By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
The next Ramelli family get-together is sure to be an interesting one.
Last Wednesday, softball coaches Ray Ramelli Sr. and Ray Ramelli Jr. shocked the state.
Both led their teams to wins over the No. 1 seed early in the CIAC state tournaments.
Sacred Heart – Dad’s team seeded 17th in the Class L field – won an elimination game from 16th-seeded Wethersfield, 7-0, then traveled to Bristol to face Bristol Eastern and ace Sara Plourde.
But the Pacers had an ace of their own in Sarah Brenzel, who threw an eight-inning no-hitter as Sacred Heart won a 1-0 upset.
Meanwhile, the younger Ramelli’s 33rd-ranked Sheehan-Wallingford club, had to beat 32nd-seeded Windham (which it did, 8-0) just to get to the round of 32. Then, the Titans traveled half-way across the state to meet top-seeded Northwestern Regional in Winsted and came home with a 5-3 victory.
Sacred Heart played Waterford in a quarterfinal game Friday evening while Sheehan was eliminated from the tourney by 16th-seeded Windsor Locks, 1-0.
A third No. 1 seed, Grasso Tech-Groton in Class S, lost its second-round game to Somers, 15-0.
The top seed in Class LL, unbeaten Trumbull, worked its way to the quarterfinals.
The top team in the New Haven Register’s media/coaches poll, Masuk-Monroe, is seeded second in Class LL (both Masuk and Trumbull were 20-0 for tournament purposes and Trumbull won a coin flip for the top spot) and is now 24-0 after a win in its first game.
Like Trumbull, Masuk was set to play a quarterfinal Friday.
The biggest news from Monroe was that Rachele Fico gave up a run. In the finals of the South-West Conference tournament, she beat Newtown, 7-1, but allowed her second earned run of the season. Masuk has a 48-game win streak.
Bristol Eastern was second in the final regular-season poll and is out of the tournament.
So is third-ranked Amity Regional-Woodbridge, which won the Southern Connecticut Conference tournament but was upset by Bunnell-Stratford in the round of 16 in the CIAC Class LL state tourney, 6-1.
Fitch-Groton is the No. 4 team in the poll after winning its first Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament since 2001. The Falcons, seeded third in Class LL, have reached the quarterfinals.
Trumbull is fifth in the poll after losing to Staples-Westport in the FCIAC tournament while Seymour is sixth at 20-2 after a loss to Naugatuck in the Naugatuck Valley League tourney. Seymour, seeded second in Class M, has made it through to the quarterfinals.
Naugatuck, 19-3, is seventh in the poll after winning its first league tournament title in 27 years. The Greyhounds are the fourth seed in Class LL and face Bunnell in a quarterfinal match.
Cheshire is eighth in the poll. The Rams, seeded sixth in Class LL, lost in the second round to Westhill-Stamford.
Lauralton Hall-Milford, ninth in the poll, is in the Class M quarterfinals and plays Seymour there.
North Haven is 10th in the poll. The Indians, seeded second in Class L, have survived to the quarterfinal round.
Baseball
On the baseball side, the top seeds are intact in three of the four divisions. Seymour (Class M), Guilford (Class L) and Stamford (Class LL) are in the quarterfinals, but Class S leader Shepaug Valley-Washington, was defeated by Sacred Heart-Waterbury in the second round.
Seymour, which won the Naugatuck Valley League tournament title, is 24-0 and plays Montville, a sleeper team, in the quarters. The Wildcats rank first in the New Haven Register media/coaches poll.
Guilford, second in the poll despite a loss to Amity Regional-Woodbridge in the Southern Connecticut Conference tournament semi-finals, also has a sleeper in the Class L quarter-finals in Berlin.
Amity is ranked third in the poll although it lost to Notre Dame-West Haven, 10-8 in the finals of the SCC tournament. The Spartans play Fitch-Groton in the Class L quarterfinals. Fitch is ranked 11th in the poll after winning the Eastern Connecticut Conference tourney.
Stamford is ranked fourth in the poll and plays Trumbull in the Class L quarterfinals.
Wethersfield, 19-3, is ranked fifth in the poll but the Eagles were knocked off by East Haven, 7-4, in the second round of the Class L tournament.
East Catholic-Manchester is ranked sixth in the poll and is seeded third in Class M. It will play Holy Cross-Waterbury in the tournament quarterfinals.
Xavier-Middletown is ranked seventh. The Falcons were defeated by Glastonbury,1-0, in the second round of the Class LL tournament.
Ranked eighth in the poll is Simsbury, the second seed in Class LL. The Trojans take on Westhill-Stamford in the quarterfinals.
Plainville is ranked ninth in the poll and is seeded fourth in the Class M field. The Blue Devils meet Waterford in the quarters.
Ranked 10th in the poll is Notre Dame-West Haven, which pulled off three upsets as the six seed to win the Southern Connecticut Conference tourney. But in the state tournament, the Green Knights lost to Shelton (yet another SCC team) in the opening round.
The baseball and softball tournaments conclude next weekend.
