Prep pummels way to Division 1 North semifinals

BEVERLY – Chris Carmain had in one day what most high school batters take a couple of weeks to put up offensively.The Eagles’ senior first baseman hit three home runs, scored four times and drove in seven runs to lead a St. John’s attack that pounded out 22 hits in a 20-3 win over No. 2 Beverly in a Division 1 North quarterfinal-round game at Cooney Field.St. John’s will play either Acton-Boxboro or Lowell in the semifinals on Thursday (site and time TBA).”That’s a week or two in one game with what Chris did,” Prep coach Pat Yanchus said. “That’s the best that we’ve hit the ball in quite a while.”All nine starters had at least one hit for No. 7 St. John’s, and 11 players in total had hits, with nine driving in at least one run. That led Beverly coach Dave Wilbur to tip his hat after the game.”Sometimes you get beat by the better team, and that certainly was the case (Monday),” Wilbur said. “They hit everything we threw at them.”St. John’s (17-5) didn’t waste a lot of time in getting going against Panther starter Frankie Messina, as Derek Dubois (2-for-4, 3 RS) walked and Mike Yastrzemski (3-for-5, 4 RS) doubled. Carmain then served the next pitch over the right-field fence to make it 3-0, Eagles.Only a diving stop by first baseman Felix Zamot on Dillon Gonzales’ shot with the bases loaded prevented further damage by the Prep.The Eagles went back to work in the second after Messina got the first two batters. Carmain launched his second towering homer, this one to dead center, to make it 4-0. Greg Donahue (5-for-6, 3 RS, 2 RBI) followed with a single, and he scored on Pat Connaughton’s (3-for-5, 2 RBI) double for a 5-0 lead.Connaughton was the beneficiary of the offense as he retired the first nine Panthers he faced in order through three. In all, the sophomore struck out 11, walked three and allowed two runs over 6 2/3 innings.”Pat pitched a great game,” Yanchus said. “He really kept them off-balance.”The Prep kept on swinging, tacking on three more runs in the fourth and three again in the fifth on a solo homer from Dubois and a 2-run shot that was Carmain’s third of the game.Beverly (19-3) finally got its first hit in the fifth, when Austin Butler led off with a single. Ethan Trowt followed with a double that cut the lead to 11-1.St. John’s blew the doors off the game in the seventh, sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring six times against a tired Panther bullpen.Connaughton and Pete Castoldi drove in runs before Gonzales launched the Eagles’ fifth homer of the game, a 3-run shot that was the capping blow in the inning.The Eagles added two runs in the eighth and a final tally in the ninth before Beverly closed things with a run in its half of the ninth.