Eye On The CIAC

A rainy close to the week (at least on Thursday and Friday) put a bit of a damper on the week’s activity, but there were still plenty of interesting contests to take a look at.

Girls Lacrosse:

• A great early season battle with Danbury outlasting Fairfield Ludlowe 14-13 in overtime to open the week.
• Bunnell and Notre Dame-Fairfield played a tight game in what turned out to be a rare defensive showcase with Bunnell pulling out the 5-4 victory.
• Stratford evened its record and moved into the top-10 in the early class M rankings with a 10-8 home win over Masuk.

Softball:

• A great pitchers duel on the shoreline went the way of North Branford by a 2-1 score over Westbrook. Tori Ramada fanned seven for the Thunderbirds to claim the win in the circle.
• Torrington remained unbeaten in the early season and knocked off highly-ranked Seymour with hurler Sydney Matzko striking out 14 to earn the complete-game shutout in a 3-0 win.
• Daniel Hand moved to 4-1 on the strength of back-to-back one-run wins over Mercy and Jonathan Law by scores of 3-2 and 2-1.

Baseball:

• Some great match-ups between local rivals earning one-run wins. Berlin outlasted Southington by a 3-2 score on Monday. All three of Berlin’s games have been decided by a run.
• Norwalk also knocked off a local rival by a single run on Monday, capturing a 5-4 win over Brien McMahon. Sean Butler battled to the win on the mound to earn the coveted win over the cross-town rival.
• Another great pitchers duel on Wednesday with Bristol Central blanking Maloney 1-0. Matt Blandino allowed only two hits with 13 strikeouts to out-duel Maloney hurler  Mike Bonaiuto.
• Another 1-0 game went 10 innings before Portland got past Haddam-Killingworth. The two starting pitchers combined to allow three hits in 17 innings of work. Haddam-Killingworth hurler Jake DeCarli fanned 11.

Boys Tennis:

• E.O. Smith and Tolland engaged in a tight contest, with E.O. Smith claiming a 4-3 road win to improve to 3-0 on the season.
• Manchester claimed a 4-3 win as well, getting past Farmington by a single point.
• A cross-town rivalry on Tuesday with Brien McMahon getting past Norwalk by a 4-3 score, giving them a fourth-consecutive win over their rivals. Zach Ely secured the winning point at first singles.

Girls Tennis:

• Monday seemed like local rivalry day, and Lyman Hall and Hamden engaged in a spirited battle with Lyman Hall capturing a 4-3 win to remain unbeaten.
• New Canaan edged Greenwich early in the week in a rematch of the 2012 state title in Class L. It came down to the final match, with the third doubles team of Emma Gruber and Giuliana Savini rallying for a three-set victory to secure the victory for New Canaan.
• RHAM allso collected a 4-3 win over South Windsor, which improved the team to 3-1 after dropping its opening contest of the season. 

Boys Volleyball:

• Rockville went the distance to claim a second 3-2 win on the year, getting past Maloney in the final set.
• Oxford surprised Cheshire by a 3-0 score, ending the team’s 47-match winning streak. Pat Cragen had 23 assists and one block in the win.
• Darien and St. Joseph went the distance in a hotly-contested game with the Wave prevailing by  3-2 score which earned the team its first victory of the new season.

Boys Lacrosse:

• Northwest Catholic pulled out a one-goal win over RHAM on Tuesday, posting an 8-7 win.
• Brookfield and Amity engaged in a very low-scoring contest, with Brookfield claiming a 5-4 win to remain undefeated on the season.
• Greenwich and Fairfield Ludlowe played a thrilling contest on Thursday afternoon with Greenwich pulling off the road victory 6-5 in overtime. Luke Finneran scored the game-winning goal in overtime in the win.

RANKINGS WATCH
Each Monday we take a look at any major movement in the top-10 of the CIAC Tournament Rankings for those sports where it is provided. It is still a tad early to see much movement from the first rankings of the spring season, so the breakdown will have a little different feel this week.

• There are 18 teams with unblemished records in baseball in the early season with class L holding the highest number of those teams with six. All of the teams ranked in the top-10 in the four classes have either no or one loss, with the exception of the 10th-ranked team in Class S, which is Coginchaug with a 4-2 record. Holy Cross has six wins with no losses to sit atop class M, which is the best record in the state at this juncture.
• The number of unbeaten teams sits at 22 in softball including nine of the 10 top-10 teams in class L still without a loss. Naugatuck’s six wins (6-1) in class LL are currently the most in the in the sport, while there are four 5-0 teams, all of which reside in class L.
• Six teams are at 4-0 in boys lacrosse to start the year, which marks the top record in the early going. Seventeen teams have yet to suffer their first loss, and there is only one two-loss team in any of the top-10s in boys lacrosse.
• Glastonbury and Farmington are both 4-0 to sit atop class L and class M rankings respectively with the best records in girls lacrosse a few weeks into the season. Both class L and M have five unbeaten teams, while there are three unblemished squads in class S. There are 33 teams currently sitting above .500 a few weeks into the year.
• Oxford in class M has the top record early in the boys lacrosse season with a mark of 5-0, while three class L teams are sitting with 4-0 records. These are the only spring sports rankings that currently have teams with records below .500 in the top-10 as a pair of 2-3 squads are ranked ninth and 10th in class M. Seven teams have yet to suffer a loss this season, with five of those in class L.