Trumbull and St. Joseph are ranked second and third, respectively, in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Softball Poll, while the FCIAC has four teams in the Top 10 of the most recent state baseball poll.
Ledyard replaced FCIAC member Ridgefield for the No. 1 ranking in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Baseball Poll which was released April 15. Ridgefield is one of two conference teams in the top five.
In the softball poll which was released April 14, Masuk (5-0) received 14 of the 16 first-place votes and accumulated 470 points to grab the top ranking in the voting by a combination of a few coaches and the rest media pollsters.
Trumbull received the other two first-place and 428 points to earn No. 2 while St. Joseph received just two points less than Trumbull for the third spot.
Last Friday, on April 12, Trumbull improved to 6-0 with a 7-3 victory at Ridgefield while St. Joseph cruised to a 15-1 home victory over Bridgeport Central to improve to 5-0.
Last year St. Joseph and Trumbull were ranked third and fourth, respectively, and Class L champion Masuk (27-0) was No. 1 in the Final 2018 GameTimeCT Softball Top 10 Poll.
Amity, which finished 24-4 after it won last year’s state Class LL championship with a 13-7 victory Trumbull, was ranked No. 2 in that final state poll.
Class M champion St. Joseph and Trumbull both finished 23-4 last year. This year they are scheduled for their crosstown rivalry showdown on April 30 at St. Joseph.
Masuk, Trumbull and St. Joseph were ranked in the same 1-through-3 order in this year’s previous poll released April 7.
Cheshire (4-0) moved up one spot from last week to No. 4 this week.
The other six teams in the current Top 10, in order from 5-to-10, are Norwich Free Academy (5-0), North Haven (6-0), Southington (4-1), Seymour (5-1), E.O. Smith (5-0) and West Haven (7-0).
There were 17 more teams statewide in the “Others receiving votes” category, including three FCIAC teams toward the bottom of it. Greenwich (6-1) received the 25th most polling points, Danbury (5-2) got the 26th most and Stamford (3-2) got 28th most.
The FCIAC seemingly is very strong and balanced among its best baseball teams according to the voters because seven conference teams were among the top 13 in terms of receiving polling points.
In addition to fourth-ranked Staples (6-1), No. 5 Ridgefield (6-1), No. 9 Fairfield Ludowe (6-0) and 10th-ranked St. Joseph (4-1) being those four FCIAC teams in the Top 10, fellow conference members Wilton (6-0), Trumbull (4-3) and Westhill (5-1) were the top three teams among the 16 total teams in the “Others receiving votes” listing.
There was a bit of moving around atop this week’s poll, led by Ledyard (6-0) receiving five first-place votes to ascend from No. 3 last week to No. 1.
Cheshire (5-1) got one first-place vote to move up to the No. 2 ranking after being fourth in the previous poll.
Amity (4-1) utilized four first-place votes to move up three spots to No. 3, while FCIAC member Staples received the other three first-place votes from the 13 media pollsters to climb one ranking up to fourth.
Ridgefield was upset at Trinity Catholic, 15-8, on April 11 and that was the major reason the previously-unbeaten and top-ranked Tigers dropped down from No. 1 to No. 5.
Daniel Hand (4-1), Southington (5-0) and South Windsor (2-0) are ranked 6-8 and followed in the Top 10 by FCIAC teams Ludlowe and St. Joseph.
There will obviously be a good bit of shuffling and moving up and down in future polls – especially among FCIAC teams – given that teams statewide will now be playing predominantly against fellow conference members.
And the FCIAC in general, compared to its representation in the Final 2018 GameTimeCT Top 10 Baseball Poll, appears to stronger in terms of quality this year.
Ridgefield (20-6) finished No. 3 after losing to eventual No. 1 Cheshire, 1-0, in the state Class LL championship game while Staples (19-6) was 10th as the only other conference team in the Top 10.