By Colton Watson
Creighton—the Blue Jays kept up their winning ways last week, as we finally got a look at them on their home turf at Omaha’s Charles Schwab Field. The College World Series’s host university won their first four home games vs UMass-Lowell and Portland, missing out on a perfect week by dropping the back end of a Sunday double-header 6-3. Creighton averaged 10.75 runs in its 4 wins on the week, and they get five more games at home before heading to Palo Alto to take on Stanford in a couple weeks. Looking ahead: vs Omaha 3/12, vs San Francisco 3/15-17.
UConn—The disappointment continues for last year’s Big East champions as the Huskies fell to 3-9 after a sweep by UC Santa Barbara. Two blowouts bookended a narrow 3-4 loss in the Saturday game, and UConn appears to be in freefall as their California tour continues for another week. Looking ahead: at UCLA 3/12, at UC Irvine 3/13, at Cal Baptist 3/15-17.
Xavier—No one can fault the Musketeers for a 2-3 week; they split a pair from a tough LA Tech team in Ruston before taking the Sunday game at #6 LSU this weekend. Xavier pitching held the powerful LSU lineup to just a run on Sunday, striking out 12 Tigers en route to a 2-1 win. Xavier is 8-8, and will get some more home games here soon against manageable competition. Looking ahead: at Wright State 3/12, vs Indiana State 3/15-17.
Seton Hall—No midweek for Seton Hall this week as they lose the Monday game vs FIU to split the four-game series in Miami, FL, that began last week. They went on to lose the series to North Florida two games to one in Jacksonville, including an 11-0 run-rule loss on Sunday. It’s the first losing week for the Pirates, who’ll return to New Jersey soon as the look to finally take some swings out of the home dugout. Looking ahead: at NJIT 3/12, vs St. Peter’s 3/13, vs Stony Brook 3/15-17.
Georgetown—a victim of some poor weather this week, Georgetown almost got a preview of the biggest series in college baseball last weekend as their game at Duke was canceled after they nearly upset Wake Forest in Winston-Salem. Their home series vs Cornell had the Friday game canceled, but rain wasn’t the only thing falling from the sky as the Hoya bats sprayed balls all over the field to win the next two games 24-6 and 20-0. Looking ahead: at George Washington 3/12, at Delaware 3/13, vs Albany 3/15-17.
St. John’s—The return to NYC was good for St. John’s, who went 4-0 this week and outscored opponents 36-12. The arms across the board were lights out until Sunday’s 9-8 slugfest, holding opponents to a .202 batting average in those first three games. It was the bullpen’s best week so far with only 5 total runs allowed in 17.0 innings of work. Looking ahead: vs LIU 3/12, vs Stony Brook 3/13, vs Rider 3/15-17.
Butler—There were some kooky results for Butler recently, but ultimately a 2-2 week is positive for a Bulldog program that has been far from dominant in recent years. A 10-12 loss at home vs the Purdue Fort Wayne Mammoths got the week started, but Butler rallied on Friday to beat Memphis on the road. Then they somehow lost an extra-inning game by 5 runs—5-10 in the 11th vs Jackson State out of the SWAC. They finished their round-robin event in Memphis by beating Presbyterian 4-1 on Sunday. Looking ahead: at Bradley 3/14-16.
Villanova—Another Big East team on a California tour, maybe the Villanova Wildcats and UConn Huskies swapped jerseys and schedules? Nova fell to UC Santa Barbara (who was 4-0 vs the Big East last week) before sweeping Pepperdine on the road in 3 games that were not particularly close. Wildcat pitching allowed 3 runs all weekend and threw a shutout on Saturday. The two last-place teams in the Big East from a season ago are both multiple games better in the W/L column than the preseason first-place UConn Huskies. Looking ahead: at Penn 3/13, at ETSU 3/15-17.
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