MASON, Ohio  –  In a true pitchers’ duel which featured a combined 24 strikeouts in a nine inning game, top-seeded Connecticut defeated No. 2 seed Creighton, 2-0. The win in the fourth game of the 2021 BIG EAST Baseball Championship Presented by JEEP, played Saturday at noon, sent UConn straight to Sunday’s championship.
 
The loss for Creighton sent them to the second elimination game which started later that same afternoon at Prasco Park.
 
Connecticut junior righty Ben Casparius went on to claim the win (8-4), notching 13 strikeouts in seven innings, while relievers Justin Willis (0.2) and Caleb Wurster (1.1) allowed no hits and no walks over the final two innings. Casparius allowed just three hits and walked three. The single-game BIG EAST record was 15 strikeouts, set by Villanova’s Rafael Novoa in 1987 against St. John’s.
 
Wurster was credited with the save.
 
Creighton pitcher Jonah Smith (6-5) went the full 8.0 innings and struck out 11, walked two and yielded eight hits.
 
It was the highest strikeout count between two starters in the BIG EAST Championship since re-alignment. The previous high was 14 when Seton Hall’s Josh Prevost and St. John’s James Lomangino had seven each in a 2014 tournament game. In a 2-1, 13-inning affair, in 2018 the pitching staffs of Seton Hall and Butler combined for 28 strikeouts, but that included six total pitchers.
 
Scoreless in the top of the fourth, Connecticut leadoff man and BIG EAST Player of the Year Kyler Fedko blasted a solo home run to right field. Connecticut added to its advantage with another run in the fifth, getting a one-out double from Chris Brown, a single by Zach Bushling and a sacrifice fly by Fedko to make it 2-0.
 
The Huskies will play the winner of Xavier/Creighton at 1 p.m. on Sunday on FS2. A game seven will be necessary only if UConn loses. That game would follow at 4:30 p.m.


 
2021 BIG EAST Baseball Championship Presented by JEEP 
Thursday, May 27 – BIG EAST Digital Network Presented by SoFi
Game 1: #2 Creighton 8, #3 Seton Hall 7
Game 2: #1 UConn 11, #4 Xavier 1

Friday, May 28 – BEDN
Game 3: Xavier 4, Seton Hall 2

Saturday, May 29 – BEDN
Game 4: UConn 2, Creighton 0
Game 5: Xavier vs. Creighton [Elimination Game] at 4 p.m.
 
Sunday, May 30 – 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 **