UConn’s baseball team had its chances, but could not get the big hit it needed with the Big East championship on the line Saturday.
Creighton defeated the Huskies, 7-4, to capture the conference tournament in Mason, Ohio, leaving UConn (38-21) to wait, watch and sweat out the NCAA Tournament selection process. The Field of 64 will be revealed Monday.
UConn, which staved off elimination on Thursday and Friday, left 11 men on base, went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left the bases loaded in the second, third and seventh innings. The only runs came on solo home runs from Beau Root and Caleb Shpur, and a two-run homer by Ryan Daniels in the ninth. The Bluejays chipped away at seven UConn pitchers for enough runs to win, as Tate Gillen knocked in three runs, two on a double in the bottom of the eighth that put the game out of reach.
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Creighton (41-14 overall, 17-4 in the league) shared the Big East regular-season title with UConn, but the Jays won three of four games head to head.
In the NEC, Central Connecticut knocked off top-seed LIU, 8-6, in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., to get coach Charlie Hickey his 800th career victory and move within one win of securing a trip to the NCAA Tournament, which would be the program’s ninth. Brady Short and Kyle Gordon each knocked in two runs for the Blue Devils (30-14), who will play either Wagner or LIU on Sunday, needing to win one of a two games. Aidan Redahan, the NCAA’s leading hitter, had three more hits to raise his season batting average to .464.
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In the MAAC Tournament, Fairfield beat No.1 seed Rider, 11-1, to advance to the final on Sunday. The Stags will play either Quinnipiac or Rider on Sunday for the championship.
With Creighton in, UConn, which has played in the last six NCAA Tournaments and 10 of 14, and Xavier, both in the top 40 in RPI, are on the Tournament bubble. Normally, the Big East wouldn’t get three teams, but most bracket analysts project all three as No. 3 seeds. The outcome of other conference tournaments will impact the number of spots available for teams outside the power conferences.