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They’re armed and ready: Josselyn brothers join forces at Bridgewater State

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Colin (top) and Matt (bottom) Josselyn. / Courtesy photos: Bridgewater State University Sports Information Office

Brothers Colin, a junior, and Matt Josselyn, a freshman, both of Hanson, joined together to play baseball for Bridgewater State University this season.

When freshman Matt Josselyn of Hanson decided he no longer wanted to attend the University of New Hampshire, he knew right where he wanted to go. With his brother Colin, a junior, attending Bridgewater State University, it seemed like the perfect fit.

“He had a big impact just to go somewhere where I was more comfortable and had a way in at the school, with my brother being there, was very influential,” Matt, who transferred to the school this semester, said of his older brother.

The move certainty grew their relationship, which already was close.

“He’s over almost every day to play video games and relax,” Colin said of Matt.

Not only do they share the same couch and television on occasion, but they rep the same Bears uniform out on the diamond as well, and it’s been a special season for them both.

The brothers — despite their ties — didn’t get to play much competitive baseball at all growing up together due to the near two-year age gap. All they had was a season of fall ball and a summer of Legion ball together, and Matt wasn’t ready to advance to the varsity level at Whitman-Hanson Regional High until after Colin graduated.

“Being able to work together at it is something we had never really done,” Colin explained. “We played catch all through the summer and a little bit in the fall, and now him standing next to me on the foul line playing catch everyday has definitely grown our relationship a little more.”

Bridgewater State head coach Rick Smith said having the Josselyn brothers — who are both pitchers — on his club adds a sense of family in the team dynamic, and he likes it.

“It’s always good to have a brother combination because one looks out for the other,” Smith said. “Right away I could notice Colin was kind of taking Matthew under his wing and making sure Matthew was adjusting well.”

For Colin, last year was tough as he suffered a season-ending labrum tear in his throwing shoulder before the Bears’ annual season-opening trip to Florida. In his return to the bump this season — which came March 6 against Eastern Nazarene — he was lifted after 5.2 innings. With a runner on second base and two outs, there was a call to the bullpen for his younger brother Matt.

“I thought it was pretty amazing,” Matt said of what was his first collegiate appearance. “I don’t think I’ve ever pitched on the same mound that he has ever in my life. So, it was pretty special to come in and I know it was pretty special for our parents to watch that of him handing the reins and putting his confidence in me to continue pitching a great game, which he did before me.”

Colin said when he saw his younger brother warming up between innings, he tried to give him a jolt of confidence.

“I just said, ‘Hitters aren’t as good as you think they are. I know it’s college and they’re probably a little better [because] your above-average high school players are playing in college. But, you’re an above-average high school pitcher so just go out and do you,’’’ Colin said.

Matt fired 1.1 scoreless frames in relief.

“It was very cool to watch and early in the year I kind of tried to play on it,” Bridgewater State pitching coach Josh White said. “And I said to Colin, ‘Listen, your brother is going to pick you up right here.’ And we tried to use that as a motivational thing and it was pretty cool to watch though and it’s something I’ve never seen.”

Colin said he’s used his little brother as motivation for some time now.

“In the competitive spirit of it, since I’ve been in college, I’ve always heard stories of him excelling at the high school level,” Colin said, “so it made me try harder to have my parents go back from my game and say, ‘Hey, Colin looked good today too.’ Just because of that little brother competitive rivalry aspect, so it kind of propelled me to work harder and it also helped him.”

Having an older brother who grew up as a talented baseball player certainty had its benefits to Matt.

“I think he definitely has [made me a better player],” Matt said. “I saw him when I was in middle school and through high school [where] he was a three-year varsity player and I knew I wasn’t as good as him, but I always tried to be as good as him, so to finally get my chance and play on the same team as him, it’s pretty cool.”

Since that outing, both Colin and Matt have seen action in three games apiece and shared the hill April 11 against Curry.

“It is pretty cool,” Colin said. “For him, I think he gets to see a familiar face. I think I get more nervous watching him pitch than he is. It’s very nice to have him around.”

Season Preview: Baseball coach is aiming big

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The Whitman-Hanson Regional High baseball team is returning some pivotal players from last season’s team that went 16-5 and was bouced in the first round of the tournament.

Whitman-Hanson Regional High baseball head coach Pat Cronin has always had a vision for the future.

Back in the spring of 2016 when Cronin took over the W-H program after spending the past 35 years at the helm of East Bridgewater, this was the season he was building toward.

“I will say this that in the three years that I’ve been here this was the year that I’ve had kind of circled as a year where I was really excited and interested in seeing how much our work paid off,” Cronin, who has recorded 452 wins as a head coach, said.

In the Panthers’ first campaign under Cronin, they advanced to the postseason for the first time since 2007 and won their first-round game 11-0 against Somerset-Berkley before falling to Falmouth, 4-2, in the semifinals. Last season, they finished 15-6, which included a 4-2 loss to Sandwich in the first round. W-H did, however, claim the Patriot League Keenan Division along the way.

“This is a team game more than anything else, so I think implementing a team-attitude that you may want to play short, but you’re a great second baseman or you may want to play center, but you’re a great left fielder,” Cronin said of how changed the culture of the team. “All of the kids bought into that.”

