#BIGEASTbase Championship Preview Feature
By SEAN BRENNAN
Special to BIGEAST.com
Let’s be clear: There was no hotter team to end the BIG EAST regular season than Xavier as the Musketeers peeled off 13 wins in their final 15 games to edge out Creighton on the final weekend for the regular-season crown. So when the BIG EAST Championship presented by Jeep gets underway at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, Md., Thursday afternoon, coach Scott Googins’ X-Men will be the top seed and will face fourth-seeded – and defending tournament champion – St. John’s at 3:30 p.m.
The opening-day nightcap will feature No. 2 Creighton (36-15, 13-5) taking on third-seeded Seton Hall (38-18, 10-8) at approximately 7 p.m.
“It’s very rewarding after all the hard work and effort you put into it,” said Googins, who was named BIG EAST Coach of the Year on Wednesday. “You don’t know if the hard work is going to pay off but these guys persevered and showed a lot of grit to end up winning the regular season championship, which is a huge feather in our cap. It was one of our goals this year but we’re not where we want to be in terms of finishing up. But it’s absolutely a good feeling.”
Know what else is a good feeling? Getting to fill out a lineup card that features the BIG EAST’s version of “Murderer’s Row” in Andre Jernigan, Joe Gellenbeck and Daniel Rizzie, a group that accounted for 33 of Xavier’s conference-leading 51 homers this season. The threesome also accounted for 110 RBI on the season which means St. John’s pitching staff needs to be on high alert. Both Jernigan, who landed BIG EAST Player of the Year honors, as well as Rizzie were selected to the All-BIG EAST First Team while Gellenbeck was a Second Team pick.
“It’s a very good lineup but we try to score runs in different ways,” Googins said. “We do steal some bases, we’ll hit and run and we’ll play some small ball. But with Dan, Joe and Andre in those 2-3-4 (holes), it’s pretty nice and they do get some big hits when they’re needed. We don’t want to rely on the home run but obviously that is a game-changer. We want to be able to manufacture runs and score in a lot of different ways and put pressure on the defense. But home runs are one of the plays in baseball that not is defensible. The walk and the home run. When you’re able to do that it puts runs on the board right away it helps put pressure on the defense.”
But what St. John’s (27-24-1, 9-9) may lack in power, they more than make up for with a lineup stacked with pure hitters as John Valente (.376 average), Michael Donadio (.324), an All-BIG EAST First Team pick, and Jesse Berardi (.311) are all in the top 10 in batting average in the conference. And ever since Xavier took two-out-of-three from St. John’s in the regular season, the Johnnies were hoping for a rematch with the Musketeers. Now that it’s here Alex Caruso and company are hoping to take advantage as the Johnnies look to repeat as tournament kingpins.
“We’re pretty excited to get another shot at them,” said Caruso, who was the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player in last season’s tournament. “I think they have a lot of big bats in their lineup but I think it’s a good matchup for us, especially that the tournament is not on our home field, because they hit a lot of homers against us there. I think this park will play a lot bigger and that’s to our advantage.”
Googins thinks the game matches up a pair of teams with a lot of similarities and knows there is little room for error against a hungry four seed, which is what Xavier (27-28, 14-4) was two seasons ago when they won it all in Coney Island.
“I think St. John’s is very similar to us. They got some guys who can hit for power and got some guys who can run,” Googins said. “They got some good arms and they got Hack (BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year Thomas Hackimer) in the back of the bullpen which really shortens the game for them. Coach (Ed) Blankmeyer has done a tremendous job with them and they’re fundamentally sound so we’re just excited to play them.”
Despite dropping two of three to the Musketeers, Caruso likes St. John’s chances in its tourney opener as the regular season gets flushed now that the postseason is here.
“Coach Blankmeyer said once you get to the tournament play everyone is 0-0,” said Caruso, who led the BIG EAST with 46 runs scored. “It doesn’t matter how we got in. It just matters that we’re in. At this time of year it’s about who plays hot for the weekend. I think any of the four teams is capable of winning this tournament. It’s just a matter of who gets hot at the right time.”
And how about that chance at a repeat for the Johnnies?
“I would love to go out on top winning back-to-back championships,” Caruso said. “We want to defend our title so we just have to play well and play together.”
The nightcap will feature a matchup pitting Creighton’s superb pitching and defense against Seton Hall’s torrid team batting and the speed of Derek Jenkins. Or will it?
“It may look that way statistic-wise but we’ve made it a point that we just need to go out and do what we need to do,” said Jenkins, who has not only led the BIG EAST in steals in each of the past three seasons but led the nation this year with 52 swipes in 62 attempts. “We don’t really think about what they’re doing defensively and on the mound. We just worry about what we’re doing. We’ve faced them plenty of times (over the years) but now it’s a new day and we all start 0-0 in the first inning.”
Seton Hall comes in toting the second-best team batting average in the league at .275 (St. John’s is first at .285) and is also second in pitching with a 3.19 ERA. Jenkins finished the regular season second in the conference with 69 hits while teammate Zach Weigel placed fifth with 65. And Jenkins is not the only rabbit on the team as Chris Chiaradio was second to Jenkins in steals with 32 in 34 attempts.
“We feel great coming into the tournament,” said Jenkins, an All-BIG EAST First Team selection. “We just take it game by game and not think about the game ahead of us. We’re excited. We had to have a couple of good weekends in a row just to make the tournament and one thing I’ve learned in my four years here is the team that is hot at the right time and playing their best baseball is the team that usually moves on. We haven’t played these guys in a couple of months so we’re ready to put our best foot forward and really take it to them.”
Creighton saw Xavier snatch the regular-season crown on the final weekend, keyed in part by the Bluejays losing two of three to the Musketeers the weekend prior. But the Jays are not dwelling on what could have been, instead focusing on what could be.
“We didn’t dwell on it at all. We knew as long as you’re in the tournament anything can happen so we just got to take it one game at a time,” said Daniel Woodrow, the BIG EAST leader in hits (72) and batting average (340). “We still have to win at least three games just like we would if we were the one seed.”
The Bluejays, who were tops in both ERA (3.03) and fielding percentage (.981) this season, will be looking to make a third straight trip to the tournament’s championship game. In 2014 the Jays lost to Xavier in the final before bowing out against St. John’s in last season’s title tilt.
So you think there is a little added motivation for Creighton this year? Bet on it.
“We definitely talk about it. We feel that when you try to sweep things under the rug like that then they fester and possibly get worse,” said Woodrow, another All-BIG EAST First Team pick. “We talk openly about it, how we felt the last two years and we’ve had some pictures hanging around our locker room of our faces after we lost those couple of games. So it was a reminder throughout the whole year to keep on working so we can get over that hump and not have that happen again. We’ve acknowledged our failures and use them as motivation to win it all this year.”
It’s about as wide open a tournament as you could have with everyone owning a legitimate shot at the title. It’s that element that makes the BIG EAST tournament some must-watch baseball.
“That’s what I love about this tournament,” Jenkins said. “Every year there is one team that just stands out. Xavier won it two years ago and they were the fourth seed and I don’t think anyone thought they were going to win it. This tournament is wide open and that’s what we want. We’re ready to prove ourselves.”