NEW YORK – BIG EAST Baseball has come down to its final day of the 2018 regular season. So far, the field of the upcoming BIG EAST Championship presented by Jeep has been set, but two seeds have yet to be determined.
St. John’s and Seton Hall have earned the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds respectively. The Red Storm finished up the season 15-3 (36-14 overall) after taking two from Butler on Thursday and Friday, in a rain-altered schedule. St. John’s defeated Butler 4-2 on Thursday night in the opener, then split Friday’s doubleheader. Thursday’s win for St. John’s locked in the No. 1 seed for the Red Storm. The Bulldogs won the first game 3-0, shutting out 12-ranked St. John’s bend sophomore pitcher Ryan Pepiot’s eight innings of three hits. Pepiot struck out 10. St. John’s rebounded in the second game with a 3-1 victory. St. John’s broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the sixth and held on for the win. St. John’s Friday evening win locked in sole possession of St. John’s BIG EAST record, ninth regular season title. Friday’s early afternoon win for the Bulldogs solidified a tournament berth for Butler, the first for the Bulldogs in the BIG EAST. Butler’s only series losses this year were against St. John’s and Seton Hall. The Bulldogs (33-18, 9-8) were not shut out in either series. Butler split its series against Creighton in a weather-shortened series that was played on a neutral field.
Finishing the regular season with a mark of 15-3 against league opponents, St. John’s secured the best finish to a conference season by a BIG EAST team since realignment, surpassing the 14-3 effort put forth by the 2015 Red Storm en route to the program’s eighth league title. The last BIG EAST squad to finish a conference season with an .833 winning percentage came in 2013, when Louisville went 20-4 before making an appearance in the College World Series.
Due to intense rain on the East Coast this week through the weekend, Seton Hall and Georgetown lost a game in their series. Thursday’s series opener and Friday’s game were cancelled due to field flooding at Georgetown’s home field in Bethesda, Md. The two teams reschedule a doubleheader for Saturday starting at 3 p.m. at Babb Field in Baltimore, Md., home of Johns Hopkins. The field is fully turfed. The first game of the doubleheader will be seven innings.
Seton Hall (25-18-1, 11-4) clinched a tournament berth weeks ago, but locked in the No. 2 seed on Friday with St. John’s series win over Butler. Georgetown’s (25-26, 8-7) potential worst case winning percentage is 8-9, tying the Hoyas with Creighton, who is currently 8-9 in league play and playing a non-conference series this weekend against Cal. The Hoyas defeated Creighton 2-1 in their series meeting, giving them the advantage in a potential tie situation and locking Georgetown into the final spot in the tournament field.
Seeding for Butler and Georgetown will be determined on Saturday. Georgetown needs one win to lock in the No. 3 seed. Should Seton Hall win at least one game Butler will be the No. 3 seed. Butler won the series against Georgetown 2-1 and holds the advantage in the tiebreaker.
Villanova and Xavier will play the rubber match in their series starting at 11 a.m. ET on BEDN. Xavier won the first game 23-1 on Thursday afternoon. On Friday afternoon, Villanova won 13-10.
Creighton has a two-game advantage over Cal and will play the final game of the series at 1 p.m. ET.
The full BIG EAST Baseball Championship bracket will be released after the conclusions of all games played.
Upcoming in #BIGEASTbase
SATURDAY, May 19
VILLANOVA at XAVIER at 11 a.m. (BEDN)
SETON HALL at GEORGETOWN at 3 p.m.
(Baltimore, Md.)
Cal at CREIGHTON at 1 p.m.
SETON HALL at GEORGETOWN at 6:30 p.m. (approx.)
(Baltimore, Md.)
#BIGEASTbase Results
Friday, May 18
BUTLER 3, No. 12 ST. JOHN’S 0
VILLANOVA 13, XAVIER 10
No. 12 ST. JOHN’S 3, BUTLER 1
CREIGHTON 4, Cal 2
Thursday, May 17
No. 12 ST. JOHN’S 4, BUTLER 2
XAVIER 23, VILLANOVA 1
CREIGHTON 5, Cal 3
All times listed are Eastern.