2025 Big East Preview

Will UConn get its fifth-straight regular season crown?

Welcome to our 2025 UConn baseball preview. This is our 10th season covering the Huskies on a day-to-day basis and the third with this newsletter. We’ll have plenty of content all week leading up to opening day!

While UConn has not come away with the Big East Tournament championship the past two seasons after winning it its first two years in the league, the regular season still belongs to the Huskies, as they’ve taken the last four regular season crowns. It’s looking good for five, as Jim Penders’ squad was the unanimous favorite in the Big East preseason coaches’ poll. St. John’s earned Penders’ first-place vote and was one point behind Xavier for second overall.

Xavier

The Musketeers snuck into the Big East Tournament as the 4-seed with a 12-9 record and knocked off the top-seeded Huskies, but the road would end there, as they lost to St. John’s and Georgetown on consecutive days. Xavier finished 30-27 overall and missed the NCAA Tournament.

Of the seven qualified hitters with an OPS above .800 last season, five are back in the fold, including preseason all-conference team honorees Aedan Anderson (.271/.398/.641), Luke Hammond (.290/.384/.502) and Connor Misch (.268/.382/.497), as well as Hayden Christiansen (.288/.367/.457) and Carter Hendrickson (.303/.407/.467). The Musketeers hit a ton in 2024 and figure to do so again.

They’ll need that to win games in 2025 without a massive leap forward from the pitching staff. Six pitchers had more than 40 innings last year and none had an ERA below 4.50 or a WHIP below 1.40. Luke Hoskins (4-7, 6.78 ERA) and Logan Schmidt (5-3, 7.01) are back, while Jake Hooker (0-2, 2.20) might take a leap forward as a sophomore.

St. John’s

The Red Storm made it back to the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time since 2018, as they won the Big East Tournament over Georgetown, going 3-0. St. John’s went to the Charlottesville Regional as a 3-seed and lost a pair to Mississippi State, but did snag a win over Penn. It was unquestionably the best season of the Mike Hampton era.

Luke Orbon (.271/.367/.427) and Jackson Tucker (.293/.398/.444) are the two hitters on the preseason all-league team, but St. John’s lost a lot of talent in the lineup. The best hitter in 2024, Jimmy Keenan (.335/.403/.615) is now at Wake Forest, while Ben Beauchamp (.276/.413/.453), Anthony Brienza (.282/.369/.369) and Blake Mayberry (.333/.429/.426) have each graduated.

Evan Chaffee (3-1, 4.86) is the only weekend starter left from last season, which means the Red Storm are reloading with Kyle Chase (1-2, 4.71), who made five starts last season. Other than that, freshmen will be competing to fill out the weekend rotation. Louis Marinaro (6-3, 3.38) was named to the preseason all-Big East team as a reliever, as he’ll anchor the bullpen with Jed Boyle (3-1, 2.95) and Sam Mettert (2-1, 5.19).

Creighton

It’s Ed Servais’ final year and the Bluejays will look to return to the Big East Tournament after missing the past two seasons. They were a respectable 35-17 overall in 2024, but were just 7-13 in Big East play. Creighton is looking to earn its first NCAA Tournament bid since 2019.

Nolan Sailors (.355/.474/.560) will again anchor the lineup after being one of three unanimous selections to the all-league team. Kyle Hess (.302/.435/.434) joins him on that list as a team that hit .289/.404/.453 as a team will have plenty of big hitters back in the fold, as they’re joined by Teddy Deters (.305/.422/.569) and Tate Gillen (.319/.480/.451).

Creighton didn’t have a starter take the ball more than 10 times last year, as injuries were an issue. Dominic Cancellieri (6-0, 2.83), who’s on the preseason all-tournament team, had an internal brace procedure and won’t be back until midseason, but Jack Pineau (0-1, 3.21) made six starts and is an option as an important arm.

Georgetown

The Hoyas, after not winning 30 games in a season and with four conference tournament bids, have now accomplished each feat in the past three seasons, including its first RPI top 100 season since at least 1999. Edwin Thompson is entering his fifth year at the helm and it seems like breaking through to a Regional is a when, rather than an if.

