Big East Preview
The Huskies again are heavy favorites to win the conference.
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UConn baseball returned to the Big East in 2021 and announced that arrival with authority. The Huskies went 13-4, went undefeated in series and took home the Big East Tournament championship. Second verse? Same as the first. The 2022 iteration finished 16-5, with a sweep at Georgetown the final weekend of the regular season the team’s only series loss all season, then went 3-0 in the Big East Tournament to win the title. Overall, that’s 29-9 in two seasons of conference play and 6-1 in tournament games.
UConn was the unanimous pick to win the Big East in 2023, with Creighton close behind after picking up Jim Penders’ vote to win it all. Let’s take a look at the schools with which the Huskies will be competing for a third straight Big East crown.
Creighton
The Blue Jays are likely to be the only true threat to conference supremacy for UConn. Led by longtime head coach Ed Servais, who started at Creighton the same year Penders arrived in Storrs, the Blue Jays had five preseason all-conference players, including a pair of returning weekend starters in Cade Lommel and Dominic Cancellieri, which is a luxury UConn doesn’t have.
The stats could have been better for Lommel (1-5, 6.40 ERA) in 2022, particularly against UConn. He lasted just three innings in the Big East Tournament, coughing up four runs on five hits, with a walk and three strikeouts. He was better in his regular season outing, going 5 1/3 frames with just one earned run on Mother’s Day.
According to D1Baseball’s Fall Report, Lommel is in the low 90s with his fastball and a complementary slider, stuff that Servais thinks is good enough to lead a rotation.
Cancellieri (5-3, 4.55) had a better statistical year and is likely penciled into the Sunday spot, according to D1Baseball. He also had a short outing in his one appearance against the Huskies last season and has a slow breaking ball that can dip below 70 mph, a vast difference from his low 90s fastball.
All-conference second baseman Andrew Meggs (.324/.412/.443) will return for his senior season to lead the offense after Alan Roden and Jared Wegner, Creighton’s other .300 hitters, were drafted and transferred to Arkansas, respectively. Meggs is also ranked No. 47 on D1Baseball.com’s top 50 second basemen list.
Other primary starters from 2022 that return to the fold include outfielder Nolan Sailors (.247/.338/.343), third baseman Kyle Hess (.238/.377/.345) and utility player Jack Grace (.263/.358/.467). Division III transfer Ben Gbur also figures to get into the lineup in some way after slashing .367/.447/.690 in 2022.
Xavier
The Musketeers are arguably the most snakebitten school in the Big East. Xavier has made three straight tournament finals, but have been shut out of the NCAA Tournament each time. In 2019, it was Creighton that earned the trip to Regionals, while the Huskies did the honors in 2021 and 2022. The Musketeers were picked by the coaches to finish third in the Big East in 2023, with preseason player of the year Jack Housinger (.311/.445/.588) slotted at shortstop for head coach Billy O’Conner.
Primarily hitting second, Housinger hit 16 home runs in 2022, which was second on the team behind since-drafted Luke Franzoni, who drilled an impressive 29 big flies. He was also just behind Franzoni in hits and walks. A graduate student, this is his fourth time on the preseason all-conference team and he is also ranked the No. 17 shortstop by D1Baseball.com.
Starting pitcher Luke Bell (4-0, 4.31) is Xavier’s other preseason all-conference representative. He made 25 appearances in 2022, 10 of which were starts. Bell threw against UConn once and completed just two innings before being lifted, but he didn’t surrender a run and permitted just two hits. This was typical, as he averaged just over two innings per outing, with 56 1/3 frames on the year and 59 strikeouts.
Of Xavier’s seven qualifying hitters (3.1 plate appearances per team game played), five will return, including Housinger. Andrew Walker (.332/.437/.505), Garrett Schultz (.322/.396/.400), Tyler DeMartino (.309/.384/.564) and Jared Cushing (.290/.333/.493) all will be back in the lineup, while 2022 role player Grant Stephenson (.310/.406/.402 in 87 at-bats) could push for more playing time.
The Musketeers are going to hit, with most of the production back from a lineup that was an impressive .299/.393/.501 as a team, but finding more consistent pitching will be the key to being a true Big East (and national) contender. Twelve pitchers made at least one start last year, none of which were on a full-time basis. It was a cobbled-together staff in which a full-time reliever led the team in innings, with 64 1/3, while the team ERA was 5.79.
Georgetown
Georgetown was one of college baseball’s biggest surprises in 2022. Without a winning season since 1986, the Hoyas were picked seventh in the preseason Big East poll. Instead, they finished fourth in the league, sweeping UConn in the final of the weekend of the regular season on their way to finishing 32-24, which was the school’s first 30-win campaign.
The Big East coaches have confidence that Edwin Thompson’s performance was no fluke, voting Georgetown fourth this season. This is a big achievement for a program that doesn’t have a true home field and hosted teams at four different locations in 2022.
The Hoyas will be led by catcher Owen Carapellotti (.282/.396/.552), the school’s only preseason all-conference player and the 2022 Big East Freshman of the Year. Despite the extra time off as a catcher, he was still tied for the team lead in doubles and hit eight home runs. He was also ranked No. 42 among the nation’s catchers by D1Baseball.com.
Jake Hyde (.354/.442/.679) is back for his junior season after drilling 18 doubles and 19 home runs in 2022. He was the only Hoya to appear in every game and led the team in virtually every offensive category. Infielder Andrew Ciufo (.297/.382/.474) will also return to the fold as a big part of the offense.
