DANVERS — The St. John’s Prep baseball team leaned on strong pitching and timely hitting Monday afternoon, notching its fourth straight win after taking down St. John’s (Shrewsbury) by a score of 6-0 at Pete Frates Field.
It was Sam Belliveau who got the job done on the mound for the Eagles, tossing a complete-game shutout. Belliveau struck out seven batters in the victory, walking just one.
Despite not registering a hit on the day, Eric Wing led the Eagles with two RBI thanks to the rare two-run sacrifice fly. Pat D’Amico went 2-for-3 with a double and one RBI, while Payton Palladino, Christopher Dirks and Shane Williams each had one RBI.
The Prep did all its damage over the course of two innings — the bottom of the first and the bottom of the fourth. After Belliveau struck out the side in the top of the first, the Eagles came up and got started quickly with two walks and a double to load up the bases. After a popout, Wing stepped up to the plate and smashed a deep fly ball to right field. Palladino scored easily on the fly, then D’Amico also managed to find his way home from second base on the throw to make it 2-0. Next up was Dirks, who laced an RBI single to right field to make it 3-0.
The score remained there until the fourth. A walk and a hit batter put two runners on with no outs for the Prep, and then Williams knocked an RBI single up the middle to put the Eagles up by four runs. Palladino knocked Williams home on an RBI groundout two batters later, then D’Amico rounded out the scoring when he knocked an RBI single up the middle to make it 6-0.
Belliveau took it from there, only allowing two hits and three baserunners over the course of the last three innings to seal the win.
St. John’s Prep (6-1) has a quick turnaround with a non-league road game against St. Peter Marian Tuesday afternoon (4) at Tivnan Field in Worcester.
