May 2014 - The Ruden Report

Championship 6: Vote For The Ruden Report Team Of The Week

By Dave Ruden May 31, 2014 2

We have six teams that won FCIAC championships on the menu this week for The Ruden Report FCIAC Team of the Week vote.

Your finalists are: the Fairfield Ludlowe girls tennis, Danbury boys track, St. Joseph softball, Staples boys volleyball, Darien boys lacrosse and Fairfield Warde baseball teams.

The winning team will get our T shirts, courtesy of our sponsors: BlueStreak Sports Training, Karl Chevrolet, Innovative Health and Rehabilitation, Riko’s Pizza, Bobby V’s Sports Bar, Chicken Joe’s of New Canaan, Zody’s 19th Hole, Building Blocks, New Balance of New Canaan, The Concussion Center of Fairfield County, The CT Center for Advanced ENT Care, Anytime Fitness, Bankwell and Resource Management Group.

Fairfield Warde Wins First FCIAC Baseball Title With 4-0 Shutout Of Trumbull

By Dave Ruden May 31, 2014 0

BRIDGEPORT — A Fairfield Warde baseball team that had received little acclaim in a parity-filled season, largely for being consistent in an unspectacular manner, earned the right to have the spotlight to itself Saturday afternoon.

In a flawless performance, highlighted by a strong outing from Hunter Hewitt, their No. 3 starter, the Mustangs won their first-ever FCIAC title in the sport with a crisp 4-0 win over Trumbull at Harbor Yard.

“It’s unreal,” said Hewitt, who allowed just four hits in 5 2/3 innings. “For a Warde team that had never won an FCIAC (playoff) game, and to win the championship, it’s huge.”

A number of walls came tumbling down for the No. 6 Mustangs (15-8), who joined the growing list of lower seeds to win the league title over the last two decades.

Darien Erupts Early, Defeats Greenwich, 11-6, For FCIAC Boys Lacrosse Title

By Dave Ruden May 30, 2014 0

DARIEN — When your school nickname has the word wave in it and you open a conference championship game with six unanswered goals against a high quality opponent, well, the punning opportunities are endless.

In one of the more dominant title performances in league history by a team that is making a run at etching itself in the archives, the Darien boys lacrosse team rolled to a surprisingly easy 11-6 win over Greenwich at Brien McMahon on Friday night to win its first FCIAC championship since 2011.

“There’s obviously a lot of games where we came out hard, but we came out our hardest today because of the circumstances,” said Peter Lindley, who was named the most valuable player after finishing with 4 goals and 1 assist. “We wanted to make it hard for them and we did our best to do that and succeeded.”

Perticone, Schoen Combine For 7 Goals To Lead Darien To FCIAC Girls Lacrosse Title

By Dave Ruden May 30, 2014 0

NORWALK — The Darien High School girls lacrosse team was unable to summon its A game, but a B-plus effort was good enough to carry it to a third straight conference title.

Hollis Perticone finished with 4 goals and 2 assists and Dillon Schoen added 3 goals to lead the Blue Wave to a 9-7 win over Wilton in the FCIAC championship game Friday at Brien McMahon.

“We were really happy to come away with the win,” said Schoen, who was named the most valuable player. “It wasn’t as clean as we wanted it to be. We did what we wanted to do and at the end of the day we’re the champions and we’re really happy about that.”

Eight-Run 4th Inning Carries St. Joseph To 12-1 Win Over Darien For FCIAC Softball Title

By Dave Ruden May 29, 2014 0

FAIRFIELD — A rematch that was supposed to follow the template of three weeks ago instead, surprisingly, became the repeat of a meeting between the St. Joseph and Darien softball teams a year earlier.

The Cadets erupted for eight runs in the fourth inning on Thursday and rolled to a surprisingly easy 12-1 win over the Blue Wave in the FCIAC Tournament championship at Sacred Heart University.

It was the second straight year the top-seeded Cadets (22-1) defeated Darien by 11 runs in the playoffs, following an 11-0 semifinal win last May.

DeRienzo’s 8th-Inning Single Lifts Trumbull To 5-4 Win Over Greenwich And 3rd Straight FCIAC Final

By Dave Ruden May 28, 2014 0

BRIDGEPORT — Mat DeRienzo was not surprised by his game-winning hit that delivered the Trumbull High School baseball team to its third straight FCIAC championship.

It was what happened next.

“I had no idea I was going to get mobbed by my teammates,” the junior first baseman said, after his bases-loaded single in the bottom of the eighth inning lifted the fifth-seeded Eagles to a 5-4 win over No. 8 Greenwich.

Welcome to Baseball Heroism 101.

Osherow’s Walk-Off Home Run Lifts Darien To FCIAC Semifinal Win Over Westhill

By Dave Ruden May 28, 2014 0

FAIRFIELD— It all came down to the bottom of the seventh inning between Darien and Westhill during the FCIAC softball semifinals, but in the end, it was a sea of blue that poured out to home plate to mob junior Erika Osherow after she delivered a walkoff three-run home run for a 4-1 win.

“You know that’s why we play the game,” Osherow said. “It’s moments like those you have to capitalize and that’s what we did.”

Both teams were held scoreless until the fourth inning when the Blue Wave’s Rebecca DeMaio drove Julia Domiziano home with a base hit. Cassidy Schiff helped set up the play with a bunt on the previous at-bat to advance Domiziano to second base.

Burgoyne’s Overtime Goal Lifts Darien To 12-11 Win Over New Canaan In FCIAC Semifinal

By Dave Ruden May 27, 2014 0

NORWALK — Ian Burgoyne had just achieved a laying-awake-in-bed fantasy moment, the kind that is the impetus, as he would later say, why you play sports.

It just took him a few seconds longer than everyone else at Brien McMahon on Tuesday afternoon to realize his accomplishment.

Burgoyne’s goal with 2:27 left in overtime lifted Darien High School to a dramatic 12-11 win over two-time defending champion New Canaan in the opening semifinal of the FCIAC Tournament.

Trumbull Scores 6 Runs In 7th Inning To Defeat New Canaan, 7-3, In FCIAC Quarterfinals

By Dave Ruden May 27, 2014 0

NEW CANAAN — There was no question the Trumbull baseball team would be hungry for Tuesday’s FCIAC Tournament quarterfinal game with New Canaan after their previous meeting six days earlier. This time the Eagles got the job done with a 7-3 win over the Rams after putting on a show in the seventh inning.

Not to mention, they got it done to survive and advance to the semifinals.

“We came in here ready to play,” said Trumbull coach Phil Pacelli. “It wasn’t looking good, but we stayed in it and we didn’t quit. We played seven full innings and that’s what you have to do.”

Stanton, Garcia BlueStreak-Chicken Joe’s Players Of The Week

By Dave Ruden May 27, 2014 0