BC High storms back for crucial win vs. CM

After nine full innings and two weather delays, the BC High baseball team apparently decided it had waited around long enough.

Resuming with one out in the top of the 10th following a 30-minute pause for lightning in the area, Luke Linnehan struck out a pair of batters to cap an impressive five-inning relief appearance. Then Sean Rafferty walked it off in the bottom half with an RBI single to the gap in left as the No. 18 Eagles outlasted No. 17 Catholic Memorial, 4-3, yesterday.

“I was just hoping to do my job, make my at-bat productive and give my team a chance,” said Rafferty, who was 3-for-5 with two RBI. “This was a huge game, huge win. They beat us earlier in the season and that has been with us all season, so it’s great to come back out here and get it back from them.”

BC High, which entered having dropped four of its last five contests, improves to 9-7 on the season. That’s also where the Knights stand after the loss, which dealt a cruel blow to their dreams of a Catholic Conference title.

Wil McCarthy doubled down the third base line with one out in the 10th and Rafferty plated him with a liner that skidded all the way to the wall. That made a winner out of Linnehan, who allowed four hits over five shutout frames after coming in for Sean O’Connell to start the sixth.

Linnehan did need some help from right fielder Connor Flavin to put up a zero in the ninth. JP Olson singled and stole second with two outs and Patrick Manning drilled a ball to right that looked destined to untie it until Flavin laid out to make an amazing diving catch and end the threat.

CM jumped out to a 2-0 advantage with a pair of unearned runs in the second and took a 3-1 edge into the fifth. The Eagles strung together four consecutive two-out hits against Knights ace Michael Gemma to knot the game at 3-3.

With the field still relatively wide open, BC High coach Norm Walsh believes the window hasn’t closed yet on a Super Eight tournament berth, but said his team will have to clean things up down the stretch for a brutal closing quartet of St. John’s Prep, St. John’s (Shrewsbury), Chelmsford and Newton North.

“Usually we get better as the year goes on, but we have been so inconsistent,” Walsh said. “We have been in every game for the most part but shooting ourselves in the foot. We still made enough mistakes today that we have to cut back going forward.”

Sophomore Shawn Pinkham allowed one run over six innings of work, striking out six as Burlington (6-8) knocked off Stoneham, 7-1 in a Middlesex League tilt. The win was the 200th of Red Devils coach Dan Hirsch’s career.

In the Hockomock League, Evan Jackman allowed one run on four hits and two walks, and James Genest launched a homer with two RBI as Stoughton (12-6) topped Sharon, 6-1.

Softball

Behind eight strikeouts from Kate McGrath, Boston Latin (11-4) edged out a 2-0 Dual County League win over Westford Academy.