Xavier Baseball 2023

[X-band '01]

Also looking at the attendance for the first 2 nights - Xavier/Seton Hall drew 4,010 fans and Xavier/UConn drew 4,824. That's pretty close to capacity for Prasco Park; think they'll easily get to 5K for Championship Saturday.

Tomorrow will be a different story as Xavier awaits the winner of Georgetown/UConn in the 5 PM game.

[muskiefan82]

Winners bracket feels so good

[Masterofreality]

One more win to a Big East title. Pitching is ready to go with Luke Hoskins now in line for the 2:30 game and Luke Bell should they need the 6:00 game on Saturday.
.

I don’t know, man. A 4.63 ERA for Hoskins and a 7.00 plus run ERA for Bell doesn’t make me very comfortable. Especially how UConn can mash.
That game (trying to stay positive about 1 win only) might be a 13-12 slugfest.

[X-band '01]

Clay Schwaner looked like he was struggling early in the bottom of the 9th as well, but UConn was foolish enough to try to steal off of him and ended up short-circuiting any chance they had of putting together a rally. If you're talking about the top two guys in the bullpen, Justin Loer only faced 2 batters on Wednesday and Jonathan Kelly faced 1 batter last night. They are ready in case either Hoskins or Bell has to leave the game early.

And as for UConn, keep in mind they were fortunate to get by Georgetown in their opener. They can rake but their pitching has a lot of question marks right now. Their best pitcher from last year is unavailable due to injury and even last night a reliever had to leave the game in the midst of a 3-0 count. They are more than capable of winning 3 straight games but it's not going to be easy.

[Masterofreality]

I just have a feeling that this will be a “bullpen game” not named a bullpen game.

[X-band '01]

Last night COULD have been a bullpen game - Hoskins was getting a little "just in case" work in from the 2nd through the 4th inning; Jonathan Kelly was keeping warm from the 5th inning on until he was finally called in the bottom of the 8th.

That said, the odds of Hoskins at least getting into the 5th or 6th inning are a lot higher than Luke Bell; he's been more relegated to weekday starter of late. Would love to see Georgetown pull the upset today; I can't imagine they have pitching depth to get 3 wins in 2 days.

[X-band '01]

At this point we can probably rule out Georgetown advancing to the championship tomorrow. UConn's opened a six-pack on the Hoyas' pitching staff.

[bobbiemcgee]

"Xavier all of a sudden is now on the right side of the bubble as a projected three-seed and while a Big East championship would clinch an NCAA Tournament berth for the Musketeers, they can feel pretty good about their resume thanks to their 36 wins, top-50 RPI and a non-conference strength of schedule of 57."

- Baseball America

[X-band '01]

I would leave nothing to chance tomorrow. I just feel fortunate that UConn used their one-time ace against Georgetown instead of against Xavier.

[Masterofreality]

I just have a feeling that this will be a “bullpen game” not named a bullpen game.

Unfortunately Xavier’s pitching is proving out my fears. 3 pitchers. Down 5-3 after 6.
C’mon bats, get hot.