Baseball Heads to Knoxville to Face No. 7 Tennessee

Tuesday, March 19

Knoxville, Tenn.

6:00 PM

Xavier University

Tennessee

Baseball Heads to Knoxville to Face No. 7 Tennessee

03.18.24 | Baseball

Live Stats Live Stream

Musketeers and Volunteers are set for a 6:00 start on SEC Network +

By: Xavier Athletic Communications

CINCINNATI – Xavier baseball heads out on the road for another Top-10 match-up, traveling to No. 7 Tennessee on Tuesday, March 19, set for a 6:00 p.m. start on the SEC Network +.

Xavier is 9-11 after going 1-2 against Indiana State last weekend, taking a 4-2 win in game three with the Sycamores on Sunday afternoon.

INDIANA STATE NOTABLES

The Volunteers are 18-3 on the season, coming in at No. 8 in D1Baseball.com rankings and No. 7 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
Tennessee finished 2023 at 44-22 overall and 16-14 in SEC play.
The Volunteers earned an at-large NCAA bid, going to the Clemson Super Regional where UT picked up wins over Charlotte and Clemson to advance to the Regional Final, then topped Charlotte in the Regional Final to go to the Super Regional in Hattiesburg, Miss.
Tennessee picked up back-to-back wins over Southern Miss in the Super Regional to advance to the College World Series.
The Vols fell to LSU in the opening game of the CWS, and picked up a win over Stanford, before being eliminated by LSU.

XAVIER NOTES

Graduate student Jonathan Kelly will make the start on the mound on Tuesday, his first start of the season and fifth as a Musketeer. He's made 81 career appearances headed into the game with Tennessee, tied for fifth most in program history, with Trey Schramm holding the record with 101 career appearances.
Jake Hooker and Alex Vera have each made 10 appearances out of the bullpen. Hooker has a 2.57 ERA through 14.0 innings pitched while Vera has a 9.28 ERA in 10.2 innings pitched. Each has 13 strikeouts.
Connor Bailey has made nine appearances, including a pair of midweek starts, with a 4.76 ERA through 17.0 innings of work with 15 strikeouts.
First baseman Matt McCormick has reached base in all 20 games for the Musketeers this season, and currently has an average of .311, has team highs in home runs (6) and walks (13) and matches Hayden Christiansen for team-high in hits hits (23) and RBI (18).
DH Hayden Christiansen enters the week with a .307 average, and matches McCormick as team-leader in hits and RBI after hitting home runs in all three games against Indiana State.
Isaac Wachsmann has a .393 average at the plate and a .732 slugging percentage, with both marks best among Xavier's everyday players. He's reached safely in each of the last 14 games.
Second baseman Jared Cushing has a team-best five-game hit streak entering the game with the Volunteers.
Third baseman Luke Hammond moved to the top of the order for Sunday's game against Indiana State, finishing with a career-high four hits (4-of-4). For the season, he's batting .279.

WEEKLY AWARDS

Right-handed pitcher Nick Boyle earned a spot on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll after helping Xavier to the 4-2 win over Indiana State on Sunday, the league office announced on Monday
Boyle, a senior from Goshen, Ky., set a new career-high for a third-straight week, finishing with 11 strikeouts, the most for a Musketeer this season, helping Xavier to a 4-2 win over Indiana State on Sunday. He went a career-long 7.0 innings, allowing just one earned run on three hits and two walks and picked up the win to move to 3-0 on the season.

