NEW YORK – Five of eight BIG EAST softball teams will hit the ground running with a weekend full of road matchups to open the 2017 season.
Creighton, DePaul, Georgetown and St. John’s will travel to Arizona, Florida and Louisiana for their season openers, while Butler stays local with a tournament hosted by UIC and Loyola in Rosemont, Ill., the site of the 2017 BIG EAST Softball Championship presented by Jeep.
Butler
Staying local, the Bulldogs start the season at the Dome just across the parking lot from where they won the 2016 BIG EAST title, with the Total Control Sports Invitational, cohosted by UIC and Loyola. There they will clash with Miami (Ohio), Detroit, Western Illinois, Wisconsin-Green Bay and UIC during the three day tournament.
Creighton
The Bluejays will be the first BIG EAST squad to begin play in 2017, taking on San Jose State and No. 9 Oregon today for the first day of Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz. They will round out the weekend with matchup against Saint Mary’s (Cal.), Stanford and Cal Poly. This year marks the fifth consecutive season the Bluejays will open the season in Tempe.
DePaul
The Blue Demons travel down to Lafayette, La., for the 31
st Annual Louisiana Classic where they will meet No.11 Louisiana-Lafayette, Ball State, and Iowa State. The nationally ranked Ragin’ Cajuns will be the first of six oppents for DePaul that participated in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
Georgetown
The Hoyas head to Miami, Fla., for the Felsburg Invitational, the first of five tournaments for Georgetown in the south. At the tournament the Blue & Gray will square off with Rutgers, Memphis and host FIU.
St. John’s
The Red Storm will travel to Tampa, Fla., to play five games in the USF-Wilson Demarini. There they will face off with No. 4/3 Florida and Delaware on Saturday and No. 6 Michigan and Illinois State on Sunday.