Canton High baseball rolls to season-opening win

With brilliant pitching, timely hitting, and aggressive baserunning, the Canton High varsity baseball team cruised to its first win of the 2026 season, beating the Attleboro Bombardiers at home on Friday 9-1.

Senior JT Norton drove in the go-ahead runs in Friday’s win over Attleboro. (Mike Tureski photo)

CHS junior Dean Madden struck out nine over fine innings and walked just one batter despite chilly conditions. The talented junior changed speeds, displayed a hard fastball, and had good command and control of his pitches, allowing just one unearned run on a passed ball. Senior Teddy Shuman came on in relief and threw two scoreless innings to seal the win for the Bulldogs.

After jumping out to an early 3-1 lead behind RBI singles from seniors Graidy Carr and JT Norton, Canton broke the game open with a five-run surge in the home half of the fifth. Senior Liam Connolly drew a bases-loaded walk for the first run of the inning, and then junior Tommy Rose stole home to make it 5-1. Carr and Will Young followed with back-to-back singles, and then Carr came home on a wild pitch to up the lead to 8-1. Connolly added an RBI single in the sixth inning for Canton’s ninth and final run of the game.

Rose paced the offense with two hits, including a double, and also stole a base, while Carr had a pair of hits to go along with two RBIs.

CHS head coach Dave Walsh is entering his fourth season and has high hopes for this year’s group, which is coming off its best spring in a decade and returns all but two starters. “Our players should know what it takes to win and compete,” noted Walsh.

After a six-win campaign in 2024, the Bulldogs improved to 11-9 last year and finished third in a very competitive Davenport Division while qualifying for the state playoffs.

Among the returning veterans are a pair of reigning league all-stars in Shuman, who led all Hockomock hitters last season with a .423 batting average and was dominant as a reliever (1.24 ERA), and senior Andrew Gillis, who batted .367 while leading the league in stolen bases and finishing second in runs scored.

The Bulldogs also boast a talented pitching staff led by Madden, who paced the team last year with 44 strikeouts, and senior Chris Pirrera, who was injured for part of the season but was solid across several starts (3.82 ERA). The team is also expected to lean on Rose and Young, both promising juniors, with Shuman anchoring the back end of the bullpen.

After games this week against Foxboro and Sharon, the Bulldogs will next head to North Attleboro to take on the Rocketeers on April 6 before returning home to face Milford next Wednesday, April 8, starting at 4:15 p.m.

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Posted by Mike Berger on Apr 2 2026. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.