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 1 state champion by defeating St. John’s (Shrewsbury) 5-1 in an all-Catholic Conference final.

“There are no creampuffs in our league, every single game is difficult,” said 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 most 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, 1B Jack Darcy, OF Jackson Richard (UMass) and 2B Wyatt Miller are back. St. John’s (Shrewsbury) is primed for another run as P/1B Brayden Mercier (UMass), P/3B Jack Forgues (UMass-Lowell), OF Andrew Schmit (Salve Regina) and Jackson Fournier, SS Conor Secrist and 2B Jack Herlihy are the most 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, 3B/P James Willet and 2B Christian McCarthy.

The Hockomock League has garnered more than its share of postseason glory in recent 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 3B 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 many 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/1B Jack Johnson (Vassar), IF Owen Mordas and 1F Randen May (UMass) are back.

Braintree has 1B 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, 1B Owen Moniz and C Joe Silvia. Westford has P/OF Evan Pasters, P/1B Ryan Snow and 1F Tyler Eliasen back, while Lincoln-Sudbury will be keted by OF Garrett Mahoney (Assumption), 2B 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 1B 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. 2, 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/3B 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/1B Scott Longo (Northeastern) along with P Ryan Kelly, P James Burnes and OF Harrison Hinckle.

Milford was in the semifinals last year and have 1B/P Ian Carter (Merrimack) and OF Nick Koch (Bryant) back in the fold. Oliver Ames is always 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, 3B/1B Drew Donegan, OF/P Danny Leahy, OF/P Chase Longo, 2B/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 2B 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, 3B 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 team would love to join in the fun as SS Jayden Cruz, 3B Alex Crook, 2B Luke Thornton, C Liam Meehan and 1B Hayden Teasdale are back.