{"id":661904,"date":"2026-04-04T01:14:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661904\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T01:14:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:14:25","slug":"wreckers-baseball-looks-for-deep-run-in-fciac-and-state-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661904\/","title":{"rendered":"Wreckers baseball looks for deep run in FCIAC and state playoffs."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JulesJules Cicero in action during preseason. Cicero and the Wreckers begin the season Saturday at Cheshire -Photo Andy Hutchison<\/p>\n

By Andy Hutchison<\/p>\n

WESTPORT\u2013Year in and year out, Staples baseball is competitive in the always-tough FCIAC as well as in the state. This spring should be no different, although the Wreckers have some work to do as they look to get back to the conference title game for the first time since winning it all in 2019.<\/p>\n

The Wreckers won the FCIAC West title in 2023. They are always in the mix in the state playoffs and coming off a second-round exit in last year\u2019s Class LL State Tournament, Staples has hopes for a deeper run in the bracket. Staples is not far removed from back-to-back Class LL runner-up finishes (2023-24).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have strong senior leadership \u2014 high expectations,\u201d Coach Jack McFarland said.<\/p>\n

Captains to lead the way are infielder Jules Cicero, outfielder Vince Vega, third baseman Mark Kelly, first baseman\/ pitcher Connor Brill and outfielder\/ pitcher Mason Tobias.<\/p>\n

Other key players back in the fold include pitcher \/ center fielder Cole Landgraf, catcher Paul Dottori and pitcher\/ designated hitter Bruce Schlegelmilch.<\/p>\n

McFarland was pleased to get in a handful of preseason scrimmages in around rain drops and after all of that late-winter snow that Mother Nature cleared out with time to spare.<\/p>\n

Now it is onto the games that count. The Wreckers go out of conference and on the road to take on Cheshire Saturday at 1 p.m. The first home game is against FCIAC foe Greenwich Tuesday, April 7 at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

Wreckers begin the regular season Saturday at Cheshire and will have their first home game Tuesday when Greenwich comes into town.<\/p>\n

\"AndyAndy Hutchison<\/p>\n

Andy Hutchison<\/p>\n

Andy Hutchison has been covering school sports \u2014 including Staples athletics \u2014 as well as news and feature stories, since the 1990s. He is the sports editor at the Newtown Bee<\/a>. He writes for the Monroe Sun<\/a>. He was director of communications and radio color commentator for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers<\/a> (now Islanders) hockey team. He has won numerous writing awards, including regional and national first-place honors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jules Cicero in action during preseason. Cicero and the Wreckers begin the season Saturday at Cheshire -Photo Andy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,2328,2304,4,2305,2303,84402,14897],"class_list":{"0":"post-661904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","10":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-playoffs","13":"tag-mlb-postseason","14":"tag-staples-high-school","15":"tag-westport-ct"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116343791704366560","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}