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WESTWOOD, Mass. -- As St. John's Prep ace Brandon Bingel spoke to reporters after the Eagles' 7-3 victory over Xaverian, an assistant coach tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Don't worry Mr. Catholic [Conference] MVP, I've got your bag.”

The senior righty picked up the win for Prep (12-1), and also scored a run and had an RBI on the afternoon. Bingel said the Eagles were looking for a little revenge –- Xaverian (5-7) beat Prep 6-5 on April 4 for its only loss of the season.

“I think we woke up a little. Last time, it was one of our first games, and they kind of out-powered us,” Bingel said. “We came out today, and we were ready. We wanted revenge on them since they were our only loss, so we came ready.”

The Eagles didn't waste any time getting after Xaverian starter Worth Walrod. Prep senior Nick Bragole hit a first-inning home run to left field during the second at-bat of the afternoon. Paul Crehan, one of the Eagles' most-feared hitters, hit a two-run single in the third.

Despite going to the bullpen early in the fourth inning, Xaverian pitchers gave up a run an inning for the rest of the game.

“That's a pretty relentless attack, and they got it done today,” said Xaverian head coach Gerry Lambert. “We did a good job minimizing, but they just kept coming at us, and that's a sign of a really good team that's playing really well. They're both of those things. They're a really good team, and they're playing really well.”

The Hawks scored three runs off Bingel in the bottom of the sixth, capped off by a Ricky Smith two-run home run, but they were unable to carry the momentum. Prep reliever Jack Burke came in with two outs and retired four straight Xaverian batters with three groundouts and a strikeout.

“He's been really good all year. I think he's only allowed one baserunner in eight or nine innings,” said Prep head coach Pat Yanchus.

High and Dry: Xaverian had a number of chances to cut into Prep's lead, but time and time again left runners on base. During the bottom of the fifth inning, Adam Chochrek was on first, and Smith was on second with no outs. Bingel proceeded to strike out both Tyler Wolfe and Aidan Desrosiers before forcing Connor Longley to groundout to second.

A similar situation happened in the third, but Aaron Drummey hit into a double play to end the inning.

“One of the things we are fighting right now is that we're having a tough time getting a big hit in a big spot. Sometimes you go through that as a team, and rarely is that only a one-game thing,” Lambert said.

Prep's skipper praised Bingel for working his way out of a number of jams.

“He usually settles down, and I think he did today,” he said. “During a few innings they had guys on first and second with no outs, and almost always that's at least a run. He worked out of a couple of them.”

Back to Front: Bingel had a tough outing during Prep's 6-5 win over B.C. High on April 24, giving up three runs on three singles and a couple of infield errors during the first inning. Since then he's been trying to lead with his off-speed pitches before dishing out a fastball.

“I started to pitch backwards earlier,” he said. “Against B.C. High I was throwing too many fastballs early, and they capitalized. Early in the game (against Xaverian), I threw more sliders –- more backdoor sliders -– and kind of surprised them with my fastball more.”

When Bingel gave up the two-run home run to Smith in the sixth, he got away from pitching backwards and left a 1-0 fastball up at the letters. He indicated that he still wants to use the fastball when there are men on base.

“I wasn't going to throw a slider because they had a lot of baserunners, so I wanted to pound the zone as much as I could, and he capitalized on it,” he said.

Best in Show: While Prep is the No. 1 team in the state and currently sits alone atop the Catholic Conference, Lambert isn't ready to say they're far and away the best team. Right now, he thinks little separates Prep from B.C. High, who Xaverian lost to, 3-1, on Monday.

“(Prep) is a better athletic team, top to bottom. That doesn't mean that they're the best team, but they put a lot of pressure on you,” he said. “It looked like they had seven guys on their team that can run the bases, and that's a lot for a high school team. I think you have to give them the edge by a whisker.”

Keeping them Grounded: While Prep may have a closer in Dustin Hunt, Burke may be one of the more reliable relief pitchers on the roster. The senior has allowed only one baserunner this season and consistently keeps the ball low in the strike zone to draw grounders.

