Eagles fly into North final

LOWELL – The look on Chris Carmain’s face said it all when St. John’s coach Pat Yanchus came out to give his ace the hook in the ninth inning of the Eagles’ Division 1 North semifinal game with Lowell on Thursday.The senior wanted to finish the game ? but not to worry, though; his teammates had already made sure that the Prep would have another game to play.Breaking open a 1-1 deadlock with six runs over the final three innings, St. John’s claimed a 7-2 win at Alumni Field and earned a date with Gloucester in the North final Saturday night (6) at LeLacheur Park.”We started a bit slow, but we’re such a good hitting team that eventually we’re going to get going,” Carmain said.The Red Raiders didn’t play like a No. 22 seed that had barely qualified for the tournament. For six and a half innings, Lowell was every bit as good as the Eagles. But a pair of errors in the seventh resulted in four runs that broke the game open for St. John’s.”They are no 10-10 team, that’s for sure,” Prep coach Pat Yanchus said. “Chris kept us in the game by pitching so effectively.”Lowell (13-11) put a pair of runners on in the first with one out but Carmain worked out of that trouble. The Eagles then scored first as Derek Dubois singled, moved to second when Carmain was hit by a pitch and scored on Greg Donahue’s single to center.After that, the game evolved into a prime-time pitcher’s duel as Lowell’s Anyelo Roman went toe-to-toe with Carmain.Neither team would put a run on the board through the middle innings. The lone threat came in the fourth, when Pete Castoldi, who was 2-for-3 to improve to 7-for-13 in three games, tripled but was thrown out by shortstop Kevin O’Neill trying to score on Kevin Davis’ grounder.Forced into creating some offense, Lowell made it a new ballgame in the sixth.Leadoff hitter Kyle Gath walked and was sacrificed to second by Derek Reed. Roman followed with a groundout that moved Gath to third and he scored on a passed ball. Carmain would then walk O’Neill and see him reach third on two wild pitches before striking out Adam Keenan to end the inning.St. John’s loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth, knocking Roman out in the process, but couldn’t score as reliever Chris Callery got Dubois on a grounder to first.The stage was set for a rather interesting finish until the Eagles finally made the Red Raiders blink in the seventh.A one-out error by O’Neill on a Carmain grounder opened the door to victory for St. John’s. Pinch-runner Brandon Coppola stole second and then was safe at third when Roman dropped Callery’s throw on Donahue’s grounder to the mound.Pat Connaughton was intentionally walked to load the bases but Kevin Barry drew another walk to score Coppola with the go-ahead run. Castoldi then delivered a crushing blow to Lowell’s hopes with a bases-clearing double to left-center that increased the lead to 5-1.”That’s what we’ve been expecting from Pete all year,” Yanchus said. “He really is a streaky hitter.”St. John’s put an end to any ideas of a comeback by the home team in the eighth as Dubois walked, Mike Yastrzemski doubled and Donahue, a Lowell native, singled them both home.