Three FCIAC baseball teams – Staples, Fairfield Warde, and Trumbull – are again ranked in the top three and Fairfield Ludlowe’s softball team remains No. 2 in their respective state polls heading into the state tournaments which begin May 27.
Staples (17-5) received 10 of the 13 first-place votes and 384 polling points from the voting members of the media to be ranked No. 1 for the fifth consecutive week in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Baseball Poll which was released May 23.
Fairfield Warde (17-5), the two-time defending FCIAC champion and defending Class LL state champion, received the other three first-place votes and 364 polling points.
The polling points were tabulated Monday, May 22. Several hours later in a No. 1-vs.-No. 2 showdown during the FCIAC Baseball Tournament semifinal doubleheader at Cubeta Stadium in Stamford, Warde’s Mustangs would keep their conference championship three-peat hopes alive with a 3-2 victory over Staples.
The championship game was scheduled for Thursday at Cubeta (7 p.m.), and it would be a rematch of last year’s final against Westhill as the Vikings made it back to the FCIAC final with a 4-2 victory over Trumbull.
Fairfield Warde and Trumbull flip-flopped rankings from the previous poll, as Trumbull (16-6) is now ranked third in the current Top 10 state baseball poll.
St. Joseph (15-6) is ranked 10th as the fourth FCIAC team in the Top 10.
Guilford (18-3) is ranked No. 4 and followed by Woodland (19-2), Newington (15-3), seventh-ranked Xavier (16-5), Rocky Hill (17-2), and Fairfield Prep (15-6), which vaulted up to No. 9 after being unranked the previous week.
One voter selected Westhill 15th, so the Vikings received seven polling points as the 16th and final team, and only FCIAC team, in the “Others receiving votes” category.
Each voter selected their top 15 teams, in order, and points for both the softball and baseball polls are tabulated on a 30-28-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-11-10-9-8-7 basis.
Undefeated and three-time defending state Class LL champion Southington (20-0) and Fairfield Ludlowe (20-1) are again ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Softball Poll which was released May 22.
Southington was the unanimous choice for No. 1 with all 13 first-place votes and the maximum 390 polling points.
Fairfield Ludlowe received 356 points, 22 more than No. 3 Woodland (20-0) with 334 points.
Fairfield Ludlowe’s two-time defending FCIAC champion Falcons are the only conference team in the Top 10 and they put themselves in position for a three-peat with a 4-2 victory over Trumbull in Monday’s FCIAC Softball Tournament semifinal doubleheader at Fairfield University. St. Joseph (17-5), which received the 13th most polling points in the current poll, advanced to the Thursday’s FCIAC final at Fairfield University (5 p.m.) with a 15-5 victory over Norwalk.
Bristol Central (19-1) is ranked No. 4 in the current state poll and followed in the Top 10 by Newtown (19-2), Masuk (18-3), No. 7 Jonathan Law (18-2), North Haven (20-0), North Branford (19-1), and Coventry (19-1).
In addition to St. Joseph, Ridgefield (17-4) received the 14th most polling points and Trumbull (15-6) got the 20th most as the FCIAC teams in the “Others receiving votes” category.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference softball and baseball state tournaments are scheduled to commence Saturday, May 27, with qualifying rounds.
The qualifying rounds, first rounds, second rounds, and quarterfinals of the softball and baseball tournaments will be played at the home fields of the higher-seeded teams. The semifinals and finals will take place at neutral sites.
Last year, third-seeded Fairfield Warde won the 2022 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Baseball Tournament title with a 7-5 victory over fourth-seeded Southington.
Coach Brett Conner’s Mustangs, who had defended their FCIAC championship with a 4-1 victory over Westhill, closed the season with an 11-game winning streak and were voted No. 1 in the Final 2022 GameTimeCT Top 10 Baseball Poll.
Also last year, Southington won the 2022 CIAC Class LL Softball Tournament for the third straight year with a 13-1 victory over Bristol Central after both of those teams advanced with semifinal victories over FCIAC teams.
Second-seeded Southington defeated third-seeded Ludlowe, 7-3, after fifth-seeded Bristol Central beat top-seeded Danbury, 4-1, in the opener of the semifinal doubleheader.