“Whenever I get in, I just go and throw my pitches. We have a lot of pitchers, so whenever you can get in you just need to do your job,” Burke said. “I used my fastball and curveball and tried to mix it up as much as I can. I try to keep the ball low – that always helps. I was just hitting my spots, and the fielders were doing the rest.”

Bingel likes having Burke as a late-inning guy. He said it takes some pressure off when he leaves the game.

“I'm pumped when Jack comes in. His ball moves so much that all they do is hit ground balls,” he said.

SHREWSBURY, Mass. -- The mindset of Brandon Bingel is quite simple. The St. John’s Prep pitcher knows his out pitch is a fastball and over his career here it has worked effectively. But against St. John’s Thursday afternoon, Bingel knew the Pioneers were sitting dead red on his fastball and decided to change his repertoire up a bit.

The Bryant University-bound right-hander mixed in a change up and a tight slider which kept the St. John’s hitters off-balance long enough to earn a 2-1 victory at chilly Pioneer Field.

“I felt all of my stuff was on today,” said Bingel, a senior. “Usually I like to go fastball until a team shows me they can hit it. I knew (St. John’s) was a good hitting team so I decided to go with my slider and change which they really couldn’t hit so it worked out.”

After losing their season opener to defending Division 1 state champ Xaverian, the Eagles (4-1) have now rolled off four straight victories. This one, however, was far from easy.

With this contest tied 1-1 through five innings, Prep scored the eventual game winner in its half of the sixth. Tyler Noe was plunked by Pioneer starter P.J. Browne. The junior lefty’s day was done at that point despite putting forth a strong outing by scattering three hits and fanning five.

Reliever Jacques Boilard was called upon to keep the game deadlocked. Noe stole second and advanced to third on a ground out. Senior Nick Bragole then grounded a single up the middle plating Noe with the go-ahead run.

Having scored 22 runs in its first two games, St. John’s (2-1) went down unceremoniously over the final two innings as Bingel earned the complete game victory, surrendering five hits and striking out 11.

“Brandon had all three of his pitches going today,” longtime Prep coach Pat Yanchus said. “St. John’s is a very good team and always gives us a good game. There weren’t a lot of hits today but we took advantage of the ones we got.”

The Eagles grabbed a 1-0 lead in the third. Natty Cabral opened with a double to left and was bunted to third by Alex Moore. Cabral came home moments later on Tommy Buonopane’s fielders choice.

St. John’s answered back with a run of its own in the bottom of the frame. A bloop single by Micah Cummings was followed up by an opposite field Kevin Quinlivan double to left. With two runners in scoring position, Tom Petry grounded a single to left to plate Cummings. But Bingel avoided further trouble by striking out Mike Sullivan and Scott Manea ending the threat.

“Obviously Bingel is a heck of a pitcher,” Pioneers coach Charlie Eppinger said. “We had some opportunities in that third inning and then in the fifth when Cummings led off with a double but we couldn’t get a bunt down to advance him and we ended up failing to score in that inning. If you can’t score in situations against a team like that it is going to come back to bite you and today it did.”

DANVERS, Mass.- Is there a better way to prepare for a state tournament than by ending the regular season playing a cross-town rival?

Danvers and St. John’s Prep squared off Saturday night in a battle of bragging rights and momentum going into the playoffs. It was a tightly-contested game through the first five innings, but Prep scored five runs over the final two innings to come away with the 8-2 victory.

“This game is always big, we always have a bunch of momentum coming out of it,” said the Prep’s Brandon Bingel. “We’re always pumped to play it, so it’s a good game to give us momentum going into the playoffs.”

Prep (15-5) got on the board in the top of the first after a Bingel three-run opposite field home run. Coming off the bat, it did not appear to have enough legs to get over the wall, but it did.

Even Bingel was not convinced it was going to get over the wall.

