East Catholic, which won a state championship to cap off a perfect 25-0 season, received all 14 first-place votes to earn the No. 1 ranking in the final 2021 GameTimeCT Top 10 Baseball Poll.
But the FCIAC most impressively seized all four semifinal berths in the Class LL state tournament and state champion Norwalk finished No. 3 to lead a trio of conference schools among the top seven in that final state poll.
Greenwich finished No. 5 and Class LL runner-up Westhill was seventh.
East Catholic left no doubt as to which team would be No. 1. The Eagles won the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class M Baseball Tournament championship with a 7-0 victory over Northwestern. They outscored their five state tournament opponents by a dominant 62-4 margin.
Daniel Hand won its first state championship ever and was ranked second. Hand finished 21-1 after shutting out Berlin, 3-0, to win the Class L crown. Berlin (21-4) ended up being ranked fourth.
Norwalk earned its No. 3 ranking after winning its first state championship in its third trip to a Class LL state championship game.
Coach Ryan Mitchell’s Bears were seeded 24th, making them the lowest seed ever to cop a Class LL state crown. The Bears (14-8) defeated 19th-seeded Westhill, 1-0, in the championship game after they upset fourth-seeded Greenwich, 7-5, in the semifinals.
Greenwich finished 17-4 and that run to the semifinals enabled them to move up one spot to No. 5 as they were ranked sixth in the previous state poll.
Coginchaug won the Class S state championship to finish 20-3 and ranked sixth.
Westhill finished 14-8 to earn No. 7. The Vikings advanced to the Class LL final with a 13-7 victory over fellow FCIAC member Brien McMahon, which was seeded 18th.
The final three teams in the Top 10 were Waterford (19-2), Hamden (18-3) and Fairfield Prep (16-4).
There were 25 teams statewide and eight teams from the FCIAC who received votes. Five conference teams were among the 15 in the “Others receiving votes” category.
Fairfield Warde (16-4) received the 12th most points. Zach Broderick fired a four-hit shutout with seven strikeouts to lead Warde’s Mustangs to a 9-0 victory over Greenwich in the FCIAC championship game before Greenwich got some measure of revenge back with a 5-2 victory over fifth-seeded Warde in the Class LL quarterfinals.
Also from the FCIAC, McMahon (14-7) received the 17th most points, Ridgefield (13-7) the 19th most, Staples (13-5) the 21st most, and Trumbull (14-5) the 23rd most points.