Staples and St. Joseph both went 3-0 last week to remain undefeated and those two FCIAC teams are now ranked first and second, respectively, in the most recent Game-Time CT/Register Top 10 Baseball Poll for Week 3 which was released April 16.
The Staples Wreckers, the defending state Class LL champions, were once again the unanimous choice to maintain their top ranking. They received every first-place vote from the 11 voting members of the media. They outscored their three opponents by a combined score of 29-10 to improve to 4-0 by the end of the week.
St. Joseph’s potent Cadets racked up 51 runs in their three victories while outscoring their opponents by a 51-9 margin. Consequently, they ascended from No. 5 in the Week 2 poll to No. 2.
The Cadets improved to 5-0 with their 9-4 victory over Norwalk on April 13. That was the least amount of runs they’ve scored in any game as they have averaged 15 runs per game.
The conference had three teams ranked among the top nine as Ridgefield was ranked ninth.
Daniel Hand was ranked third behind St. Joseph and Holy Cross fourth as they both had 5-0 records.
Fairfield Prep (5-1) was ranked fifth and followed by Cheshire (4-1), Waterford (3-1) and New Milford (5-0).
Ridgefield improved to 4-1 with by going 2-0 last week and that enabled the Tigers to move up one spot from 10th to ninth.
Amity (3-2) completed the Top 10.
Staples defeated Amity, 5-1, last June in the championship game of the CIAC Class LL Baseball Tournament.
The FCIAC is viewed to be particularly strong at this early juncture of the season as five conference teams finished among the top 13 in polling points received.
Darien (6-1) and Westhill (4-1) are listed early in the “Others receiving votes” category as they received the 12th and 13th most points, respectively.
The aforementioned records of each team reflect the games played through Sunday, April 15.
The homestretch of the season lines up to be quite a scramble for the upper seeds in the FCIAC Baseball Tournament because all five FCIAC teams which received the most polling points in this Week 3 poll have schedules where most of their games against each other occur during the final couple weeks of the season.
Staples and St. Joseph – currently the state’s top two ranked teams – have their showdown in the May 16regular-season finale at Staples.
Staples plays at Westhill on April 30, hosts Darien on May 4 and visits Ridgefield on May 7.
St. Joseph hosts Westhill on April 25 and Ridgefield onMay 4. Two days prior to the Cadets’ big showdown at Staples, they will have a stiff test at Darien on May 14.
Ridgefield hosts Darien on April 27 and Westhill on May 14. Darien travels to Westhill on May 11.
As for how the FCIAC standings were through last Sunday’s games with conference records, Darien was 4-0, Staples and St. Joseph were 3-0, Westhill and Ridgefield were 2-0, and Danbury and Wilton were both 2-1.
