The game wasn’t quite over Sunday, but D.C. Brown’s day was done. The Plymouth North High School star pitcher, and 2024 MIAA Player of the Year, had reached his pitch limit and couldn’t remain on the mound at Polar Park in Worcester. Fortunately, the Eagles were leading after another masterful pitching performance by Brown – one of several he turned in over the season.
“I wanted to end the game, but it was a cool moment to walk off the field and hug all the kids I’ve played with my whole life,” Brown said Monday, following a 9-2 win over Walpole High School to win the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Division 2 state baseball championship. He came off the mound in the seventh inning after giving up just one run.
“It was an unbelievable experience and really cool winning our last game for the state title,” added the senior, who will attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute this fall and play on the school’s baseball team.
For Brown, Sunday’s victory was his third in the state tourney, capping an undefeated season with seven wins in the regular season.
“We handed him the ball 10 times this year and he never lost,” said longtime coach Dwayne Follette. “He’s amazing.”
For Plymouth North, this is its third title in the last 16 years. Under Follette, his teams also won state championships in 2008 and 2011 while losing the last tourney game in 2009 and 2012. All were thrilling, but this one was special, he said.
“Our seniors were incredible,” Follette said. “We have nine kids going on to play college baseball. That’s almost unheard of. What made this season so great is they were better kids than baseball players.”
Brown, who was in the top eight percent of the senior class at North and president of the student council, said he wasn’t throwing the ball as well as he had hoped in the state championship game, but he persevered – just like the entire team did this year. He was quick to credit other players for their contributions.
“Will Novak made two huge catches in the outfield to keep us in the game and keep us high,” said the lefthander. “He had an unbelievable day, going 5 for 5 at the plate.”
Winning trophies is nothing new for many of the Plymouth North seniors. They have been victorious on youth teams, including back-to-back state titles in Cal Ripken Baseball in 2015 and 2016. According to Brown, hoisting the Division 2 high school trophy was the crowning achievement for them.
“This is something we dreamed of for years, ever since we started high school together,” he said. “It was an unbelievable weekend.”
As it should have been, Sunday’s game boiled down to a championship battle between the top two teams in the state. Walpole, 20-5 during the season, was the top seed in the Division 2 tournament, while Plymouth was right behind it at 22-3.
“Our kids played very well, and against a very good team,” Follette said. “[Walpole was] ranked number one in the state all year. We were number two. It was cool.”
Dave Kindy, a self-described history geek, is a longtime Plymouth resident who writes for the Washington Post, Boston Globe, National Geographic, Smithsonian and other publications. He can be reached at davidkindy1832@gmail.com.