John Carroll clinches top seed for MIAA A baseball playoffs

With an 8-7 win over Mount St. Joseph, Wednesday afternoon in Bel Air, John Carroll clinched the top-seed for the MIAA A Conference baseball playoffs, which are scheduled to get underway on Monday, May 12. The Patriots, who have one regular season game left, Friday at St. Joe, will face the Gaels (10-7) again in the semifinal round of the playoffs in a best-of-three series, so the clubs should be fairly familiar with each other. JC (23-8 overall) won the series opener, 10-3, on Monday, and now sits at 13-4 in the conference, a game in front of second place Calvert Hall (12-5).

Calvert Hall could match John Carroll's record with a win over Archbishop Curley in its regular season finale and a John Carroll loss, on Friday, but the Patriots own the tie-breaker after sweeping three games from the Cardinals earlier this year. Should Calvert Hall lose to Curley, it would fall into a tie with Archbishop Spalding (12-6) for second place. The Cardinals, however, have clinched the second seed by virtue of a 2-1 head-to-head advantage over the three-time defending champion Cavaliers. Calvert Hall will play Spalding, and hold home field advantage when the semifinals get underway on Monday.

In John Carroll's clinching victory, Casey Carpenter went 2-for-3 with a double and a triple, scoring two runs and driving in one. Joey Cloudon added a two-run home run and Drew Jourdan also had a pair of RBI. The Patriots built an 8-2 lead after three innings and held on as the Gaels battled back to within one run.

Calvert Hall rolled to an 11-1 win over Curley in six innings. Right-fielder Will Haacke powered the offense with a 4-for-4 performance, which included a triple, two runs scored and four RBI. Brayden Wolf added two hits, including a double, and two RBI.

The winners of next week's semifinal series will advance to the championship series, also a best-of-three, which is scheduled to get underway on Saturday, May 17, at the home field of the higher seed. Game two will be played at Joe Cannon Stadium on May 18 and game three, if necessary, will be played on Monday, May 19.