Fairfield Ludlowe ended Masuk’s 36-game winning streak with a 2-0 victory in the April 2 season opener for both teams and that led to Ludlowe’s Falcons ascending to No. 1 in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Softball Poll which was released April 11.
Fairfield Ludlowe also ended Masuk’s reign of continuously being ranked No. 1 since June of 2019 and FCIAC teams are now ranked in the top two spots. St. Joseph maintained it’s No. 2 ranking from the previous preseason poll.
Masuk is the three-time defending state Class L champion. After the Panthers shut out East Haven, 2-0, in the 2019 Class L final to finish 26-1, they were voted No. 1 in the Final 2019 GameTimeCT Top 10 Softball Poll and they had been voted No. 1 in every poll since.
Fairfield Ludlowe ended that reign along with the 36-game winning streak by coming through with some timely hits against Kat Gallant, Masuk’s excellent senior ace. Gallant struck out 273 batters in 130 innings, had a 0.27 ERA, and finished with a 21-0 record last year after her complete-game shutout in Masuk’s 2-0 win over St. Joseph in last year’s Class L championship game when she also smacked a two-run home run.
Ludlowe’s Ellie Gallagi drove in the first run with a base hit, Katie Tournas doubled in the second run, while winning pitcher Alex Lewey (4 2/3 innings) and Anna Gedacht (2 1/3 innings) combined on the shutout in the big season-opening 2-0 win over Masuk.
Fairfield Ludlowe (2-0) received six of the first-place votes and 330 polling points to achieve its current No. 1 ranking. The Falcons were ranked fifth in the previous preseason poll.
St. Joseph’s 2-2 Cadets held onto their No. 2 ranking by the slightest of margins. They received two first-place votes and their 306 polling points were just two more than Waterford (2-0), which had one first-place vote and 304 polling points.
Southington (1-0), which won last year’s state Class LL championship with a 4-3 victory over Fairfield Ludlowe, is ranked fourth.
Woodland (4-0) received the other three first-place votes and is ranked fifth.
Masuk rebounded from its opening-day loss to Ludlowe with a pair of shutout victories to improve to 2-1 and the Panthers are now No. 6.
The rest of the teams ranked 7-through-10, in order, are East Haven (3-0), Hall (2-0), Amity (3-0), and Haddam-Killingworth (5-0).
Fairfield Ludlowe and St. Joseph were the only FCIAC teams in the Top 10 but the conference had the top three teams in the “Others receiving votes” category so the FCIAC had five teams among the top 13 in polling points received.
Trumbull (3-0) received the 11th most polling points overall, Staples (0-0) got the 12th most, Danbury (4-0) received the 13th most, and Wilton (3-0) got the 18th most out of the 29 total teams which received votes.
The poll’s voters are a combination of mostly media members and several coaches, including St. Joseph’s Jeff Babineau.
The voters select their respective top 15 teams, in order, and the points are tabulated on a 30-28-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-11-10-9-8-7 basis.