Warde finishes No. 1 in final state poll
Fairfield Warde is the No. 1 team in the final GameTimeCT Poll. The Mustangs defeated Southington 7-5 to win the CIAC Class LL championship behind a gutsy pitching performance from Zach Broderick and earned 11 first-place votes to claim the top ranking.
“We are forever champions and I am so grateful for that,” Warde coach Brett Conner said. “The makeup of this team is unbelievable. Don’t fear it, go chase it. We had a great week of practice and the guys are so resilient and they are like a bunch of coaches the way they carry themselves.”
The Mustangs become the town’s first school since Fairfield High in 2002 to earn the final No. 1 ranking.
But it was not unanimous. Windsor (24-1), which defeated Maloney 3-1 to win Class L championship, picked up two firstplace votes. Windsor’s only loss this season came to Southington in the regular season, 4-3.
“I feel like we just won the Class L state championship and I am proud of the team,” Windsor coach Joe Serfass said when asked if his team should be considered. “I think we can put up a good claim that we should be up at the top or close to it, but I will leave that up to the people who vote on it.”
St. Paul (26-1) also got a first-place vote, coming in third in the poll after defeating Somers in the Class S championship game. The Falcons’ only loss came to Class M runner-up Woodland in the NVL tournament semifinals.
“It’s mission accomplished for these guys,” St. Paul coach Vic Rinaldi said. “It’s a long road. We lost that one game in the conference tournament to Woodland who is also playing for a championship.
“We had just gotten named No. 1 team in the state. We were the No. 1 team in the state for like three days and we got beat. We know we had a target on our back all tournament and everyone is gunning for the No. 1 seed. The team did a great job handling that.”
Southington, inspired by the passing of former coach Charlie Lembo just days before the tournament, made an inspired run to the final and finished No. 4. The Blue Knights rallied vs. Warde and had the tying run to the plate in the top of the seventh.
Class M champion Barlow (23-4), which scored the most runs in a CIAC championship since 1976 with its 20-1 wipeout of Woodland in the Class M final, finishes fifth, just four points behind Southington. The Falcons rode the arm of Stanford-committed pitcher Matt Scott, but also scored 20 runs in the championship game against Woodland.