Xavier baseball falls to St. John's, will play Georgetown Friday for spot in finals

MASON, Ohio − A long day for Xavier baseball at Prasco Park began with an exciting 3-2 extra-inning victory over top-seeded UConn.

It ended just before midnight with the Musketeers falling in another thriller as St. John's rallied late for an 8-7 victory to secure a berth in Saturday's Big East Tournament Championship.

Xavier now faces No. 3 Georgetown in an elimination game on Friday afternoon (3 p.m.) with the winner getting another crack at the Red Storm on Championship Saturday.

Keenan comes through for Johnnies again

One day after St. John's catcher Jimmy Keenan hit a walk-off two-run homer in the first round against Georgetown, the sophomore delivered in the clutch again.

With Xavier leading 7-6 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Keenan crushed a go-ahead two-run homer to left field off of Musketeers' right-hander Jonathan Kelly that proved to be the game-winner. Keenan finished 3-for-5 with four RBI.

St. John's left-hander Ben Adams tossed three innings of two-hit shutout baseball to keep the Musketeers at bay before the Red Storm offense could jump in front. Junior closer Sam Mettert struck out the side in the ninth inning to send St. John's to the Big East Tournament Championship for the first time since 2018.

Bats were alive early

After Xavier and UConn finished off a two-day pitchers' duel in a box score littered with zeroes, the Musketeers and Johnnies engaged in a high-scoring showdown that featured 15 combined runs and 29 total hits.

St. John's jumped on Xavier starter Luke Hoskins in a three-run first inning highlighted by two-out RBI knocks from Marty Higgins and Paul Orbon.

Xavier finds an answer in the bottom of the order

The Musketeers have been a resilient team all season and wasted no time bouncing back early in Thursday night's semifinal.

Facing St. John's first-team All-Big East starting pitcher Mario Pesca, Xavier immediately answered with a three-run second inning with an RBI single by catcher Matthew DePrey and a two-run hit from shortstop Grant Stephenson.

The bottom of Xavier's order wreaked havoc on St. John's pitching for the majority of the night as its 7-8-9 hitters combined to go 6-for-11 with two walks, a hit by pitch and five RBI.

St. John's took a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the second but again the Musketeers had a response. Connor Misch's fielder's choice in the fourth made it 5-4 and Xavier grabbed the lead in a three-run fifth inning thanks to a two-run bunt single from DePrey and a run-scoring base hit from Aedan Anderson.

Logan Schmidt saves Xavier's bullpen

With Hoskins lasting just one inning, Xavier head coach Billy O'Conner called upon junior right-hander Logan Schmidt to eat up innings out of the bullpen.

After a bumpy start, Schmidt recovered to turn in 5 2/3 innings of three-run ball over a 103-pitch effort in his first appearance in 13 days.

Kelly, just hours after throwing 51 pitches in three innings in the win over UConn, was tagged with just his third loss of the season.

Musketeers and Hoyas face off Friday

There have been four games so far in the Big East Tournament that have been decided by a combined five runs. Xavier and Georgetown are no strangers to close-scoring thrillers after the Musketeers notched a pair of ninth-inning rallies earlier this month in College Park, Maryland to take two of three from the Hoyas.

Xavier needs a victory to reach the Big East Championship for the fifth consecutive season. Georgetown knocked out No. 1 UConn, 10-9, in 10 innings Thursday afternoon in a game that featured eight lead changes.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Big East Tournament: Xaver falls to St. John's, will face Georgetown