BIG EAST Championship Central
 
MASON, Ohio  – Top-seeded Creighton and No. 3 seed St. John’s advanced to the winner’s bracket of the 2019 BIG EAST Baseball Championship Presented by Jeep on Thursday night at Prasco Park. Creighton defeated Seton Hall, 10-9, in game that spanned over four and a half hours. In the nightcap, St. John’s defeated Xavier, 2-0, in a pitcher's duel. The victory was the first for St. John’s over Xavier in the tournament.
 
Seton Hall and Xavier will play each other in the first elimination game of the tournament at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Forty five minutes after the end of the Pirates-Musketeers game, Creighton and St. John’s will face off.
 
Creighton 10, Seton Hall 9
Seton Hall (25-27) had an 8-4 lead with one out in the top of the eighth inning when a 58-minute lightning delay halted the game.  Once the game resumed, the momentum switched and the Creighton (36-11) bats came to life. When play resumed Bluejay junior Mitch Boyer relieved southpaw Ryan Connolly. Boyer got the final two outs of the frame, punctuated by a strikeout of the Pirates' top hitter Tyler Shedler-McAvoy. Creighton's comeback began right away as sophomore David Vilches led off the eighth with his third home run of the season, blasting a pitch over the left-center field wall. Freshman Jared Wegner followed with a four-pitch walk, then with two down in the frame junior Parker Upton made it an 8-7 contest with another home run to left-center field. The Pirates got an important insurance run in the top of the ninth when Del Castillo reached third on a double and an error.  A wild pitch enabled him to score Seton Hall's ninth run. In the bottom of the ninth, Seton Hall reliever Hunter Waldis inherited runners on first and second with one out.  Waldis got the second out on a pop up, but a wild pitch put the tying runs in scoring position.  Creighton's Jared Wegner singled up the middle to score both runners and tie the game at nine.  After Wegner stole second base, he scored the winning run on an error by Toke at first base on a grounder by Will Hanafan. Creighton reliever John Sakowski collected the win (6-0) after allowing an unearned run in the ninth, while Seton Hall’s Waldis suffered the loss (3-1). Waldis was tagged with one run on one hit in a third of an inning. Seton Hall out-hit Creighton, 13-to-11.  Both teams committed one error. Seton Hall falls to 11-15 in first round games of the BIG EAST Championship, and has now lost five straight games to open the tournament.


 
St. John’s 2, Xavier 0
St. John’s starting lefty Joe LaSorsa, who threw eight scoreless innings in his last outing of the regular season, cruised through 7.1 shutout frames on just 78 pitches, 59 of which were strikes, against the host Musketeers.  Xavier (25-30) scattered five hits on the evening and drew no walks while striking out three times against the junior southpaw.  Between the fourth and seventh innings, LaSorsa retired 11 straight batters.  Gavin Hollowell took the mound with one out in the eighth and retired all five batters he faced to pick up his ninth save of the season.  St. John’s (31-21) tallied 12 hits on the evening, led by a pair of three-hit outings from Ryan Hogan and Mike Antico.  Antico also drove in the Red Storm’s insurance run in the top of the ninth to record the game’s lone RBI. Sean McGeehan went 2-for-4 with a triple and scored both of the Red Storm’s runs.  Xavier starter Damien Richard went a career-long eight innings and matched his career-high in strikeouts (9). It was only the fifth time this season the Musketeers did not score a run. Scoreless through four, St. John’s broke the tie as McGeehan scored on an error. In the top of the ninth, the Red Storm added an insurance run as McGeehan led off the frame with a triple off center field wall, but the next two St. John's batter went down on strikes.  After Carson Bartels walked, Antico went inside-out on a breaking ball and brought McGeehan home.
 

 
2019 BIG EAST Baseball Championship Presented By Jeep 
Thursday, May 23 – First Round (BEDN)
Game 1: No. 1 Creighton 10, No. 4 Seton Hall 9
Game 2: No. 3 St. John’s 2, No. 2 Xavier 0
 
Friday, May 24 – Second Round (BEDN)
Game 3: No. 2 Xavier vs. No. 4 Seton Hall, 2:30 p.m. ET
Game 4: No. 1 Creighton vs. No. 3 St. John’s, 6:30 p.m. ET
 
Saturday, May 25 – Semifinal (BEDN)
Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Loser at 2:30 p.m. ET
 
Sunday, May 26 – Championship (FS2)
Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner at 1 p.m. ET
**an If-necessary game will be played at 4:30 p.m. ET should the Game 4 winner lose **