Div. 1-2 baseball preview: BC High, Plymouth North look to repeat

The daily grind of Catholic Conference baseball served its member schools well heading into last year s postseason Three of its teams made it to the Final Four and BC High emerged as the Division state champion by defeating St John s Shrewsbury - in an all-Catholic Conference final There are no creampuffs in our league every single encounter is tough announced BC High coach Steve Healy They say iron sharpens iron and that s what happens in our league all the time so when we get into the tournament where majority of of the games are tough it s business as usual for us BC High should be able to put runs on the board as C Tommy O Donnell B Jack Darcy OF Jackson Richard UMass and B Wyatt Miller are back St John s Shrewsbury is primed for another run as P B Brayden Mercier UMass P B Jack Forgues UMass-Lowell OF Andrew Schmit Salve Regina and Jackson Fournier SS Conor Secrist and B Jack Herlihy are the largest part experienced returnees Xaverian could have the deepest pitching staff in the state as All-Scholastics Paul McCarthy Tufts and Patrick Rhodes Babson return as well as SS Jackson Morse George Mason and fellow infielders Nolan Rappoli Harvard and Jack O Neil Hobart St John s Prep will be led by SS P Will Shaheen Harvard OF Nic Lembo P Braeden Hurley B P James Willet and B Christian McCarthy The Hockomock League has garnered more than its share of postseason glory in fresh years and two of those teams Taunton and Franklin are ready to take another run at playing deep into June Taunton will lean heavily on ace Johnny Escobalez and Cam Tomaszycki along with B Caden Lindskog Franklin returns P IF Zach Winer OF Cole Sidwell IF P Sean Kayzak P DJ Silverstein SS Jack Sullivan and C Joey Goguen The trendy pick among various is Bishop Feehan New coach Joe Breen has a slew of talented returnees keyed by Texas-bound ace Brody Bumila and fellow hurler Andrew Schute Northeastern In addition P Ayden Mello LaSell IF Andrew Hosford LaSell C B Jack Johnson Vassar IF Owen Mordas and F Randen May UMass are back Braintree has B Sean Canavan UMass-Lowell SS Peter Brooks and pitchers Max DeRoche and Luke Joyce back Lexington will rely heavily on pitchers Matteo Giannetti Arthur Lin and Max Berberian while new Bridgewater-Raynham coach Cam Fox will look to Franklin Pierce-bound SS Owen King to help smooth the transition Durfee had one of its best regular seasons in years and will look to build on that behind pitchers Matt Almeida and Jayden Souza OF Ben Sherry B Owen Moniz and C Joe Silvia Westford has P OF Evan Pasters P B Ryan Snow and F Tyler Eliasen back while Lincoln-Sudbury will be keted by OF Garrett Mahoney Assumption B Mason Tarantino and pitchers Liam Gregg and Simon Fletcher In the Merrimack Valley Conference North Andover is considered one of the favorites as pitchers Cole Mullen Dylan Lawrenece and Trey Martin are back along with C Michael Phelps and SS Zach Faro Andover returns P Chris Jaillet UMass OF Will Norris Wofford C Ryan Jaillet P Drew Pulsifer and OF Sean Napolitano Chelmsford has one of the top pitchers in the MVC in Matt Stuart as well as B Finn Ramseyer and IF Evan Kobrenski Over in the Greater League Boston Somerville will be looking to defend its league title behind slugger Preston Ardolino and junior pitcher outfielder Colin Born Medford returns an experienced squad keyed by pitchers John Wright and Justin Marino while Lynn Classical will rely on pitcher shortstop Christian Figueroa Wentworth Lynn English will look to shortstop Armanis Romero Malden is expecting big things from pitcher shortstop Ryan McMahon and freshman third baseman catcher Nicholas D Anna Everett will look to transfers Tyler Freni OF and Nick Guida C while pitcher Domenic Bellia is back for Revere Plymouth North returned to the top of Div putting together an impressive postseason run to the title Returning to the fold for Hall of Fame coach Dwayne Follette are SS Matt Nardone OF Will Novak P Danny Kenney P Rhys Adair and P B Jake Novak Patriot League rival Whitman-Hanson will have two of the two pitchers in David McNaught and Ryan Baker Walpole reached the finals and have quality pitching back led by Andrew Burke Mikey St Martin and Luca Diguilio as well OF Quinn McNeil and SS Shane Harrington Milton has one of the top players in the state in P B Scott Longo Northeastern along with P Ryan Kelly P James Burnes and OF Harrison Hinckle Milford was in the semifinals last year and have B P Ian Carter Merrimack and OF Nick Koch Bryant back in the fold Oliver Ames is inevitably competitive and have pitchers AJ Baroncelli and Andrew Whiteside along with OF Harrison Fitzpatrick back again In the Tri-Valley League Westwood has plenty of returnees back keyed by C Jon Bertone B B Drew Donegan OF P Danny Leahy OF P Chase Longo B P Charlie Martin OF P Luke Chandler IF P Parker Hunt and SS Brendan Cengic Norwood will rely on SS P Sam Larkee C Angel Olaverria OF Brian Dearborn and OF Jacob Sheehan while Hopkinton has OF Nick Pedroli SS Ryan Lane and B Dylan Ruff back Billerica is capable of making noise as P IF Nolan Dawson leads an experienced group of returnees Woburn will look to IF Ryan Lush B Jack Lee and P Shaun Marsh Masconomet returns SS P Chris Porfido and P Drew Gustafson It s been a great athletic year at Somerset Berkley and the baseball unit would love to join in the fun as SS Jayden Cruz B Alex Crook B Luke Thornton C Liam Meehan and B Hayden Teasdale are back