“It didn’t feel too good coming off the bat,” he said. “As I got down the first base line, I saw the wind carrying it, and it just got over.”

Danvers (14-5) got a run of its own in the bottom of the inning after a throwing error by the third baseman allowed Ray Orocho to come around and score.

The Prep lead was being threatened in the fourth inning when Danvers had two runners on with only one out. After a passed ball and a wild pitch, one run scored. Nick Valles flew out to right field, but Anthony Capuano’s throw was so strong and on the money that Orocho was stuck at third.

Tyler Dustin grounded out two batters later, preserving the Prep lead.

It was the second run-saving play of the game Capuano made again Valles. In the second inning, back-to-back hits by Dan Connors and Orocho put runners at second and third with two outs.

On the 0-2 pitch, Valles hit a fly ball to right and Capuano laid out and caught the ball in a play that most would say was worthy of Sportscenter’s Top Plays.

Danvers was kept off the board for the rest of the game, while Prep added to it’s total, including three runs off Arocho in the seventh.

Bulldog Effort: It was a good week for Bingel. After declaring his verbal commitment to Bryant University earlier this week, the junior went 2-for-4 at the plate tonight with a home run, a double, and 4 RBI.

“Committing to Bryant kind of took a lot off my shoulders,” he said of the Bulldogs. “There’s people here watching and it doesn’t effect me at all, I just go out and play. I’m feeling pretty confident after committing, and it helps when I play.”

Strong Relief: Prep coach Pat Yanchus saw all he needed to see out of his starter, Dustin Hunt after 4.2 innings. He brought in Bingel to relieve the hard-throwing right hander with the count still at 3-1.

It is hard to blame the coach, considering the sequence of events that lead up to it. Hunt started the inning by striking out Joe Strangie. He proceeded to hit Connors, walk Orocho, and allow the two to advance a base because of a passed ball.

After Valles flew out to right, that left runners on second and third with two outs. Yanchus decided to intentionally walk Scott Hovey. Hunt tossed one of his throws over his catcher’s head, which allowed Connors to come home for Danvers’ second run of the game.

Yanchus went to the mound right after that, determined not to let the lead slip away.

“He was struggling, they were hitting him hard,” he said. “He got up to about 70 pitches, he had to work, and he seemed a little tired, and Bingel’s a good pitcher, so we made the change.”

Tourney Time: The two teams now wait in anticipation for the tournament seedings to be announced, which will happen early next week.

With the win, SJP is behind only BC High in the Catholic Conference standings and sets itself up to get a high seed in Division 1 North tournament next week.

Yanchus wanted to get his team into the tournament mindset, starting with Saturday’s game.

“We tried to get them into the mindset that this is the beginning of the tournament,” he said. “Proceeding to win this game is like a tournament game, so let’s treat it like such.”

He feels there are improvements his team still needs to make, even though his team sits at 15-5.

“We’re not hitting like I’d like to be hitting,” he said. “Maybe we can break into hitting a little, maybe this gives us a little confidence.”

MALDEN, Mass. — Brandon Bingel sure didn’t look like a pitcher who went 10 innings in his last outing.

Bingel struck out six and didn’t allow a runner to reach base in three scoreless innings of relief as St. John’s Prep inched out a 3-2 victory at Malden Catholic (7-6) in a rare night game in the Catholic Conference.

The junior right-hander needed 44 pitches to get through his three innings after throwing 79 to go the distance and then some in the Eagles' last victory against Catholic Memorial.

“I felt pretty confident,” said Bingel, whose team is now 12-3 on the season. “I threw 10 innings against CM and it was a really good outing, so I was really confident. Everyone was swinging at the high fastball, so I just kept pumping that thing in.”

Bingel struck out five of the first six batters he saw and used a four-seam fastball with some good late movement on it to fool the Lancers hitters in a one-run ball game.

“He’s been tough all year,” said Prep head coach Pat Yanchus. “He gave up three real good innings after his last start, which was pretty incredible because I haven’t seen 79 pitches in 10 innings before.”

