Big East Week 5 Recap

By Colton Watson

Creighton—The Blue  Jays have a strong case for the Big East’s best ball club. They  got the gritty midweek win over Omaha before taking 2 of 3 from San Francisco. Not exactly a power schedule in week 5, but Creighton’s 14-3 overall record speaks for itself. Their Saturday-Monday series at Stanford this week will be a real proving ground for Omaha’s home team. Looking ahead:  vs SDSU 3/19, @ Stanford 3/23-25.

UConn—A much needed bounce-back week for the UConn Huskies came in the form of a 4-1 finish to their California tour, bringing their record in Cali to 4-4. The swept two midweek contests against UCLA and a ranked UC Irvine team before taking the last two games in the series vs Cal Baptist. Pitching scuffled a little bit on Friday, but only allowed 4 total runs in their four wins this week. Huskies get their first home game on Wednesday but are right back on the road this weekend. Looking ahead: @ RI 3/19, vs LIU 3/20, @ Rutgers 3/22-24.

Xavier—A 13-strikeout performance helped Xavier salvage the Sunday game vs Indiana State, but the Musketeers ended week that began with a loss to Wright State with yet another series loss to boot. Xavier was the victim of a run-rule in their own ballpark on Friday and have a trip to Knoxville looming. Looking ahead: @ Tennessee 3/19, vs VCU 3/22-24.

Seton Hall—A 3-2 week for Seton Hall, but there was perhaps a bit more meat left on the bone as the Pirates drop the series to Stony Brook after beating NJIT and St. Peter’s in the midweek. HC Rob  Sheppard expects their return to the Garden State to be good for them, and the Pirates don’t have to leave NJ again until March 26  Looking ahead:  @ Monmouth 3/19, vs NJIT 3/20, vs UMass 3/22-24.

Georgetown—One of two perfect teams in the Big East this week was Georgetown, who rattled off five wins in contest that were largely not competitive. The Hoyas edged George Washington before smacking around Delaware and the Albany three times, outscoring opponents 59-22. Looking ahead: @ Virginia 3/19, @ Ohio State 3/22-24.

St. John’s—The other perfect team in the Big East was the Red Storm of St. John’s, who’s won ten in a row and have an argument alongside Creighton for the cream of the crop in-conference. They beat LIU once, Stony Brook once, and swept all 3 games from Rider to stay hot. The Red Storm has averaged 10.6 runs per game during the win streak and only have one game away from home (but still in the Big Apple) before conference play kicks off. Looking ahead: vs Manhattan 3/19, vs Wagner 3/20, vs/@ Fordham 3/22-24.

Butler—Back-to-back 2-2 weeks for Butler brings the season record to 7-9; the Bulldogs took care of Presbyterian and won the Saturday game at Bradley. Butler was able to eek out the 4-1 midweek win, and yet each winning team in the weekend series scored no less than 18 runs in their respective W’s as Butler continues to be perhaps the Big East’s weirdest team.  Looking ahead: @ Miami (Ohio) 3/19, vs Dayton 3/22-24.

Villanova—Nova failed to capitalize on last week’s strong showing by dropping the first three games of the week to Penn and ETSU before pulling out a Sunday victory to cap off their series Johnson City, TN. More road games are in store for the Wildcats next weekend, but the first home game of the year is finally on the horizon in the midweek Looking ahead: vs St. Peter’s 3/19, @ George Mason 3/22-24.

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