Owen Carapellotti (.282/.427/.562) is back, but a huge majority of their at-bats are no longer with the program, including Christian Ficca (.344/.448/.567) and Jake Hyde (.297/.405/.560), though Kavi Caster (.322/.395/.638) will help anchor the middle of the lineup. Georgetown will be relying on reserves to make the leap to be full-time guys to sustain this run.

The exodus on the mound isn’t quite as stark, but there are still plenty of innings to replace. Andrew Citron (4-0, 2.45) and Andrew Williams (4-3, 2.91) are the only arms with more than 40 innings in 2024 that will be back with the Hoyas, but there are transfer arms that have had success elsewhere, like JT Raab (4-4, 4.54 at Stony Book) that will serve as reinforcements.

Seton Hall

The Pirates had a great pitching staff last season, allowing 5.4 runs per game with an opposing slash line of .250/.358/.377. The only problem was that they scored 5.1 runs per game, slashing .263/.349/.385 along the way, resulting in a 24-30 record, missing the Big East Tournament for just the second time since 2011.

Cole Hansen (3-7, 3.96) and unanimous preseason all-Big East arm Ryan Reich (3-3, 4.09) each pitched more than 70 innings and will be there to front the weekend rotation, while Daniel Frontera (2-4, 4.42) went down for the season with injury in mid-May and is expected to be healthy, rounding out the trio. The bullpen will be full of new faces, as Michael Gillen (4-1, 2.31) and Jay Allmer (1-5, 2.73) are gone, but with such a strong starting rotation, the staff will surely be the strength of this team.

There were good hitters at the top of the lineup in Aiden Robbins (.302/.368/.512) and Zach Sylvester (.315/.440/.472), but it wasn’t nearly long enough, limiting their impact. The good news is Robbins is back for his sophomore season, with plenty of new blood able to try and ressurect an offense that was down in the bottom 100 in most statistical categories.

Villanova

Villanova’s last RPI top-150 season that wasn’t impacted by COVID-19 was 2010, which was the last time it made the Big East Tournament. The Wildcats got close last season, finishing fifth, but were still four games out of the field with a 9-13 league record and 17-34 overall. There are 13 freshmen on the roster, which means there could potentially be a step back.

There were just three hitters with an OPS above .800 last season and Jason Neff (.260/.357/.449) is the only one left. Villanova was one of the worst offenses in the country last year, hitting just .250/.362/.407, which made it hard to stay in games. Bench players like Shane Solari (.286/.394/.440) are likely to have expanded roles and the Wildcats will have a shot in the Big East if he, and players like him, can do better in expanded roles.

Luke McCullough (5-4, 5.20) is the only primary starter back, though Jake Francis (3-7, 6.09) got the ball eight times and will return to the fold. The rest of the rotation will come down to newcomers, including Nebraska transfer Bobby Owens, who got just 8 1/3 innings with the Cornhuskers.

Butler

RPI history goes back to 1999 on BaseballCube.com and Butler has just one RPI top-150 season, which came in 2018 and was the only conference tournament bid for the Bulldogs. However, Blake Beemer got his team to 20 wins in his second season after just 12 in 2023 and perhaps Butler is on the rise.

The pitching staff had a 9.50 ERA as a team but three of the six arms that threw more tha 30 innings are no longer with the program, which leaves plenty of room for transfers to try and stabilize the staff. Alex Kanipe had more than a strikeout per inning between Patrick and Henry Community College and Bluefield State, while Andrew Hendrickx came over from Kent State, one of four Division I to Division I transfer arms.

Butler had to hit a ton to win games, slashing .282/.373/.440 last year. The program’s only preseason all-conference honoree, Jack Moroknek (.327/.411/.588), is back, but its three top contact hitters, Carter Dorighi (.270/.435/.547), Kade Lewis (.377/.436/.618) and Joey Urban (.332/.412/.490) have each departed. Freshmen Harry Carr and Logan Crock are highly regarded and will look to replace that production.