Matthew Sapienza (2-4, 6.45) is the only returning weekend starter from 2022 and made 10 starts, though many appearances later in the year, including against UConn, were out of the bullpen as a true freshman. Fellow sophomore Andrew Williams (1-2, 5.16) made seven more starts for the Hoyas, while graduate student Collin Garner made eight starts and threw 41 2/3 innings over 15 appearances, eight of which were starts.
Seton Hall
Seton Hall has fallen on trying times in recent years. Rob Sheppard hasn’t made a Regional since 2011, though the Pirates were always competitive in the Big East, with top-four finishes each year between 2011-19, despite a losing record overall in 2019. The bottom fell out in 2022, when they were seventh, missing the conference tournament for the first time since 2010, though they did have one of the toughest schedules in the nation, with visits to North Carolina, Florida and Oklahoma State in the non-conference.
Seton Hall will look to re-establish itself as a competitor in the Northeast in 2023, though it was picked to finish fifth by the coaches and only one player was named to the preseason all-conference team.
That would be outfielder Will Gale (.336/.382/.418), who played in just 35 games after missing a decent chunk of April. He was joined in missing time by the team’s only other .300 hitter last season, third baseman Jonathan Luders (.341/.411/.380), who didn’t make his season debut until March 17 and played in 36 games. Split time was abound for the Pirates, as just three players, including one returner in Devin Hack (.268/.363/.376), made 40 starts in 53 games.
It was the same story on the mound, with only a pair of pitchers making 10 starts. One of them, graduate student Brennan O’Neill (3-5, 7.57) is back for 2023. Joe Cinella (4-2, 5.13) will also return in 2023 after nine starts, as will Nick Payero (1-6, 7.74), who gave his team eight starts.
Only two arms threw more than 50 innings last season and the team ERA was over 6.00. The only pitcher with an ERA under 4.50 contributed just 6 1/3 innings. The offense could stand to improve, at just 4.2 runs per game, but the Pirates were outscored by more than 100 runs over their 53 games. For them to get back to Big East contender status, the pitching will need to take a step forward.
St. John’s
A former Northeast power, with 37 NCAA Tournament appearances, the Red Storm have had two straight losing seasons under Mike Hampton, who was promoted in 2020 to take over for longtime head coach Ed Blankenmeyer after 18 seasons as an assistant. St. John’s has the conference’s most recent at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, doing so in 2017.
Selected fifth by the Big East coaches, the pitching will have to improve for the Red Storm to return to the NCAA Tournament.
Two players in Kevin Michaels (.330/.389/.543) and David Glancy (.289/.389/.505) were named preseason all-conference performers and will lead an offense that scored more than 5.5 runs per game in 2022. Glancy, along with Tate Ballestero (.333/.427/.483), are the only two players that appeared in each of St. John’s 55 games in 2022. Michaels was also named the No. 37 second baseman in the country on D1Baseball.com’s top 50 list. Jackson Tucker (.283/.396/.364) was also a full-time outfielder as a true freshman and will help form the offensive nucleus.
Similarly to the other Big East schools, finding high-end pitching has been a sore spot. Only three pitchers threw more than 50 innings, with one lone returner in Dylan Johnson (3-2, 4.94) who had a respectable line across 20 appearances as a true freshman. The team WHIP was 1.55 in 2022 and batters hit .271 against them, which led to opposing offenses scoring 7.1 runs per game.
Villanova
With one winning season since 2013, the Wildcats are again picked to finish toward the bottom of the Big East and look to return to the Big East Tournament for the first time since 2008. The athletic department doesn’t schedule baseball as heavily as it could, with just 49 games on the docket last year out of a possible 56 contests.
Four players played in each of the 49 games, but only Jack O’Reilly (.265/.342/.350) will return to the Wildcats. AJ Hansen (.218/.361/.372) is the only returner with an OPS above .700, but John Whooley (.244/.384/.290) and Will Reiner (.225/.361/.372) also made more than 40 starts.
Chic DeGaetano (4-0, 5.79) returns the most starts (9) and innings (51 1/3), as the only returner with more than 50 innings pitched. Brandon Siegenthaler (0-3, 5.00) and Devin Rivera (1-4, 8.25) are the only other Wildcats with starting experience in 2022.
The pitching staff as a whole struggled, with only two pitchers owning an ERA below 5.00, neither of which will be back in 2023. One returner (DeGaetano) had a WHIP below 1.60 and joins reliever Danny Wilkinson (3-5, 6.23) as the only two with a batting average against under .290.
Butler
The Bulldogs were the unanimous pick to finish last in the Big East in Blake Beemer’s first season as head coach after David Schrage retired following the 2022 season. Beemer comes over for his first head coaching gig from his alma mater, Ball State, where he spent four years as the recruiting coordinator.
Butler made its lone NCAA Tournament appearance in 2000, securing the automatic bid from the Horizon League back when it was called the Midwestern Collegiate Conference. It’s been a tough couple of years, with two losing seasons after the COVID-19 pandemic halted a three-year streak of winning seasons to start Schrage’s tenure. He turned it around quickly, as the team hadn’t won 30 games since 2003.
Kollyn Ali (.262/.312/.423), Ryan O’Holleran (.256/.332/.315), Scott Jones (.249/.333/.343) and Billy Wurch (.226/.353/.339) are the four primary returners from 2022 and represent four of the seven qualifying players from last season.
The pitching staff will be carried by Cory Bosecker (0-7, 6.75) as the only pitcher that contributed more than 50 innings last season. He made 14 starts and struck out 69 batters in 68 innings, but gave up too much contact, with 78 hits.
No returning pitcher had an ERA under 4.50 or a WHIP below 1.50. The Bulldogs has a team ERA of 7.56 and batting average against of .308.