After a stretch of a few weeks in a row in the first half of the season in which there was a new top-ranked team every week, Staples has now maintained its No. 1 ranking for three consecutive weeks as the Wreckers lead a group of three FCIAC teams ranked among the top five in the latest GameTimeCT Top 10 Baseball Poll.
And the 13-3 Wreckers were the unanimous choice as they received all 12 first-place votes from the dozen pollsters from the media and the maximum 360 polling points. This current state poll was released May 9.
Second-ranked Newington (11-2) was 66 points behind Staples with 294 points while No. 3 Xavier (11-4) had 274 points.
Fourth-ranked Trumbull (12-4) and No. 5 Fairfield Warde (12-4) are those two other FCIAC teams ranked among the top five. Trumbull was just one point behind Xavier with 273 points, and Fairfield Warde had just two points less than Trumbull.
The final five teams in the Top 10, in order, are Notre Dame-West Haven (11-3), Bristol Central (12-1), Woodland (15-2), Southington (10-4), and Rocky Hill (13-2).
A total of 28 teams statewide received polling points by being ranked among the top 15 on at least one voting ballot.
There were three FCIAC teams among the 18 in the “Others receiving votes” category. St. Joseph (11-4) received the 13th most polling points, Danbury (10-6) got the 23rd most and Norwalk received eight points for the 28th most as the 9-7 Bears had one voter pick them 14th.
Fairfield Warde shut out Staples, 7-0, on May 1 at Warde. But since then, Staples has won four straight games within a span of six days from May 3-8, beginning with a 4-0 home victory over Trumbull, and the Wreckers have had two shutout victories and outscored their FCIAC foes by a combined 36-3 in that hot surge.
The FCIAC standings are an indicator of just how strong and balanced the conference is, which sets up quite the scramble for final playoff spots and securing preferable seedings for the FCIAC Baseball Tournament.
Trumbull is ranked No. 4 in the current state poll, yet the Eagles had a 7-4 FCIAC record and were tied with Ridgefield for sixth place in the conference standings updated through May 8.
Staples, Fairfield Warde, Danbury were all tied for first place with their identical 9-2 records. St. Joseph was in fourth place at 8-3, and Westhill (7-3) was fifth.
Norwalk (6-5) was in eighth place, a half of a game ahead of 5-5 New Canaan, while Greenwich and Wilton both were 5-6 and with hopes of a finishing hot homestretch of the regular season to maybe snatch a final conference tournament berth.