Wild Pitches in Wild Win: The Prep bats were quiet on a brisk night and only collected six hits against Jeremy Roberts and Paul Covelle. Instead, they used mistakes from the Lancers’ pitchers to their full advantage.

The Eagles scored all three of their runs on wild pitches to overcome their hitting woes.

In the first inning, Tommy Buonopane scored on a wild pitch to get the first run of the game, and Anthony Capuano got in standing up at home after a pitch from Roberts got away from Austin Batchelor.

In the top of the sixth inning, the Eagles capitalized again. Nick Sadler beat Covelle to the plate with a tremendous pop-up slide for the go-ahead run before Bingel shut things down.

“When I was coming down the line I didn’t even really see it,” said Sadler. “I saw the pitcher coming in fast and I thought he was going to overshoot the bag, so I just tapped the outside of the bag.”

Defense Comes Up Big: The Prep did have its share of miscues in the field, but there were several big plays to keep the Lancers from breaking the game open.

In the first inning, Nick Turco looked like he would score on a wild pitch by Bobby Woodworth, but Jake Barosin was able to shovel the baseball right to his pitcher to save a run.

Kenny Runge was gunned down at third with some aggressive baserunning on a perfect relay from Capuano, to the shortstop Bingel, to Tyler Noe at third.

Capuano also showed off his arm in right when he gunned down Anthony Carbone at the plate with a one-hop throw after Ryan January singled after the Lancers had plated two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.

SHREWSBURY, Mass. -- Prior to yesterday’s non-league tilt against St. John’s Shrewsbury, Pat Yanchus, the longtime helmsman of the St. John’s Prep baseball program, noted that much of this season’s success has been due in part to the Eagles’ solid defensive play.

After watching his team commit four errors, all of which played a huge role in his club’s 4-3 loss at Pioneer Field, Yanchus may want to re-track those statements.

The Eagles were generous on the defensive side. In turn, it also soured a solid performance by junior righty Dustin Hunt, who allowed just three hits and struck out seven in a complete game effort. All of St. John’s runs were unearned.

“We’ve been playing great defense all year, but today we made some key errors, three in one inning, which was the game,” said Yanchus, his team now standing at 11-3. “Dustin pitched great. That’s the best he’s pitched for us this season. He had all three of his pitches (fastball, curve and change up) working for him. It was a non-league game today so we’re still in good position but you still would like to win these games and not give them away like we did today.”

In the bottom of the third, the Pioneers struck for three runs on just one hit but capitalized on three Eagle miscues.

With two on and two out, Nick Sieber grounded a ball off of third baseman Tyler Noe’s glove which plated Mike Sullivan, who walked. After Hunt issued a base on balls to Owen Shea, Eagles catcher David Maher tried to pick off Shea at first but his throw bounced away from first baseman Nick Bragole allowing Tom Petry, who singled, to score St. John’s second run. The play continued as a throw to nail Sieber sprinting to third sailed into left field allowing the senior to come around and cross the plate.

“In a couple of ways we stole this game, but we’re not going to give it back,” said Pioneers coach Charlie Eppinger, his team improving to 10-2. “Anytime you beat St. John’s Prep it’s certainly a good victory. We ran the bases well and took advantage in what they gave us.”

St. John’s starter Ben White was doing a yeoman-like job keeping the Eagle bats silent over the first three frames. But in the fourth, the Prep offense finally awoke. Anthony Capuano walked and Brandon Bingel followed with a single. After a wild pitch advanced both runners, Capuano trotted home with the Eagles’ first run on a pass ball.

White (5.2 IP, 2 hits, 9 K's, 109 pitches) set down St. John’s Prep in order the following frame, but ran into trouble in the sixth. With his pitch count rising, the junior righthander loaded the bases by plunking Bragole, serving up a single to Andrew Donahue and walking Keith Leavitt. A meeting on the mound did little to sooth White as he then walked to Maher to force in Bragole to make it a 3-2 game.

