fredericks left quite a legacy

One of the reasons why is the pitching staff.

Brown, a left-hander, and Josh Bryant are the 1-2 calls for Follette, with Hallissey, Quinn, left-handed sophomore Danny Kenny and junior Rian Gardner all capable of shouldering innings. In his most recent outing, Hallissey surrendered two hits in a 10-0 shutout road win over Silver Lake (7-8) on Monday.

“We put a good pitcher on the mound every game," Follette said.

Said Slauson, who cranked a homer deep over the right-field fence on Monday, “Even the guys that throw in practice, I struggle to hit off.”

Brown, who went 6-2 with a 1.00 ERA last spring, earned his third career no-hitter against rival Plymouth South on April 24, a 6-0 win. It should be noted that Brown, who double-dips as the Eagles' clean-up hitter, hit two home runs in that game to turn in one of the area's most eye-popping stat lines of the season.

The Plymouth North pitching staff, which is overseen by ex-Major Leaguer Mike Remlinger, and the defense has held opponents to one run or fewer in seven of 14 games so far.

“The depth is unreal," Hallissey said of the rotation. "I think everyone comes to bring it every game. That’s really what’s helping us in the long run. ... A lot of teams don’t have that.”

Plymouth North opened the season with a 9-3 road win over Xaverian, the MIAA's second-ranked team in Division 1. It was a "massive game," said Slauson, that got the Eagles "rolling" to bounce back quickly after two early defeats to Hanover (6-1) and reigning D-1 champ Taunton (4-1) en route to the ongoing streak of 11 straight W's.

The Eagles split the season series with Xaverian each of the past two seasons, and have a rematch set for May 22 at 4 p.m. at home Cryer Field in the second-to-last game of the regular season.

A road matchup against a quality Whitman-Hanson team on May 23 at 4 p.m. is the finale before tournament seeding is announced.

After that, how does one last deep postseason run sound to this senior core?

“That would literally be my dream," Hallissey said.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Plymouth North baseball stars have history of winning big together