Trumbull and Fairfield Warde are ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the latest state poll and they are in very good position along with Greenwich toward securing a few of the higher seeds in the 2024 FCIAC Baseball Tournament which begins May 17.
After those three teams, the final week of the regular season is lined up for a mad scramble among seven more teams looking to grab one of the five remaining middle- or lower-seeded berths in the conference tournament.
Southington moved up a spot to take over the No. 1 ranking from current No. 3 Trumbull, while No. 4 Fairfield Warde and No. 9 Fairfield Ludlowe are the other FCIAC teams ranked in the 2024 GameTimeCT Top 10 Baseball Poll which was released May 7.
In the Top 10 of the poll voted on by media members, with the teams’ records as of May 8 in parenthesis: No. 1 Southington (15-0) received 15 of the 17 first-place votes, Joel Barlow (17-0) is ranked second and followed by Trumbull (14-3), Fairfield Warde (15-2), Woodland (17-0), Daniel Hand (12-2), Amity (11-5), Guilford (11-5), Fairfield Ludlowe (12-5), and Glastonbury (11-5).
Trumbull and Fairfield Warde each received one first-place vote.
Staples (9-8) received the 20th most polling points and Greenwich (10-7) got the 22nd most points as the two FCIAC teams among the 15 teams in the “Others Receiving Votes” category.
In the addition to those upper-tier FCIAC teams, the conference is balanced and deep with many good teams who can match up with and beat any of the very good teams in the FCIAC they have done so.
Fairfield Warde was alone in first place in the FCIAC standings updated through May 8. Trumbull and Greenwich were tied for second place and then there were six teams in a six-way tie for fourth place.
In the FCIAC standings updated through the games played Wednesday, May 8: Fairfield Warde’s Mustangs were on top with their 10-2 conference record, Greenwich and Trumbull were a game behind at 9-3, the six teams in a six-way tie for fourth place at 7-5 were Darien, Fairfield Ludlowe, Brien McMahon, Norwalk, Staples, and Wilton, and St. Joseph was in 10th place at 6-6 and with hopes for a hot finish to perhaps snatch one of the last of the eight conference playoff berths.
Brien McMahon’s big 6-3 victory at home over St. Joseph on May 8 was pivotal in the conference playoff race because it propelled McMahon’s Senators up into that six-way tie for fourth place and dropped St. Joseph down to 10th place.
Fairfield Warde plays at Greenwich on May 15 (4:30 p.m.) in the last game of the regular season for both teams and that could be the game which determines the No. 1 seed in the FCIAC tournament. Greenwich’s 9-3 Cardinals have the tiebreaker advantage over 9-3 Trumbull via their 4-3 win at Trumbull on April 29.
The Fairfield Warde-Greenwich game is one of the 12 big matchups from May 10-15 which are showdowns pitting two of those top 10 teams in the conference playoff race playing against each other.
The conference’s balance and depth along with what transpires in the last week of the regular season will likely put FCIAC officials in the position where they’re probably going to have to go over several tiebreaking scenarios to finalize the eight playoff teams and their respective seedings.
The four quarterfinal games of the conference tournament on May 17 will be played at the home fields of the higher-seeded teams.
Cubeta Stadium in Stamford is the venue for the semifinal and championship games. The first game in the May 20 semifinal doubleheader is 4 o’clock, and the second game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. The highest remaining seed will have the choice of its game time in the semifinals. The championship game on May 22, a Wednesday, will begin at 7 p.m.
Last year Fairfield Warde defended its FCIAC championship with a 6-1 victory over Westhill and a couple weeks later coach Brett Conners’ Mustangs won their second straight Class LL state championship with a 2-1 victory in 10 innings over fellow conference member Staples.
Among those dozen games from May 10-15 in which two of the top 10 teams in the FCIAC standings through May 8 are matched up against each other, Fairfield Ludlowe and Brien McMahon both have all three of their final games in such scenarios.
The schedule for the May 10-15 games involving the 10 contending conference playoff teams is listed below:
Remaining Regular Season Schedule
Friday, May 10
Stamford at Fairfield Warde, 4 p.m.
Fairfield Ludlowe at Darien, 4 p.m.
Ridgefield at Trumbull, 6 p.m.
Saturday, May 11
Staples at Danbury, 11 a.m.
Brien McMahon at Wilton, noon
Greenwich at Norwalk, 2 p.m.
Monday, May 13
Darien at Ridgefield, 4 p.m.
Wilton at Fairfield Ludlowe, 4 p.m.
Westhill at Greenwich, 4:30 p.m.
Trumbull at New Canaan, 4:30 p.m.
Staples at St. Joseph, 4:30 p.m.
Fairfield Warde at Brien McMahon, 6:30 p.m.
Norwalk at Stamford, 7 p.m. (Cubeta Stadium)
Wednesday, May 15
Trumbull at Fairfield Ludlowe, 4 p.m.
Danbury at St. Joseph, 4 p.m.
Fairfield Warde at Greenwich, 4:30 p.m.
Westhill at Staples, 4:30 p.m.
Wilton at Stamford, 4:30 p.m.
Darien at Brien McMahon, 6 p.m.