Pioneer ace Mike Badjo was then called to the mound in place of White to try and get St. John’s out of this mess. The senior did just that, striking out Rory Garrison and keeping the Pioneers’ slim lead in tact.

“My arm felt the best it has felt all year,” said Badjo. “Ben threw a great game for us but got into a little trouble late. I just wanted to come in and help him out. Starting a game in nice because you get your mind set before the game. But coming in relief is nice as well because you come into a pressure situation and that’s what you live for. As a reliever you really don’t have time to think, you just go out there and throw.”

The Pioneers, who defeated the Eagles 4-2 back on April 13th, added a much-needed insurance run in their half of the sixth, on yet again, another St. John’s Prep error. In the frame, Shea reached base on a one out walk. Scott Manea followed with a line single to right putting runners on the corners. With Tanner Johnson running for Manea, Eppinger called for a steal. Maher’s throw to second was high, tipping off the glove of Bingel, the Eagles’ shortstop, and sending Shea home with St. John's fourth run.

St. John’s Prep's attempt of a comeback fell one run shy in the final inning. Badjo struckout the first two batters he faced but Capuano worked him for a walk. The senior moved to third following a steal and wild pitch. He came home after Petry, the Pioneer shortstop, failed to handle Bingel’s hard grounder cleanly. However the damage was miniscule as Badjo was able to retire Bragole to end the contest and preserve the victory.

DANVERS, Mass. -- There have been more interesting ways to open the high school baseball season. But not too many.

This afternoon's contest between host St. John's Prep and rival Peabody started out as a grind-it-out pitcher's duel, but things got untracked in the ninth inning. Peabody went up 4-1 to start then top of the inning, before the Eagles came back in the next stanza to tie it, thanks to several errors in the field, and eventually win in walk-off fashion in the 10th on a walk, taking the contest 5-4 in the season-opener for both squads.

"Yeah, kind of a crazy game," Prep head coach Pat Yanchus said. "I thought the pitching was good for the most part."

Peabody head coach Mark Bettencourt was a little more blunt -- "It was a bizarre game," he said.

"You know what it was?" he continued. "Strange things happen in the first game of the year. We're not going to say we didn't play well, because I thought we did play well. I thought when things got tight, we had a little bit of trouble. But so did they."

The Tanners took a 4-1 lead in the top of ninth, loading the bases up without a hit. Cleanup hitter George Tsnosis worked a walk from righthander Mike Driscoll to make it 2-1, followed by a fielding error and a beaning of Stephen Girolamo to make it a three-run lead.

But the trouble for Peabody started in the bottom half of the inning, with two outs. Prep's Brandon Bingel swung at a low third strike, which was misplayed by the catcher and allowed him to reach first on the passed ball. Next up was pinch-hitter David Bornstein, who reached first base safely thanks to an off-the-mark throw from the shortstop.

A single from freshman Keith Leavitt plated Bingel, and a passed ball in the next at bat allowed Bornstein to come home. Tyler Noe then reached first on another error from the shortstop, plating Leavitt and tying the game at 4.

In the bottom of the 10th, junior Nick Bragole worked to a 3-0 count, then fell back to 3-2, before finally drawing a ball low in the zone to plate Anthony Capuano for the winning run.

Starters go to work: Peabody's workhorse junior righty Pat Ruotolo got the no-decision, after striking out 10 in nine innings on 133 pitches, after some unfortunate errors in his final frame. But for most of the afternoon, he and Prep senior righty Rob DiFranco stole the show, battling

Ruotolo's fastball sat in the 83 to 85 range for most of the afternoon. But as the game went on, his 12-to-6 curve had a more defined drop to it, especially in the latter innings. Six of his 10 strikeouts came after the fifth inning; a big part of that was the curve, as well as the high heat he was able to dabble in there.

"When you're facing Patrick, you're going to show us you can hit his fastball before we start doing anything," Bettencourt said. "So we usually try to hold his breaking ball through the first round of the order if we can. I thought he did very well with that today. He established his fastball early, wasn't getting a ton of punch-outs, but a lot of times they were guessing. You saw a lot of pop-ups, fly-outs, to keep them off-balance.

