St. John’s beats Prep, caps Super Eight sweep
SCHOOLS
The rally came a little earlier this time for St. John’s of Shrewsbury.
The outcome remained the same, but this time the Pioneers took the Super Eight championship home with them.
After scoring a walkoff win against St. John’s Prep three days ago, the Pioneers came through with a fourrun sixth inning to down the Eagles, 5-4, to finish the tournament unbeaten and claim the title last night at Campanelli Stadium in Brockton.
“It’s a long time coming,” St. John’s coach Charles Eppinger said. “When they announced the Super Eight, (this) was a goal of ours. Be a state champion and you are the ultimate state champion if you bring that home.”
Trailing by a run entering the bottom of the sixth, St. John’s (23-3) put runners on second and third with one out. Prep looked to be on its way out of the jam when it cut down the lead runner at the plate for the second out.
But a subsequent balk allowed St. John’s to tie it before Jake Hamel’s RBI single brought home Patrick Galvin for a 3-2 lead.
Prep’s defense faltered later in the inning as an error on a ball hit by Ian Seymour plated two more Pioneer runs. The Eagles used three pitchers in the frame and the Pioneers sent 10 batters to the plate, taking a 5-2 lead.
“Ian had a key hit (to bring in) those two runs,” Prep coach Dan Letarte said. “That just deflated us right there.”
After Prep (17-8) scored twice in the eighth to get within a run, St. John’s called upon Seymour to get a fiveout save. He struck out the two batters he faced in the eighth and struck out the final two batters in the ninth to strand the tying and goahead runs at second and third.
“Last pitch, I told myself I was going to throw it as hard as I possibly could,” Seymour said. “It worked out for me.”
Matt Stansky gave St. John’s a terrific performance on the mound to start, tossing 61⁄ innings, allowing three hits, walking four and striking out four. The only hiccup for Stansky came in the third, when he let up RBI doubles to Tyler MacGregor and Frank DiOrio to give Prep a 2-0 lead.
Softball
Dracut 4, Norton 0 — The Division 2 state semifinal between the Middies and Lancers at Endicott College in Beverly will be remembered as a classic upset.
For 12 innings, Norton’s Kelly Nelson and Dracut’s Ryley White went pitch-forpitch. But Dracut prevailed as the Middies scored four runs in the top of the 13th to win 4-0, sending Dracut back to the state final for the first time since 1998. Dracut will face Grafton on Saturday.
White finished with 13 strikeouts. Nelson struck out 28 batters in a losing effort.
“That was one of the best games I’ve been a part of,” Dracut coach George Roy said.
Nelson struck out the first nine batters she faced but Dracut finally got to her in the 13th inning.
White led off with a single and after a throwing error put runners on second and third, Lauren Byam hit a ground ball to shortstop that scored pinch runner Alycia O’Connell to make it 1-0. A two-run double by Kayla Tyler pushed the lead to 3-0 before a RBI single from Nicole Turgeon made it 4-0.