Bishop Hendricken and Cranston West have combined to win the last 13 Division I baseball championships, and that trend is likely to continue this season with the way both teams are playing.

The Hawks and Falcons, jockeying for position at the top of Division I-A, met on a soggy Friday afternoon and it had all the trimmings of a championship series game: two-out RBIs, highlight-reel defensive plays, controversy and a close result. West edged Hendricken, 3-2, after pinch runner Caleb Wurster was caught stealing second to end the game.

“It always does,” West manager Rob Malo said about the game’s playoff atmosphere. “I joke that this is the local version of Red Sox-Yankees. Doesn’t matter what the records are. We haven’t beaten them in a while, so it’s nice to get this game in and come out on top.”

After West starter Steve Rocchio got two quick groundouts in the top of the seventh, No. 9 hitter Brian Cipolla drew a walk to give Hendricken life and bring leadoff hitter Dante Baldelli to the plate. Rocchio was kept in and threw his first two pitches to Baldelli in the dirt, but on the second Wurster took off for second.

He appeared to beat catcher Sam Franco’s throw down, but the umpire called him out.

“He’s been great behind the backstop,” Malo said of Franco. “Three-year starter, as a senior captain, that’s obviously what you look for. Making a big play and coming through in a clutch situation. A lot of times it goes unnoticed. The coaching staff called half the pitches, he called the rest of the game.”

Defense and pitching carried the Falcons (11-2) after one big offensive inning in the second.

With two outs and runners at the corners, right fielder Mitchell Carvalho laced a two-RBI double into the right center field gap to give West a 2-0 lead. He would scamper to third base on the throw home, where he would score on an RBI single off the bat of Nik San Antonio.

Starter Nico Salvaggio pitched well for the Hawks, going five innings with just one walk allowed and three strikeouts, but Rocchio outdueled him. The junior went all seven innings, striking out five with just two walks and five hits allowed. Both pitchers managed to maintain command of their arsenals despite the intermittent rain.

“I thought he got tough after that inning when they got their three runs,” Hendricken manager Ed Holloway said of Salvaggio. “He got guys on base, but he worked out of it, so that showed me a lot for a sophomore. I told him, ‘To be a great pitcher, you’ve got to stop the other team in those key situations,’ and he did that.”

Hendricken (11-2) had chances to strike in the fourth and fifth, but failed to get on the board. Baldelli reached on an error to lead off the fourth, and Elijah Brown sent a single into right field to give Matt Sweeney a chance to get Hendricken on the board. Rocchio would get him to line out before Brendan Conley sacrificed Baldelli and Brown into scoring position.

No. 5 hitter Andrew Flint had a chance to tie the game with one swing of the bat, but he couldn’t solve Rocchio yet. Flint sent a deep fly ball to center field, but Steve Piscopiello made it there for the out.

The Hawks got the first two runners on in the fifth as well, but poor baserunning and swift alertness from Franco quickly disposed of that threat. During Andrew Hopgood’s at-bat, Tucker Flint was caught leading too far off second and Franco threw down to get him into a rundown. Jordan Carvalho moved to second, but Tucker Flint was tagged for the first out of the inning.

Rocchio would force groundouts from Hopgood and Cipolla to get out of the jam.

“He’s just a gamer,” Malo said of Rocchio. I had him in class [Friday] and he’s chomping at the bit at 9 o’clock this morning. We had our senior presentations so all the underclassmen got out at 10:30 today, and he didn’t know what to do with himself. He said ‘Coach, I’m gonna go sit in the hot tub for a little bit.’”

West also had baserunners on in the third, fourth and fifth innings, but failed to score any of them for added insurance.

Baldelli led off the sixth inning with a walk before Rocchio got Brown swinging for the first out. It looked as though Sweeney was about to put two runners in scoring position, though, as he lined a shot into right field. Mitchell Carvalho came charging and laid out to make a diving catch just before the ball hit the grass.

“We’ve tightened up our defense, we’re making plays,” Malo said of the difference between last year’s squad and this year’s. “When we do have a miscue, it’s not snowballing like it did last year. We’re a little more mentally tougher.”

Mitchell Carvalho’s impressive extension saved the inning from going from bad to worse. Conley grounded a single into left field to put runners at first and second for Andrew Flint, and this time he was able to connect. He crushed a two-out, two-run double over Mike Doire’s head in left field, plating Baldelli and Conley.

“It was a good game, we fought, we hung in there, and we just came up short,” Holloway said. “Give them credit, too, they played well.”

Rocchio got Tucker Flint to hit a soft tapper to the first base side on a 2-2 pitch, stranding the tying run at second.

When Franco threw Wurster out in the seventh, it was the third baserunner he caught on the afternoon. His defense was indispensable for the Falcons.

“I’m just trying to see how far the baserunner is off the bag, and if I see that he’s a good amount, I know I can get him out,” Franco said. “So I just get a good throw to the bag and get him out, hopefully.”

The Falcons continued their torrid performance this season with an 11-9 victory over Coventry (11-4) on Monday afternoon. Matt Lonardo’s two-run dinger gave West an 11-2 lead heading into the home half of the seventh, where the Oakers brought seven runners across the dish. Reliever Chris Manfredo was able to prevent further disaster, coming in to strike out two and end the game.

West had a meeting with Pilgrim scheduled for 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday, but results were unavailable at press time. The Oakers and the Pats are the only two teams to beat West thus far this season.