Upset of the season: Billerica seizes on Prep miscues, wins North title

LOWELL — To say St. John’s Prep was the prohibitive favorite to win the Division 1 North title yesterday would be a colossal understatement.The top-seeded Eagles were 22-1 and hadn’t lost since their season opener against Xaverian back on April 4. They hadn’t even trailed in a game in almost four weeks. Over their last 10 games, they gave up a mere six runs, including back-to-back shutouts to make it to the finals.Conversely, No. 7 Billerica (17-6) leaned on hot-hitting third baseman Eric Eknanian for a 3-2 upset of second seed Medford last Thursday and a big 7-1 triumph over No. 11 Westford Academy Saturday.Playing their third game in four days, the Indians were figured to be pawns against a deep Eagles pitching staff. Instead, they turned into kings behind gutsy pitching from Chris Murphy while making rare Prep miscues hurt, turning it all into a shocking 4-3 victory at LeLacheur Park.Next up for the Indians tomorrow is the winner of last night’s South final between Bridgewater-Raynham and BC High.Clean defense has been a hallmark of the Prep’s game, but yesterday the Eagles committed five errors, along with a balk that plated the eventual game-winning run.”We had more errors (against Billerica) than we had all year,” said Eagles head coach Ken Yanchus. “We hadn’t made an error all tournament and we picked (yesterday) to make them all, I guess.”One of those mistakes gave Billerica the early lead. On his way to third base after Murphy’s first of three singles, Max Frawley was hit in the back by the throw from the outfield. When the ball rolled into foul territory, Frawley, who had singled, rolled home.But the most painful meltdown came in the fifth, when Eknanian was hit by a pitch for the first of two times. He moved to second on a wild pitch and scored when Kyle Murphy roped a double down the left field line. After Dylan Lavery’s groundout, relief pitcher Jack Burke faked a pickoff throw to third, which is illegal, balking home Murphy.Add in an easy forceout where the fielder tried tagging the runner instead and dropped the ball, and a sure double play ball right at a base that was dropped, and the Eagles struggled. But they were never out of the game.St. John’s tied the score in the third on Keith Leavitt’s two-out, two-run double, then answered Billerica’s fifth-inning two-spot with one of its own when leadoff man Tommy Buonopane singled, stole second and scored after two wild pitches.However, the Eagles had their issues with timely hitting, leaving runners in scoring position over the last six innings, including runners at third in four of those frames as St. John’s stranded 13 runners overall.”We struck out too many times (12), we tried to do too much with just one swing,” said Yanchus.When it counted the most, Murphy came through in a six-inning, 125-pitch winning effort where he gave up just three hits but walked eight.”This whole group just doesn’t quit,” said Billerica head coach Joe Higgins. “Even in the games we lost, we kept coming back. This was just an all-around great game for the guys.”And because of that spirit, the Indians get to play another day.