After Calvert Hall finished off its record-setting baseball season, coach Lou Eckerl thought about where his team stood.

The Cardinals won 33 straight games over three-plus months, including Wednesday night’s 4-0 victory over Mount St. Joseph in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference final at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen. Eckerl smiled as he declared the 2007 team one of his best.

“It’s hard to say no when you’re 33-0,” he said after winning his third conference title in as many years.

Being compared to the 2005 Cardinals, who finished off their championship season with a 32-1 record, this year’s group had one game standing in the way of history. But riding Mike Dillon’s arm and Jeff Guthridge’s timely hitting, the Cardinals moved out from the shadows to rest comfortably as the first MIAA varsity team to finish a season undefeated.

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“It’s amazing,” said Cardinals catcher John Collingsworth, who had added a solo home run in the Cardinals’ three-run sixth inning. “We weren’t the strongest team. We weren’t the quickest team. We weren’t the fastest team. But we were the best team every day for those 33 games.”

Calvert Hall was dominant throughout the season, outscoring its opposition, 315-104.

“When you’re scoring 10 runs a game and you’re giving up two a game,” Eckerl said, “it’s going to work pretty well.”

Dillon, the starter, scattered three hits and allowed only two Gaels to reach second base on a night when he insisted nerves weren’t a factor.

“It was just another game,” said Dillon, who threw 116 pitches to improve his record to 9-0.

Calvert Hall, ranked No. 12 in this week’s USA Today national high school poll, beat teams from six different states and Washington, D.C., and cruised to 18-0 in conference play. Like every other opponent this season, Mount St. Joseph couldn’t execute its plan.

“We didn’t feel any pressure because they were 32-0,” Gaels coach Dave Norton said. “We wanted to be the first one to give them a loss, and we knew what we had to do.”

When the Cardinals reached 20-0, Eckerl said they thought about going undefeated. And when Guthridge’s fifth-inning grounder reached right field and gave Calvert Hall the only run it needed Wednesday, the comparisons to the 2005 team ceased.

“I mean,” Guthridge said, “they lost a game.”