It was always going to be difficult for Endicott baseball to follow up its historic 2024 season. The Gulls went 38-2 in the regular season, won their third straight CCC Championship (ninth in program history), were the top-ranked team in the country (a first for an Endicott team), and won the Super Regional to advance to a second straight Div. III College World Series.

The Gulls lost to nationally ranked Denison on March 17 in the next to last game of their Florida trip, dropping their record to 8-3 for the season (one more defeat than the entire 2024 regular season). Rather than a cause for worry, it was the opportunity to set last year aside and refocus on what had otherwise been a solid start to the spring.

“We quite literally learned the hardest way possible (last year) that it doesn’t mean everything,” said senior Danny MacDougall about the team’s start. “Even in the losses, we’ve learned about ourselves and I think we’ve played well the whole time.”

He added, “We lost our third game and it was like, alright, well now we don’t have to worry about matching last year anymore. It’s kind of a new year, new team, there’s a lot of new faces, and we’re just trying to go out and replicate what we’ve been doing – winning a lot of games, playing clean baseball.”

Endicott has since won five games in a row and outscored its last five opponents 74-9.

MacDougall, the former Taunton standout and Hockomock League MVP, has been a major factor in the team’s strong play early in the season. He is batting 0.432 through in 16 games with a home run, 20 RBI, 25 runs scored, and 14 stolen bases. MacDougall called it the best start to a spring in his career.

“If you put in the preparation, good things will happen,” he explained. “Anybody can step in a cage and just hack away and hit 100 balls off the tee but I think what I did a lot this year was actually think about what I was doing when I was in there.”

“I’ve been in the box so many times, been in every scenario so many times, not only have I learned to enjoy it but I have failed a couple of those times and I’ve learned that the sun comes up tomorrow morning. It’s going to be okay. That provides a lot of confidence in a sport where failure is so common. I’m relaxed, I’ve been there before, and I know if I pop it up to the right fielder my parents are still going to love me, life’s going to go on.”

Of course, success tends to breed more success. MacDougall batted 0.426 his first year in Beverly, was named to the All-CCC Second Team, All-Region Second Team, College World Series All-Tournament Team, and was a preseason All-American going into 2024. Last year, he batted 0.309 with a career-high nine homers and 42 RBI and was named to the All-CCC First Team and All-Region Third Team.

“When those posts go out and you have a ton of people congratulating you, it feels good, but it all goes back to the team,” MacDougall replied when asked about the awards he has received the past two seasons. “Without the other guys in the lineup, there is none of that.”

“Everybody plays a role with us and all of those roles go towards wins and those wins result in individual awards and championships and everything that we’ve been able to experience over the last couple years. If you go out there thinking about the team first, then it will work out well for you.”

MacDougall took a winding road to Endicott. He was a key player for Taunton in its run to the program’s first state championship in 2019, although he was injured and missed almost all of the playoffs. After the 2020 season was canceled because of COVID, he was named league MVP as a senior.

Originally, he was committed to play at the University of Hartford until the school’s decision to drop down to Div. III. He decommitted and eventually was given an opportunity to earn his way onto the team at the University of Maine. The fall went well, but he had a difficult start to the spring.

“I got down on myself mentally, dug myself a hole that ended up being pretty deep,” MacDougall said, adding that he really enjoyed his time at Maine and learned a lot from the experience. “We got to the end of the season and I ultimately decided that it would probably be best for me to get a fresh start somewhere else.”

He entered the transfer portal and started exploring options at the region’s DIII schools. A conversation with former Taunton teammate Nic Notarangelo, who was at the time setting home run records and helping the Gulls to their first Super Regional, helped steer MacDougall to Endicott. “Things have gone half-decent for me,” MacDougall joked when reflecting on his transfer.

Over the past two years, the former Tigers have been at the heart of the two best seasons in Endicott’s history.

“Me and Nic, we won a lot in Little League together, we won a lot in high school together, and we won a lot in college together,” MacDougall said. “I think it’s just really cool to have someone that we played with when we were four feet tall and when we were six feet tall.” (Notarangelo is playing a grad season at URI where he started the season batting 0.413 before suffering an injury against Eastern Kentucky.)

MacDougall and Notarangelo are just two examples of the many Taunton players who are currently playing (and playing very well) in college. Reflecting on the hard-fought battles between Taunton East and Taunton West in Little League and the talent on the roster during his time with the Tigers, MacDougall isn’t surprised to see the program flourishing.

“We all just grew up thinking that everyone was this good,” he said about the talent he competed with and against growing up in Taunton. “There were a lot of kids that wanted to play baseball in Taunton and it made it such a competitive environment. It’s just year after year that you have guys who not only love baseball but love to compete.”

That mentality has stuck with MacDougall in his college career. While he admits that winning “makes everything better,” MacDougall is also just enjoying the chance to go out on the field with his teammates and friends for as long as he can.

“It’s great to win the games but the longer we win then the longer we get to stay and hang out with each other,” he said. “When we won our Super Regional this year and posted it on social media, it wasn’t about us winning, the caption was ‘Another week with the boys.’ That’s what it’s really all about in college.”

MacDougall has a redshirt season from freshman year and it would be no surprise to see him take advantage of that extra year of eligibility. Although he hasn’t made any decisions about next year, since there is still so much to accomplish this spring, MacDougall’s enthusiasm for the game, and what it has meant for him, is clear.

“Even if it’s not going to be the last go-around for me, it’s going to be my last go-around with guys who I’m going to be friends with forever,” he said about possibly playing in 2026.

“The biggest lesson that I’ve learned, there’s nothing like shooting a double in the gap or turning a double play to get out of a jam in the seventh, but the relationships you build and the memories you make with guys you’re around pretty much 24/7 are the most valuable part.”

Ed. Note – MacDougall is not the only former Hockomock standouts playing at Endicott this season. Mansfield’s Aaron Blinn is a junior pitcher who has made two appearances for the Gulls and Mansfield’s Chris Jenkins has made eight appearances this season, including a perfect ninth inning in the most recent win over Southern Maine, and has an ERA of 0.75 with seven strikeouts in 12 innings.