By Andy Hutchison

WESTPORT — Staples High baseball put up nine runs, but still fell short in a wild 11-9 loss to host Fairfield Warde on Saturday.

The defeat ended a three-game winning streak for the Wreckers. That included an 11-1 win over Greenwich on April 30, a 5-0 blanking of visiting Wilton on May 2 and a 13-0 triumph over host Bridgeport Central on May 7.

In the Warde game, Staples fell behind 5-0 in the first inning and played catchup all afternoon, keeping the game close before being held off. Andrew Oppenheimer had four hits, a run batted in and three runs scored; Cooper Brundige collected three hits and scored four runs, and Jake Goldshore and Connor Brill each had a hit and two runs batted in.

In shuttiing out Wilton, Noah Saed pitched all seven frames and allowed just two hits while fanning eight batters. Brundige led the offense with a hit and three runs driven in, and Jules Cicero added two hits, an RBI and run scored.

The Central game was highlighted by Bruce Schlegelmilch’s three hits and three RBI; Goldshore’s hit and two RBIs, and Brill’s two hits, RBI and two runs scored. Lukas Snow pitched four and a third innings and racked up 11 of 15 strikeouts compiled by a trio of pitchers in a one-hit effort.

Staples, after a day off Sunday, is scheduled to play four games in as many days as a result of rainouts and rescheduled contests. It gets started when Trumbull visits Monday at 4:30 p.m. (Game schedules are subject to change; click for the latest CIAC updates.) 

Andy Hutchison has been covering school sports — including Staples athletics — as well as news and feature stories in Fairfield County, since the 1990s.