By Alex Hall, Globe Correspondent

1. Top two Catholic Conference teams face off Wednesday – Today the battle of the Catholic Conference Eagles will take place at BC High. No. 2 St. John’s Prep will take on its rival in an effort to knock off undefeated BC High. The Prep has played double the amount of games that 4-0 BC High has, but the opening game loss kept it from the Globe Top 20’s first place spot. This is a contest that will shape next week’s top rankings and which team will sit atop the Catholic Conference.

2. Newton North continues strong season – In the Tigers’ most recent game, they pummeled Brookline 10-0 in the team’s eighth straight win. Newton North is undefeated on the season, the Globe’s No. 3 team has surrendered just 20 runs so far. Essentially, this means the Tigers have surrendered just more than two runs a game. If you’re a high school baseball coach with Newton North on your upcoming schedule, good luck to you.

3. Top schools struggle early – Xaverian won the Division 1 title last year, yet the team sits with a 5-4 record. The Reading Rockets have some of the top hurlers in the state like lefty Scott Tulley who is committed to Notre Dame. They sit with just a 2-2 record through four games this year. The Rockets and Hawks are not teams to write off due to early slumps but at some point you’d expect these two to turn things around.

4. Ashland pays tribute to Marathon victims – Fellow Globe correspondent Phil Perry wrote a great piece a few days ago about this, but for those who haven’t read it, Ashland baseball was directly affected by the Boston Marathon bombings as many were. Some of the team’s players were on site at the finish line last Monday and all were thankfully unharmed. The Clockers wrote “P4B” (pray for Boston) on their hats during practice last week in tribute to those injured and killed. Other schools around the state, like the Oliver Ames and Ashland softball teams, paid tribute in their own ways as well. Sports tend to feel trivial in times of tragedy but they also give people an outlet to come together. Ashland and other schools showed that to be true last week and continue to do so this week as well.

5. Hopkinton rallies past Holliston – Hopkinton had just one out left in the seventh inning Monday to rally past Holliston. The Hillers were down 7-6 in their last opportunity at bat in the game. They were able to score seven runs before recording their final out of the top of the seventh. Hopkinton moved to 3-3 on the season after the win and is a team to watch after an impressive victory like the one on Monday.

Alex Hall covers baseball. He can be reached at alexander.hall@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @AlexKHall.