As part of Cronin’s forward vision, he doesn’t just account for the season at hand.

“We plan two of three years ahead when we’re putting our team together,” Cronin said. “I always have planned two or three years ahead.”

While the Panthers may be down Patriot League All-Star at short stop and captain Luke Tamulevich, who helped turn seven doubles plays last season, due to graduation, fellow league all-star junior Mike Cook, who hit .302 and helped spin nine double plays last spring, will slide over from second base to shortstop.

“When he first came up as a freshman, I put him at short when Tamulevich got sick and he played there as a freshman and helped us beat Stoughton,” Cronin explained. “So, I told him later, ‘I need you to go to second base. I’ve got Tamulevich there and I need the big arm to take [Nate] Perkins’ place.’ And then this year, he knew he was stepping in and the beauty of that is we’ll have him for two years now. And he’s perhaps, if not the best, one of my best hitters.”

Senior Ryan Sawtelle, who backed up Bobby Caliri behind the plate last season, will assume the catching duties and will be looked upon to supply some offense.

“He dinged and donged and his stroke has really improved,” Cronin said.

Sawtelle will be tasked with handling a lethal Panthers pitching rotation anchored by their two captains. Senior James Dolan enters the year having posted a 0.35 ERA over 40.33 innings last season while junior Rian Schwede hurled 39 innings to the tune of a 1.44 ERA. Both were Patriot League All-Stars.

“You’ve got your No. 1 and 2 back and they’re both all-league players,” Cronin said. “I think pitching is going to be the strength and then defense, we will work the defense. I hope this, out of the three years, will be our best hitting team of the three years.”

Dolan, who plays first base while not on the mound, also hit a team-high .389 last season en route to being tabbed Patriot League Keenan Division MVP.

Cronin is also high on junior Ethan Phelps (.319 last season) who he will let roam center field and use as a third starter.

“He’s certainly one of our best hitters and he’s back for two more years, too,” Cronin said. “Plus, I’ve held him off because I didn’t need him last year. You should see him on the mound, he’s another pitcher. We worked with him a lot last year, every day to get him ready for this year.”

Senior Caleb Burke is back at third base and senior Jason Green returns as the designated hitter and will see some action on the mound.

The Panthers are scheduled to begin their season at home Tuesday, April 3 at 4 p.m. against Middleboro.

“We won the first game in ’16 and we lost the second game to a good Falmouth team with the kid going to BC,” Cronin explained. “We lost to a good Sandwich team last year with a kid that threw well. We are not ready to hit at that level, that’s what takes time to build in a program and it did the same thing at East Bridgewater. You have to get them in the cages and get them to commit. Defense and pitching, we can work in early on and day in and day out, but to build a good hitter, it’s a different mindset from what they’re used to.

“A good hitter is also somebody who has some varsity reps. You can’t take a kid from the JV and have him step to the varsity and expect him to hit .350, it’s just not going to happen. They need to see those good guys and in this league and there are a lot of good guys. That’s the step and they know it. That’s the step to take this program go to the next level is we need to have them hungry as hitters every free moment they have during the season and during the summer. They need to dedicate themselves to hitting.”

Josselyn firing up Dragons

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Brandon Josselyn, a 2005 Whitman-Hanson Regional High graduate who finished his career at 20-4 with a .470 batting average, has been named the new head baseball coach at Duxbury High.

One pitch at a time.

That’s the philosophy Whitman-Hanson Regional High alum Brandon Josselyn is trying to instill in his players as he settles into his new role as the manager of the Duxbury High baseball team.

After previous skipper Gordon Cushing stepped down from the helm of the Green Dragons, Josselyn applied for the gig and was named his successor in August, and his path to the job is a unique one.

The Hanson native was one of top players ever produced on the diamond at Whitman-Hanson. The right-hander tallied a 9-0 record and pitched to the tune of a 1.10 ERA in 2005 during his senior campaign and finished his career at 20-4 with a .470 batting average.

Josselyn said one his takeaways from former W-H manager Pat Forbes was how to attack the game from both themental and physical side.

“I remember more how to compete and to get in the dayto- day stuff and take baseball very seriously from [him],”Josselyn said.

Not only did he star on the baseball field, but it was quite apparent Josselyn would have a leadership role down the road when he was tabbed a captain on the football and indoor track team his senior season.

“It was more of an honor back then,” Josselyn said. “To be recognized by my peers as someone who can be seen in that way is probably something I look back and think highly of the most. It was a nice honor.”

After graduating, Josselyn took the next step heading to Yale to compete at the collegiate level, where he ran into his first major speed bump.

“I had mono, I had my wisdom teeth out and I had strep all going into the season,” Josselyn said. “I was supposed to be the starting left fielder and I lost that job and the kid that came in and replaced me because I had mono was hitting .500 by the time I was cleared to get back in and play so that was tough.”

However, he would bounce back settling into a niche on the bump developing a slider-sinker combination en route to being named Ivy League Pitcher of the Year his senior season.

