Sports
Baseball, Softball Tournament Games Set
St. John's baseball, Danvers softball begin their post-season quests Thursday.
The luck of the draw means the St. John's Prep baseball team will begin the post-season this Thursday at home (4 p.m.) facing the same team, Central Catholic of Lawrence, it concluded the regular season against on Sunday.
Catholic Conference co-champion St. John's is seeded seventh in the 20-team Division One North Sectional draw with a 15-5 record. The Eagles needed only one inning Sunday morning at Merrimack College to defeat Central Catholic, 8-5, in a game suspended after nine innings last Thursday. Central (12-6) is ranked 10th in the Sectional field and finished second in the Merrimack Valley Conference Large.
The winner of this first-round match-up advances to play the survivor of the three-school group of No. 2 Lincoln-Sudbury (18-2), No. 15 Andover (11-9) and No. 18 Boston Latin (10-10) in the quarterfinal round next Monday. The Prep last played for the State championship in 2006 and won back-to-back Division One State titles in 1999 and 2000.
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Division Two North
NEC South champion Danvers (16-5) is seeded third in the 16-team field and will face No. 14 Belmont (10-10) out of the Middlesex League in a first-round game Friday night at Twi Field (6:30 p.m.). The Marauders could be a deceiving foe as the bulk of their league schedule is against primarily against Division One teams.
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The winner moves on to next Monday's quarterfinal round against the winner of the preliminary round game between No. 7 Marblehead (13-7) and No. 11 Tewksbury (10-10). Danvers has appeared in two Division Two title games, defeating Oxford in 2001, 8-0, and losing to Hudson in 1999, 4-2.
Softball
Danvers (15-5) is seeded sixth in the Division Two North Sectional after finishing second in the NEC South during the regular season. The Falcons will take on No. 11 North Reading (12-8) of the Cape Ann League Thursday afternoon at home (3 p.m.).
The Falcons will look to build off the momentum of their season-ending championship at the North Andover Tournament in which they defeated CAL clubs North Andover, 12-0, and Newburyport, 8-6. North Reading will be no slouch – the Hornets split regular-season games with Newburyport, the CAL co-champion, and shut out North Andover as well, 6-0.
