It has been a solid year for FCIAC softball as the regular season has just two weeks remaining until the final games for each team scheduled for May 20.
It has been solid in terms of many quality teams and good balance among the conference playoff contenders, which sets things up for what shapes up to be a competitive 2025 FCIAC Softball Tournament which commences May 22.
New Canaan is currently in first place by a half game over Darien in the race for the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.
The top eight teams are all positioned very well in their quest to grab one of the eight berths in the FCIAC tournament because they all had conference records of 7-3 or better in the games played through Monday, May 12.
Most of the teams have played 10 conference games and 15 overall games in the regular season, going into the four conference games scheduled for Tuesday, May 13.
Darien was in first place in the FCIAC standings by a half game over New Canaan going into Monday’s full slate of eight FCIAC games.
But those two teams flipped-flopped positions and it was New Canaan’s Rams who took the half-game lead because their 16-2 victory over Bridgeport Central improved them to 9-1 in the FCIAC and 13-2 overall while Darien’s 6-0 home loss to Danbury dropped the Blue Wave to 9-2 in the FCIAC and 12-3 overall.
Darien has lost two of its last four FCIAC games. Among them was a 2-0 home loss to New Canaan on May 7 and that could be significant if New Canaan and Darien finish with the same FCIAC record because New Canaan’s head-to-head victory against Darien gives the Rams the No. 1 tie-breaker advantage for the upcoming conference tournament seedings.
Danbury, Norwalk and St. Joseph all went from being in a three-way tie for fourth place to being in a three-way tie for third place with their May 12 wins which improved them to 8-2 in the FCIAC because among those wins was Norwalk’s 3-1 victory at Fairfield Warde which dropped the host Mustangs from third place down to sixth place at 8-3.
Ridgefield and Trumbull were tied for seventh place and that’s where they remained after they both won on Monday to improve to 7-3 in the FCIAC.
Fairfield Ludlowe and Wilton remained tied for ninth place after they both won on Monday to improve to 4-6 in the FCIAC, but Ludlowe and Wilton are still three games behind Ridgefield and Trumbull regarding grabbing one of final berths for the conference tournament.
Darien is in good shape to grab one of the higher seeds and one reason for that is because sophomore Emma Hamilton took the role as Ms. Clutch in two big situations.
Hamilton has twice had the coincidental knack of stepping into the batter’s box in the 10th inning of scoreless games and she proceeded to single in the game-winning runs in Darien’s huge 1-0 victories over St. Joseph on April 5 and very recently at Fairfield Warde on May 10.
Danbury’s big 6-0 shutout victory at Darien on May 12 could come into play as a tiebreaker decider to help Danbury’s Hatters and another vital game is on that last day of the regular season on May 20 when Norwalk travels down to Darien.
New Canaan’s Rams will earn it if they do finish as the No. 1 seed because their last four games are against probable FCIAC playoff participants St. Joseph, Trumbull, Ridgefield and Danbury, with the May 19 game at Ridgefield being their only road game.
This year’s FCIAC Softball Tournament quarterfinals are scheduled for May 22 at the home fields of the four higher-seeded teams.
The semifinal round and championship game will be played at Trumbull High School. The semifinal doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 4 o’clock on May 27, and the championship game is scheduled for May 29 at 6:30 p.m.
Darien and St. Joseph were ranked eighth and ninth, respectively, in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Softball Poll which was released May 12.
New Canaan received the 12th most polling points and Fairfield Warde had the 15th most.
Masuk remained No. 1 after receiving 12 of the 16 first-place votes and No. 2 Woodland got the other four first-place votes.