After being drafted by the Seattle Mariners as the second pick in the 25th round of the 2009 First-Year Player Draft, Josselyn spent two seasons in their organization before deciding it was time to move on.

“That following spring training, so going into my third season, that spring training you kind of see your name on the list and every day the list kind of changes,” Josselyn said. “There was one day my name was on the Single-A roster again to go back to Clinton, Iowa. I was already one of the older kids because I was drafted as a senior in college, so I just didn’t see the organization valuing me and I just thought if I was going to go back to the same level, well that’s three years at this level, I thought I had enough success to move on.”

After a brief stint in investment banking, Josselyn was ready for another change which led to him joining Duxbury as a math teacher in 2013.

“You want to teach them things that they can pick up along the way and things that they can take with them along the way, so there are definitely some parallels,” Josselyn said. “It’s certainty a different philosophy, me in the classroom and me in baseball.”

In 2014, he took over as the girls’ cross country coach at Duxbury in the fall and began managing the freshman baseball team in the spring, and now he’s ready for the next step.

“I’m a believer in just concentrate and focus on every single pitch,” Josselyn said. “If you’re an outfielder, put yourself in the right position based on the kid’s swing. If you’re a pitcher, whatever pitch the catcher is calling to execute that pitch and that kind of stuff. Let the results fall wherever they’re going to fall, but put yourself in a place to be successful from practice and from concentration in a game and results will take care of themselves.”

Josselyn will make his return to his alma mater May 1 when the Panthers host the Green Dragons at 4 p.m.

Catching up with Brenndan Rogers

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A Q&A with Whitman-Hanson Regional High alum Brenndan Rogers.

Brenndan Rogers had an illustrious career as a two-sport athlete at Whitman-Hanson Regional High.

On the hardwood, the shooting guard netted 774 points over his career and played a pivotal role on the Panthers’ school-record 22-win campaign last season that ended at the TD Garden in the Eastern Mass. final — averaging 15.8 points per game in the postseason.

On the diamond, Rogers was eerily as dominant — posting a 7-1 record, one more win than the team had the prior season, and 0.80 earned run average over 52 1/3 innings during his final go-around. In the Panthers’ opening playoff game, Rogers hurled five innings of two-hit ball to power W-H past Somerset Berkley 11-0.

Last March, Rogers committed to play basketball at New England College, where he majors in business. In nine games for NEC, the Hanson native is averaging 10.1 points per game and is shooting 42.1 percent from the field for a Pilgrims squad (7-2) that is off to its best start since 2010-11.

The Express caught up with Rogers to reflect on his time at W-H and to see how he is adapting to college thus far.

Q: What did you learn on the hardwood at W-H?

A: “The importance of teamwork and working with a good group of guys towards a common goal. Also, the value of hard work and doing everything in life with your best effort.”

Q: How has the transition to college been on the court?

A: “The transition into college sports is just the beginning of a new process. You’re now at a level where you’re competing against the best of the best high school athletes. Also, you’re going up against guys that are grown men at 23 or 24 years old. Everything in your game has to be taken up a notch and your body needs to be at top shape. But most importantly, trusting the process with your teammates and coaches to become a successful athlete at a higher level.”

Q: How has the transition to college been in the classroom?

A: “Moving from high school to college classes was a big jump for me. I wasn’t the best high school student so it was important for me to bear down and get good grades. The work is a lot more challenging, but the professors prepare you well enough so that you can deal with the assignments. You also have a lot more time to complete assignments so time can be helpful.”

Q: What is one valuable lesson you acquired at W-H that you have taken to the collegiate ranks?

A: “A valuable lesson learned in high school was that everything happens for a reason. And no matter how hard life can be sometimes, you should never let it affect who you are.”

Q: What’s your fondest memory from W-H?

A: “My fondest memory at W-H would definitely be bringing the entire school and community to TD Garden during my senior basketball season. We had an amazing run and were one of the best teams in school history. On the other side during baseball, pitching and winning the first tournament game in eight years for W-H was a great moment for me.”

Q: Who is your favorite professional athlete and how has s/he inspired you?

A: “My favorite professional athlete would defiantly have to be Paul Pierce. He was a big inspiration growing up, watching him lead the Celtics for so many successful seasons. He inspired me to push through any hard times and difficulties as he went through some rough years in Boston but always stuck through it with the team.”

Q: What goes into your offseason preparation?

A: “The offseason was full of a lot of running and weight lifting. Going from high school to college sports calls for a lot of preparation going into the season. Running helped with staying in shape and getting faster for a fast pace college game. Weight lifting was important to get stronger to play with older and experienced competition.”

Q: What day of the week do you most look forward to?

A: “My favorite day of the week is either Friday, or Saturday. Both days are usually when I have games so it’s the highlight of the week.”

Q: What’s your favorite food?

A: “My favorite food is either chicken or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Both have been my top favorite foods since I was a kid.”

Q: What’s been your biggest accomplishment at college thus far?

A: “My biggest accomplishment so far in college would either be my team’s success, or my personal success in the classroom. Our team ended first semester at 7-2, and is heading into next semester with a lot of momentum. In the classroom, I finished the semester with a 3.4 GPA.”