By Colton Watson
Georgetown—Swept two weekends ago at UConn, Georgetown got off the mat and used a 3-0 week to keep pace in the Big East race. The 29-13 Hoyas beat George Washington in the midweek before heading to Omaha and taking 2 games from Creighton, with game 3 being cancelled. Their 10-4 conference record is now missing a game, and we’ll see if, like last year, that discrepancy in conference results plays a role in the seeding of the Big East tournament. They Hoyas are taking a week off from conference play this upcoming week, and will look to continue a strong push in week 13. Looking ahead: at James Madison 4/30, vs George Mason 5/1, vs Penn State 5/3.
Butler—A 2-2 week, and another weekend series loss for Butler, who took a midweek contest from Eastern Illinois ahead of their series at home vs Seton Hall. The Bulldogs salvaged game 3 but were outscored 22-7 all weekend, as they fell to 3-9 in Big East play and 17-26 overall. Looking ahead: vs St. Louis 4/30, vs Xavier (BEC) 5/3-5.
St. John’s—Another team in the Big East title hunt is St. John’s, who, at 8-4, are amongst the betting favorites to come away with the crown. Another 2-2 week, however, does not exactly bolster their NCAA at-large chances, although the Red Storm did get a weekend series win. They lost 0-15 to local foe Rutgers before heading to Xavier and taking the last two games. At 27-11-1, the Red Storm need these last three weeks of the season to be nearly perfect if they want to be assured of an NCAA tournament appearance regardless of their status after the Big East Tournament. Looking ahead: vs Iona 5/1, vs Creighton (BEC) 5/3-5.
UConn—At 25-18 and 10-2 in conference, UConn is having a resurgence that we have seldom seen in college baseball, and the Huskies are certainly playing the best baseball in the Big East at the moment. They destroyed both UMass and Hofstra in 7-inning run-rule games before outscoring Villanova 29-11 in the weekend series and taking all three contests. The Huskies have an 8-game win streak and are in control of the Big East title race at this moment. Looking ahead: at Seton Hall (BEC) 5/3-5.
Creighton—The anomaly of the Creighton Blue Jays continues to baffle and befuddle. The Jays swept a two-game midweek set versus highly-ranked Coastal Carolina, but they lost both of the games played versus Georgetown in a series that suffered a Sunday cancellation. The Jays have the best overall record in the Big East at 30-11, but a losing conference record at 4-7, that would have them sitting out the Big East tournament if it were played today (with St. John’s and UConn still on the schedule). Looking ahead: vs Nebraska 4/30, at St. John’s (BEC) 5/3-5.
Villanova—The 5-20 Wildcats do have something no one else in the league has—at 5-10, they have played the most conference games of any Big East team thus far. This counts for nothing, but silver linings are all Nova has at 14-27 overall. The victims of another sweep at the hands of UConn, a midweek loss at a school called Bucknell (?) is the real sore spot on last week’s schedule. The Wildcats’ claim to fame will disappear this weekend as they’ll have nonconference Iona to worry about in their Big East “bye week”. Looking ahead: vs St. Joseph’s 4/30, vs Iona (BEC) 5/3-5.
Xavier—An even .500 both overall and in league play, the Musketeers are still jostling for position in the four-team Big East tournament. They lost badly to Miami (OH) but beat Northern Kentucky in the midweek. The weekend got off to a positive start when they took the first game vs St. John’s, but 3-9 and 3-6 losses capped off a so-so week. Looking ahead: at Butler (BEC) 5/3-5.
Seton Hall—A winning weekend, a losing week, and a nearly hopeless season so far is nearly in the rearview for Seton Hall. They lost a close midweek game to Rider before becoming the talk of college baseball on Wednesday, but not for good reasons, when they lost 0-31 against Columbia. They won their first Big East conference series at Butler this week, but then lost the Sunday game to miss out on the sweep. The 21-23 overall and 4-8 conference records don’t look good on the Pirates, who had reasons for optimism coming into the season. Three of their four toughest conference opponents are still ahead on the schedule, to boot. Looking ahead: vs Hofstra 5/1, vs UConn (BEC) 5/3-5.
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