WALPOLE — It really shouldn’t be much of a surprise anymore that when Walpole and St. John’s Prep get together on the diamond, it usually turns out to be a good one.

Friday afternoon at Bird Middle School proved to be no exception as the teams battled through seven and a half scoreless innings before the Timberwolves’ Richie Hayes delivered a walk-off single with two outs in the bottom of the eighth to give Walpole a 1-0 win.

“We’ve had so many great battles with them over the years,” Walpole coach Chris Costello said. “St. John’s is a team where you don’t look at their record. They have so many kids that are super competitive and talented.”

For much of the afternoon it felt like one run was going to be enough to win, thanks in large part to starting pitchers Andrew Burke of Walpole (8-2) and St. John’s (3-5) lefty Braeden Hurley.

Both teams had chances early against each starter. Walpole had Mike Corrigan at third with one out in the first and failed to score while the Prep’s Jack DiFilippo tripled in the second but was stranded there.

After that, both pitchers settled into a groove and began trading zeroes on the scoreboard.

Walpole left a pair in the bottom of the fifth before the Eagles did the same in the top of the sixth.

In the top of the seventh, Walpole catcher Ryan Walsh stepped into the spotlight. After Nic Lembo reached second on a error to begin the inning, Walsh threw him out trying to steal third.

After Burke walked DiFilippo, he departed in favor of reliever Will Hendricks, who struck out Dylan Gaudet before Walsh ended the inning by gunning down pinch runner Vasily Scangas as he tried to steal second.

“That’s a senior leader and captain stepping up and making contributions defensively,” Costello said.

Hurley then did some fine escape work in the bottom of the inning, pitching around a leadoff error and a single by Shane Harrington to strand the winning run at third base.

Hendricks worked a perfect eighth before his teammates finally found a way to push a run across against reliever Alex Cianciarusso in the bottom of the inning.

After Cianciarusso got the first two men, Hendricks reached on the third Prep error of the game. Hayes then singled just in front of a diving Lembo in center to score the winning run.

“We got a break and Richie came through for us,” Costello said. “We went a little against convention there with lefty on lefty but we knew the moment wasn’t going to be too big for Richie.”