Staples Scores and Standings: May 26

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After getting bounced out of the FCIAC playoffs last season in the quarterfinals as the top seed, the Staples baseball team is returning to Harbor Yard for the semifinals.

Ace Rob Gau helped drive the bus, scattering five hits Wednesday, as the Wreckers blanked New Canaan 3-0 in a crisply played game that took only 90 minutes to complete.

Staples (16-5), which avenged an 8-7 regular-season loss to New Canaan, will face top seed St. Joseph in the semifinals on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. in Bridgeport.

Rams ace Alex Farina was perhaps even more dominant than his mound counterpart, also allowing only five hits while striking out 10.

Unfortunately for New Canaan (13-8), the contest turned following a two-out error in the third inning that led to three unearned runs for the Wreckers.

"It's real exciting," said Gau, who improved to 5-1. "We came here expecting to win and we really got things done today."

The Wreckers' three-run third started innocently enough as leadoff hitter Ben Lipper reached when his grounder took a bad hop, hit first baseman Will Karl in the chest and caromed into right field.

Some observers felt the play should been ruled a hit, New Canaan coach Mitch Hoffman was adamant in his belief that the play should have been made.

"You hate to say it, but an error is an error," Hoffman said. "It's unfortunate he made the error. It's unfortunate that a great game pitched by two guys came down to that."

The Wreckers seized on the opportunity as Mike Scott and Brendan Bernstein followed with singles to produce the first run. Colin McCarthy then laced a double over the head of right fielder Cameron Armstrong to make it 3-0.

"It all happened with two outs," McCarthy said. "Once again, our two-out, two-strike swings were really good. We went up their looking for fastballs. He left a couple over the plate and we were able to hit a couple hard."

The Rams used a patient approach at the plate to drive up Gau's pitch count, which resulted in four walks, but New Canaan couldn't come up with any keys hits.

Gau, who struck out six, induced two double plays and had a good sinker working, getting 12 groundball outs. The final out of the game came on a pickoff at first.

"Gau's always really good," McCarthy added. "Every time he comes out it seems like he throws a shutout. They weren't really touching his fastball today."

The Rams left two runners on in the second and stranded a runner at third the following inning. They also left two on in the fifth after Cameron Armstrong and Andrew Casali singled with two outs.

Gau said that even as far back as Little League, he tended to have high pitches, but it doesn't concern him. He seems to do his best work with runners on base.

"It's really not that big of a deal for me when I'm in the stretch because I know in the later innings I'm not going to strike as many guys out and I have to make them hit it on the ground," he said.

After the game, Staples coach Jack McFarland talked about the need to finish, which doesn't necessarily win winning the FCIAC but just to remain focused. McFarland felt last year's team, which was 18-2 in the regular season, may have
gotten complacent.

"Last year we kind of checked out," McFarland said. "Baseball wasn't high on their priority list."

To keep the players focused on the task at hand, the Wreckers have T-shirts that say 'finish.'

"We say finish every five minutes because last year we didn't finish," McFarland said. "Things came too easy to us last year. We blinked and we were out of the tournament. We don't want that to happen this year. Win of lose, we want
them to play hard, play clean baseball, and today we played a clean baseball game."

While the Wreckers didn't do a lot offensively Wednesday , they made the plays behind Gau.

"Last year, we had so many many wins that we forgot what losing felt like so we came out expecting to win every single game," he said.  "But this year, we know what it (losing) feels like and we never want to have that feeling again. We come out every day with a new mentality to finish every game."

-- The undefeated Staples boys tennis team defeated Greenwich 4-2 Wednesday to advance to the FCIAC finals.

The Wreckers, who improved to 19-0, will face Greenwich in the finals on Thursday at Wilton (4 p.m.). The perennial powers will be meeting the final for the sixth time in the last  nine years.

SINGLES: Danny Hirschberg (S) def. Chase Urban, 6-0, 6-1; Nick Laub (NC)  def. Jake  Hirschberg, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3; Graham  Hyman (S) vs. Will Burger 7-6, 5-7, 1-4 (Did Not Finish); Jesse Heussner (S) def. Steve Evans,   6-1, 6-2; Luke Foreman (S) def. Tom Worcester,  6-1, 6-2

DOUBLES: Patrick Newtown-Jacob Reiss (NC) def. Evan Davis-Baxter Stein, 3-6, 7-6, (7-4), 6-3; Josh Kaseff-Steve Thomson (S) def. Connor Hedley- Luke McDermot , 6-1, 7-6 (7-4).

WEDNESDAY'S RESULTS

Baseball

Staples 3, New Canaan 0

Boys tennis

Staples 4, New Canaan 2 (FCIAC semifinals)

Boys volleyball (at Fairfield Ludlowe)

Staples 3,  Ridgefield 1

THURSDAY'S SCHEDULE

Baseball (at Harbor Yard)

Staples vs. St. Joseph, 7:30 p.m. (FCIAC semifinals)

Boys tennis (at Wilton)

Staples vs, Greenwich, 4 p.m. (FCIAC finals)

STANDINGS

• Baseball

Bassick

*- clinched playoff spot

• Softball

• Boys Lacrosse

Fairfield Warde

*-clinched playoff spot

• Girls Lacrosse