"That's a good-hitting team. Towards the end, he started getting that adrenaline, and that's when that breaking ball starts coming into play."

In the top halves of the innings, DiFranco battled with the Tanner hitters, getting behind in the count but usually not out, striking out six while allowing just three hits and a walk.

"He wasn't getting the first strike over, but he was making them swing and miss," Yanchus said. "When he's down low, his ball sinks a lot, and they were swinging over the ball a lot."

WESTWOOD, Mass. -- Between the wooden bats and overall depth of quality pitching, it's uncommon to see a high-scoring baseball affair in the Catholic Conference.

Yet that's exactly what went down today at Xaverian High, as visiting No. 3 St. John's Prep plated seven runs in the first two innings to down their archrivals going away, 12-6, to improve to 11-2 overall and take sole possession of first place in the Catholic Conference at 5-1.

No. 9 Xaverian fell to 8-5, 2-3 in the Catholic Conference.

Right away, the Eagles sat back in the batter's box and preyed on missed opportunities by Xaverian lefty starter Tim Duggan. They didn't wait long, as Anthony Capuano and Tyler Coppola both walked to start the game. On the fourth at bat, Pat Connaughton (2 for 3, 2 RBI, solo HR, 2 BB) drove a 2-2 fastball up the middle to score Capuano from second base. Coppola and Connaughton were sent home on a hit batsmen and walk, respectively, for a 3-0 lead after one inning.

The next trip up, Coppola smashed a three-run shot over the wall in centerfield for a 6-0 lead, retiring Duggan for the day and bringing in senior Mike Uradnik for long relief. His first batter, the Notre Dame-bound Connaughton, proceeded to sent a 2-0 fastball far over the fence in left-center for a solo homer and 7-0 lead.

"I was looking for my one pitch, and he threw me the pitch," Connaughton said. "I was just trying to look for a line drive, and that's usually the way it happens on home runs. You just look for a line drive, and if it's your pitch, and you're dialed in on it, then next thing you know it took off."

Said Prep head coach Pat Yanchus, "Back to back, that got us sparked. It's always good to jump out to a lead, get your pitcher (Dillon Gonzalez) comfortable.

The Hawks closed the gap to 8-5 in the bottom of the fourth, when Matt Rubino touched home after Mike Muir tried to run out a grounder back to the mound. But the Eagles responded in resounding fashion, scoring four more runs -- including three in the seventh off RBI's from Justin Paluso and Gonzalez.

"That was huge," Prep head coach Pat Yanchus said of the first two innings. "They battle back, though. At 8-5, that's anyone's game, so I was happy to see Ryan come in and throw strikes, creating ground balls."

Xaverian head coach Gerry Lambert came away less than pleased with the way his team played at the bookends of the game -- "we became very flat mentally in the late innings, and that's the thing I'm most frustrated about," he said -- but satisfied with how they rallied to cut the lead to three in the fifth.

"We talk about having good at bats," Lambert said. "We talk about not worrying about the score and just putting together a good at bat, and I think in the middle innings with that....but we have to be able to sustain the right way to play mentally for all seven innings. It wasn't that we were mentally unsharp in the first inning, it was that we were physically unsharp. But late in the game, we got very ragged on the bases, [and] offensively, and we gave them [the Eagles] extra chances."

Web Gem at the hot corner

Connaughton impressed major league scouts again last Tuesday when he hit 93 miles per hour on the radar gun, in the Eagles' 7-4 loss to St. John's of Shrewsbury. But not to be overlooked is his play in the field, explicated by a heads-up play at third base where he dove and threw it to first base from his knees in time to get the baserunner out.

"I knew when I had to dive for that ball, freshman year I made a throw from my knees, so I knew I could do it," Connaughton said. "I figured to save time, I'd just get down on my knees and throw from there."