Trophy hunting

While some covet state titles, conference tournaments offer a more realistic chance of winning

The state’s conference baseball tournaments begin Saturday with the NVL, FCIAC and SWC quarterfinals and continue through next Friday when the ECC holds its championship game.

It is a sprint through a oneand-done baseball tournament against all your rivals, many of whom you have already played once and sometimes twice in the regular season.

While some teams covet CIAC state titles, others look to the conference tournaments as their more realistic chance to win something.

The Berkshire League and the CCC do not hold postseason baseball tournaments and will be completing their regular seasons next week.

Throw the seeds out the window and let’s roll into the 2022 high school baseball postseason.

CRACKING ACES

If you are going to win any of these tournaments, it will start with a dominant pitcher or another team’s offense beating a top pitcher.

You can travel all over the state tracking down the aces trying to bring their team a title.

The SCC is loaded with topflight arms including Tyler Hartley of Xavier, Gianni Gambardella of West Haven and Martin Zhang of Amity all of whom have been dominant at points this season.

We will see if junior Boston

College commit Kyle Kip can carry Westhill to a FCIAC crown or will Zack Broderick of Warde be celebrating on the mound like he did last season? Or will it be Ridgefield’s Andrew Castelluccio or Staples Hiro Wyatt jumping into his catcher’s arms?

The SWC will bring Stanford commit Matt Scott and his brother Will from Barlow, and Brookfield ace Gabriel Silva to the mound.

Don’t think the NVL is short of arms that can win titles with

Brendan Palmer of Ansonia, Michael Belcher of Woodland and lefty Brendan Foley of St. Paul, who had a perfect game against Woodland this year.

THE ROAD TO…

All quarterfinal round games take place at the sites of the higher seeds as do most semifinals.

The exception is the FCIAC which hosts both semifinal games and the championship at Cubeta Stadium in Stamford. The SWC

will host semifinals and finals at either at Bethel High, Penders Field in Stratford or NYA in Newtown, depending on which teams advance to the semifinals, and the NVL which will hold the semifinals and finals at Municipal Stadium in Waterbury.

The quarterfinals of the NVL are set for Saturday with the semifinals Monday and the championship Wednesday.

The FCIAC quarterfinals are scheduled for Saturday with the semis set for Monday at 5 and 7:30 p.m. and the championship Thursday at 7 p.m.

The SWC games are scheduled for Saturday with the semifinals Tuesday at 4 and 7 p.m. and the championship Wednesday at 7 p.m.

The SCC quarterfinals begin Monday with the semifinals Tuesday and final being held Thursday at Piurek Field in West Haven at 7 p.m.

The Shoreline Conference puts the ball in play with their quarterfinals Monday, semifinals Tuesday and championship game Thursday at 7 p.m. at Palmer Field in Middletown.

The quarterfinals of the CTC are Monday with the semifinals Tuesday and the championship set for Thursday at 4 p.m. at Palmer Field.

The ECC will begin its tournament Tuesday with the final planned for Friday.

The NCCC is still finalizing its plans but should have the field, dates and locations set by Friday.

THE 25 TO WATCH, GO NOW

In April, the GameTimeCT 25 Players to Watch came out.

Ask yourself this, how many of these kids have you seen play this spring?

Along with the pitchers we discussed above, these position players are worthy of your time.

Let’s start in the SCC where 6-foot-4 first baseman Mac Burke anchors a really good Amity lineup and UConn-bound centerfielder Drew Kron bats leadoff for the No. 1 seed in the SCC, Xavier.

First baseman Evan McCue of Waterford, a Keene State-commit, carries a big bat and Cam McGugan from Fitch was a CHSCA All-State pick last season, giving ECC fans players to go see.

Then in the FCIAC, Danbury centerfielder Jackson Ciccone is one of the state’s most electric players offensively and defensively; Eddy Garabito-Soto of Norwalk hits the ball as hard as anyone in the state; John Heitzman of Warde just does it all for the Mustangs from his outfield position and New Canaan catcher Zack Ramppen (West Virginia commit) has one of the best pop times among high school catchers.

The NVL, Shoreline and SWC each had position players on the list too.

Ryan Daniels leads a potent and deep St. Paul lineup which was undefeated in the NVL this season; UConn-commit Connor Lane of Old Saybrook is perhaps the best catcher in the Shoreline despite being a sophomore and Ithaca College commit Sean Minnick hopes to lead Masuk on a run in the SWC.