Long Journey Home Won't Dampen Xavier's Spirit - Next Stop - Dancin' In Music City 5/30/2016 2:31:47 PM By SEAN BRENNAN Special to BIGEAST.com Not much has gone wrong for the Xavier baseball team over the last month or so. With 16 wins in their final 18 games and capturing the BIG EAST regular-season crown before a 3-0 BIG EAST Tournament run also gave the Musketeers the tournament title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament, Scott Googins team has been living the life. Well, at least until the bus ride home from the tournament in Aberdeen, Maryland to their home base in Cincinnati. An epic journey that was still continuing Monday afternoon. We’ll let Googins explain the Musketeers’ excellent adventure. “Well, we got done with the game (Sunday) and we showered up and got on the bus and grabbed something to eat,” said Googins, skipper of the the newly-minted BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year. “So we’re driving home and we’re supposed to get home to Cincinnati about 2 a.m.(Monday) and at about 11 p.m. we’re in the middle of Pennsylvania and our bus started acting up. We made it about another 10 miles and before we had to pull over because our bus was down. So around 11 o'clcok we called the mechanic and he finally showed up about 12:30 (a.m.) and it was about 3:30 (a.m.) when he fixed it. But the bus company didn’t feel comfortable with us driving on the bus so they put us up in a hotel at around 3:45 in the morning. They had another bus for us at 7 a.m. because we wanted to try and get back home for the (NCAA) Selection Show. But we were on the bus and we were looking at Mapquest and we realized we were not going to make it back in time for the show so we called an audible and we wound up in a BW3 (sports bar and restaurant) just north of Cincinnati. We got in there at 12:02 (p.m.).” Googins and his team didn’t miss out on seeing their name flash on the TV screen as Xavier’s name didn’t appear until the second half of the show. And when it did come up the Musketeers – and the curious patrons at the BW3 - found out they would be heading to the Nashville Regional to face national-power and regional top seed Vanderbilt in their first game Friday night at 8 p.m. Xavier is the regional’s fourth seed. The game will air on ESPN3. “We’re so excited. In 2014 (when Xavier last went to the NCAA Tournament) we were down in Nashville for a regional,” Googins said. “I really like going down to Vanderbilt. It’s a big-time atmosphere. I know (Vanderbilt coach) Tim Corbin pretty well. He’s a friend of mine. He went to Ohio Wesleyan and I went to Ohio Wesleyan but he’s a couple of years older than me. I’ve gone down and worked his camps and I have the utmost respect for him and his program. They’re kind of a benchmark right now in college baseball. Two years ago they’re the national champions and last year they reached the National Championship game so it’s going to be a great challenge but also a great opportunity for us to go down to Nashville and play in that regional.” The University of Washington is the No. 2 seed in the regional with U.C.-Santa Barbara the third seed. Those two teams will play Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. “I don’t know a lot about the other schools but we will do our due diligence on them,” Googins said. “But I’m sure Vanderbilt is going to throw Jordan Sheffield (8-5, 2.73 ERA with 107 strikeouts in 95.2 innings) in the first game. He’s a really good pitcher so we’ll have our hands full.” Googins and his Musketeers are still riding the wave of winning the BIG EAST Tournament title for the second time in three years and though they must eventually shift their focus to Vanderbilt and the regionals, he doesn’t want to cut the celebration off just yet. “We talked about his all year long. I don’t want be one of those coaches who says, ‘Ok you got 24 hours and then stop celebrating,’” Googins said. “When you accomplish something after you’ve worked so hard you should enjoy it. When we won the regular-season championship I told the guys you got to enjoy it and you’ve got to embrace it.” Two years ago when the Musketeers won the BIG EAST Tournament as a four seed in Coney Island, the team jumped into the Atlantic to celebrate their victory. This time around, it was a little more subdued although senior catcher and BIG EAST Tournament Most Outstanding Player Daniel Rizzie did have designs on another wet and wild celebration. “They wanted to go jump in Chesapeake Bay but we just didn’t have time,” Googins said. “We didn’t really do anything crazy this time around. We’re going to head back to Xavier unload the bus and then I’ll do some laundry and then go home and probably have to mow my yard so that’s my celebration.” Rizzie was just fine with a drier celebration this time after a torrid BIG EAST Tournament that saw him stoke a walk-off single to defeat St. John’s in their tournament opener before his three-run double vs. Creighton proved to be the game-winner in their second game. Rizzie finished his championship run going 5-for-5 with two RBI in the tournament clincher over Creighton. “I was thinking Chesapeake Bay or something like that but it was a little out of the way,” Rizzie said laughing. “Winning the BIG EAST Tournament was special moment, something I’ll remember forever. But playing Vanderbilt is going to be awesome. We’ve been (to Nashville) before so we kind of know the lay of the land and what to expect regional-wise and team-wise. We played them in a three-game set earlier this year so we’re excited to get back at playing them because we’re at our hottest right now. Earlier in the year we weren’t playing our best baseball so we’ll see how it goes now that we’re playing real well right now.” Googins said he will throw sophomore lefty Zac Lowther against Vanderbilt Friday saying, “he’s been our guy all year and there is no need to change things now.” But when his Musketeers take the field Friday night the one thing Googins does expect is a confident team that is battle-tested and playing its best ball of the season. “I don’t think they’ll be intimidated,” Googins said. “That’s why we play the schedule we do. We opened up with Arizona State and we played Vanderbilt, went down and played Louisville and we also played Ohio State. We wanted to be in the position so that when you do make the regionals you’re not in shock. We’re not going to be in awe. They’re going to be ready for it and excited for it.” And Rizzie and the Musketeers think they could be in for an extended stay in Nashville. “Why not us?’ is the mentality we have,” Rizzie said. “We’re rolling right now and we’re just trying to keep it going and see if we can shake things up a little bit.”