TEWKSBURY — The reigning league champions made no mistake in defending their Merrimack Valley Conference dominance on Monday.

Following a 12-3 tear through the MVC 1 last spring, North Andover flexed their conference muscles on Monday in a 4-2 win over MVC 2 counterpart Tewksbury at Strong Field.

The Scarlet Knights knew the early-season matchup wouldn’t be a walk in the park, eying a Tewksbury team building momentum from a Sweet 16 appearance in last season’s Div. 3 state tournament.

But behind a strong start by Cole Mullen, who tossed 4.2 innings of one-run baseball, and a 2 for 4 showing at the plate by Mike Phelps, North Andover (3-0) remained unbeaten on the diamond this spring.

“They are a very good team, and they played really well,” said North Andover head coach Todd Dulin. “I knew it would be a good game and we knew it would be a good game.”

Tewksbury never allowed North Andover to run away, stymying their bats with the bases loaded in the fourth to stay within striking distance. The Redmen nearly knotted the contest at 3-3 in the sixth on an RBI double off the bat of Logan Augustyniak, but the tying run was thrown out at the plate.

“We’re trying to see how we stack up against teams like that at this point in the year,” said Redmen head coach Matt Feld. “And I thought we competed for sure.”

North Andover’s prompt start proved to be the difference. The Scarlet Knights were active against Zach Russo in the first, opening the scoring on an RBI single from Phelps to take a 1-0 lead. North Andover would ultimately score its next two runs on walks with the bases loaded as Zach Faro and Jake Jackson worked their respective counts to increase the lead to 3-1.

Meanwhile, Mullen protected his squad’s early lead with a pair of scoreless innings to kickstart his outing.

“He was pounding strikes today,” Dulin said of Mullen. “We’re very confident. He’s a four-year starter for us, and he was really good today.”

Tewksbury’s Ben Barrasso notched a sacrifice fly in the third to cut the 2-1 lead in half, but it would be the only run Mullen would relinquish in his 4.2 innings of work. He allowed just three hits, two of which were at the hands of Phil Lombardi, who was 3 for 3.

“That kind of sets the pace for the whole game for me,” said Mullen, a senior captain. “If you struggle in the first inning, that’s how your whole game is going to be.”

North Andover then claimed a pivotal insurance run in the seventh on a one-run single by Trey Martin to set the table for Gabe Polonsky to retire the side in the bottom half to pick up the save.

“We were really prepared for this game,” Mullen said. “We knew this was going to be the hardest game we’ve had this year so far, and starting off conference play with a win is huge for us.”