It has been a strong year for high school softball in the FCIAC and evidence of that is the 2024 GameTimeCT Top 10 Softball Poll which was released May 6.
St. Joseph is ranked No. 3 in to lead a trio of conference teams ranked among the top six. Fairfield Ludlowe and Ridgefield are ranked fifth and sixth, respectively.
The FCIAC has four teams and the most teams of any conference in the state in the Top 10 as Trumbull is No. 10.
Masuk was voted No. 1 in the preseason poll, that is where the defending state Class L champions have been all year, and the 15-0 Panthers maintained their stronghold on that as the unanimous choice for No. 1 for the fourth consecutive week.
Masuk received all 20 first-place votes and the maximum 600 polling points this week. The 20 media members on the voting panel select their top 15 teams in order and the points for each team are tabulated on a 30-28-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-11-10-9-8-7 basis.
Cheshire (12-1), which has won eight straight since a 10-6 loss at home to Masuk on April 13, received 560 polling points to remain No. 2.
The top four teams, including No. 3 St. Joseph (14-1) and No. 4 Southington (10-3), all have the same rankings they had last week.
Last week was a big week with a few key head-to-head matchups involving the four FCIAC teams in the Top 10 who are also atop the FCIAC standings.
Coach Jeff Babineau’s third-ranked St. Joseph Cadets won their 13th straight game Friday (9-6 at home over Westhill) since their 7-6 loss at Newtown on April 1. They began last week with a huge win on April 29 when Kelsea Flanagan homered and drove in all three runs to lead them to their 3-1 victory at home over defending FCIAC and Class LL state champion Fairfield Ludlowe.
That win was especially big because it enabled the Cadets to improve to 10-0 in the FCIAC and take a one-game lead over Ludlowe at that point. It also secured the tiebreaker advantage for the Cadets if a tiebreaker is eventually needed between those top two teams when it comes to finalizing the higher seeds in the 2024 FCIAC Softball Tournament which commences with the quarterfinals on May 17 (a Friday) at the fields of the higher-seeded teams.
Fairfield Ludlowe bounced back from that 3-1 loss at St. Joseph with a pair of wins. The second one was a 2-0 victory at Ridgefield on May 2 in which pitching ace Alex Lewey fired a three-hit eight-inning shutout with six strikeouts. That enabled coach Adam Laliberte’s Falcons to leapfrog over Ridgefield up to No. 5 while coach Lauren Greywacz’ Ridgefield Tigers dropped down one spot to No. 6. Both of those conference teams had 12-3 overall records after that game.
North Haven (14-2), North Branford (13-2) and Coventry (13-0) are ranked 6-9 in the current poll.
Trumbull dropped down one spot to No. 10. Coach Jackie Sheftz’ Trumbull Eagles lost at home on May 1 to St. Joseph, 14-1, but two days later they improved to 12-3 with their 8-4 home victory over Stamford.
St. Joseph (10-0) had a half-game lead and the tiebreaker advantage over defending conference champion Fairfield Ludlowe in the conference standings updated through May 6, the day Ludlowe improved to 10-1 in the FCIAC with a 3-0 home victory over Staples.
New Canaan, Ridgefield and Trumbull were in a three-way tie for third place at 9-2 after they all won on May 6.
Darien (7-4) was alone in sixth place. Norwalk, Staples, Stamford, and Fairfield Warde were in a four-way tie for seventh place at 5-6 and in the mix to snatch one of the final conference playoff berths with a strong finish in the last four games of the regular season. Stamford’s 13-3 home victory over Greenwich on May 6 was vital because it improved the Black Knights to 5-6 and dropped Greenwich (4-7) down to 11th place.
Sixth-ranked Ridgefield was scheduled to host No. 10 Trumbull and Darien was set to play at No. 5 Fairfield Ludlowe on Friday, May 10, in another pair of key games this week.
Last year coach Lou Bunosso’s Fairfield Ludlowe Falcons won their third consecutive FCIAC championship with a 2-0 victory over St. Joseph. Lewey was the winning pitcher in the last three conference tournament championship games and last year she was the tourney MVP. That win avenged a 9-8 loss to St. Joseph on April 12, 2023, and was Fairfield Ludlowe’s last loss of the year.
The Falcons would close the year with their 22nd consecutive win and a 26-1 record when they dethroned three-time defending champion Southington and ended Southington’s 40-game winning streak with their 5-2 victory in the championship game of the 2023 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Softball Tournament. That gave Ludlowe its first state championship in school history and was the end of Bunosso’s great career as Ludlowe’s head coach. Bunosso, who had a 107-18 record at Fairfield Ludlowe from 2018-23, was hired as the new head coach at Albertus Magnus College in late July.
Fairfield Ludlowe was unanimously voted No. 1 in the 2023 Final GameTimeCT Top 10 Softball Poll and Bunosso was selected Coach of the Year by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association. Southington (26-1) was No. 2 and Masuk (23-4) moved up three spots to No. 3 after winning a fifth consecutive Class L state championship.
Ridgefield was No. 9 as the only other FCIAC team in the final Top 10. The Tigers, with not one senior on their roster, finished 19-5 after their 3-0 loss to Southington in the Class LL semifinals. St. Joseph (19-7) received the 14th most polling points as the only conference team among the 13 total statewide in the “Others receiving votes” category.