A look at the CT baseball, softball tournaments: Southington baseball, Cheshire softball top seeds
The baseball and softball state tournament brackets were released Friday by the CIAC. The state tournament for both sports will begin Tuesday with first-round games. The state finals for baseball will take place June 7-8 at Palmer Field in Middletown and the softball championship games will take place June 8 at UConn’s Burrill Field. Here’s a quick look at the tournaments:
Baseball
Class LL: Southington, the top seed in Class LL, finished 20-0 in regular season play and as of Friday afternoon, was scheduled to play in the CCC tournament championship against South Windsor. The Knights had two hard-fought games with Glastonbury, winning 7-6 and 13-8, rallying from a six-run deficit in nine innings in the latter game, to keep their perfect record.
Southington hasn’t won a state title since 1999 but has finished as a runner-up five times since 2011, the last time being 2022. The Knights will open with a game against Westhill at home Tuesday. Glastonbury is also lurking in Class LL as the 13th seed but the two CCC teams would not potentially play each other until the semifinals if they make it that far. Fairfield Warde, No. 2 seed, is the defending champion.
Class L: Hand, which beat Notre Dame-West Haven to win its first SCC championship, is the second seed in the Class L tournament and RHAM is No. 3. After a 6-0 loss to Southington on May 7, RHAM (17-3) won six of its last seven games of the regular season. Woodstock Academy is the No. 1 seed and Brookfield, the sixth seed, is the defending champion.
Class M: Nonnewaug is the defending champion; Barlow is the top seed. Suffield, which finished its regular season on a seven-game win streak is the third seed at 13-4.
Class S: Coventry, which advanced to the Class S championship game last year but lost 6-2 to Haddam-Killingworth, is the No. 1 seed. Coventry, 17-3 in the regular season, won its last five games. The Patriots last won a title in 2019. H-K, which won the first title for coach Mark Brookes in 46 years last season, is the third seed in Class S.
Softball
Class LL: Cheshire (22-1) is the top seed in Class LL and the Rams, whose only loss came to Masuk 10-6 in April, won the SCC tournament championship Thursday, 7-2 over North Haven. Cheshire last won a state title in 2016. Southington, last year’s Class LL runner-up, is the fourth seed with in-state losses to Masuk and Cheshire. Southington was playing for the CCC tournament championship Friday afternoon against Middletown, the No. 2 seed in LL.
Class L: Masuk, which handed Cheshire and Southington losses, is the No. 1 seed in Class L and no surprise there, as Masuk has won the last five Class L titles. Ellington, with ace pitcher Cam Fisher, is the No. 2 seed with regular season losses to Mercy and defending Class S champion Coventry. Ellington lost to North Haven 1-0 in the quarterfinals last year in 10 innings.
Class M: Watertown, which finished 18-2 in the regular season, is the No.1 seed in Class M. Third-seeded Woodland is the two-time defending champion.
Class S: Defending Class S champion Coventry is the No. 2 seed in Class S behind undefeated University/Classical (20-0) at No. 1. Coventry has a good group of returning players from last year’s team including pitcher Elizabeth Mitchell, who struck out nine and tripled in the 3-2 win over Cromwell (which moved up to Class M this season) in last year’s championship game. Coventry will play in a second round game Wednesday against the winner of the Coginchaug-Housatonic game.