RETURNING MUSKETEERS

The Musketeers, who received votes in the NCBWA Preseason Poll, return seven every-day players from the 2023 roster that won the program's fourth BIG EAST Championship and made the program's fifth NCAA appearance. The Musketeers took part in the 2023 Nashville Regional, advancing to the Regional Finals before wrapping up the season at 39-25, tying the school record for wins (Also set in 2009).
Matthew DePrey, the 2023 All-BIG EAST First Team selection at catcher, started all 64 games behind the plate for the Musketeers, tying the Xavier single-season record for appearances. He batted .278, primarily hitting No. 2 in the order, with 10 doubles and a team-high matching 14 home runs among his 73 hits, finishing the season with a .475 slugging percentage. DePrey, who drove in 42 RBI and scored 50 runs last season, was named to D1Baseball's Preseason Top 50 Catchers list.
Preseason All-BIG EAST selection Matt McCormick was a second-team all-conference pick last season after starting in 62 games, mostly at first base. McCormick batted primarily in the five-hole, finishing with a .309 average for the season. He had 12 doubles and team-high matching 14 home runs among his 69 hits for a .552 slugging percentage, best among Xavier's everyday players, driving in in 44 RBI and scoring 40 runs. He also had 32 walks on the season, leading Xavier's starters with a .421 on-base percentage. McCormick was named to D1Baseball's Preseason Top 50 list for first basemen.
Preseason All-BIG EAST selection Jared Cushing was the All-BIG EAST Second Team pick at second base in 2023, after starting in a school-record matching 64 games. He batted .284, finishing the season with 71 hits, including 10 doubles, a triple and a team-high matching 14 home runs for a .500 slugging percentage, driving in 50 RBI and scoring 43 runs. Cushing, who was named to D1Baseball's Preseason Top 50 list for second basemen, posted a .980 fielding percentage and helped the Musketeers turn 35 double plays.
The league's preseason pick at third base, Grant Stephenson, was a 2023 All-BIG EAST Second Team selection after batting .236 on the season, with a .313 average at the plate in BIG EAST play. He finished with 10 doubles and three home runs among his 48 hits, driving in 29 RBI and scoring 27 runs.
Outfielder Garrett Schultz, was a 2024 Preseason All-BIG EAST Selection after starting in 39 games at center field last season. Schultz, who dealt with a mid-season injury in 2023, batted .278 with 40 hits, including six doubles and three home runs. He drove in 23 RBI and scored 17 runs.
Carter Hendrickson played in 58 games last season, starting in 55, splitting time between right and center field. The junior batted .250 for the season, collecting 46 hits, including eight doubles, a triple and five home runs, and drove in 23 RBI and scored 39 runs. He finished with an on-base percentage of .398, taking 31 walks on the season. He was hit by pitches 15 times, second most in a single season in Xavier's records. During the BIG EAST Tournament, he batted .308 through four games, going 4-of-13 with two walks and scoring four runs to earn All-BIG EAST Tournament Team honors.
After dealing with an early-season injury, Tyler DeMartino started in 43 games for the Musketeers, including 41 at DH, batting .255 primarily in the cleanup spot. He finished the season with 40 hits, including five doubles, a triple and 10 home runs, driving in 32 RBI and scoring 28 runs. DeMartino was named to the BIG EAST All-Tournament Team after batting .308 through the four games of the tournament, finishing 4-of-13 at the plate with three walks and three hit-by-pitches, driving in three RBI.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

Xavier returns home next weekend, hosting VCU for a three-game series at Hayden Field.
The Musketeers remain at home to host Wright State on Tuesday, March 26, set for a 3:00 p.m. start.
XU hosts Bowling Green for three-game series the following weekend, starting Thursday, March 28 and running through Saturday, March 30.
Xavier is scheduled to face are nine programs that played in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, including four teams that advanced to a Super Regional and a pair of teams that competed in the College World Series.

BIG (EAST) SUCCESS

In 2023, Xavier finished second in the BIG EAST regular season and won the BIG EAST Tournament Championship to earn a bid to the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2017. Xavier, the No. 2 seed in the league tournament, beat the No. 3 seed Seton Hall in the opening game and No. 1 seed UConn in the winner's bracket to advance to the Championships series. UConn took game one of the series, forcing a deciding game seven of the tournament, where the Musketeers posted a five-run ninth inning to come from behind and take the 7-3 win and clinch the title.
The 2023 championship was the program's fourth tournament title in the nine times the league has held the event since Xavier joined the conference for the 2013-14 season.
The Musketeers have made the four-team BIG EAST Tournaments seven times since joining the conference, including every season the event has been held since 2019.
Xavier has advanced to the conference championship series in each of its seven trips to the league tournament, claiming the tournament championship four times (2014, 2016, 2017, 2023) and finishing runners up three times (2019, 2021, 2022). Xavier also won the regular season title in 2016.

PRESEASON PICKS

Xavier, coming off the 2023 BIG EAST Tournament Championship, was picked to finish second in the league, earning a pair of first place votes in the coaches' poll.
Four Musketeers earned Preseason All-BIG EAST honors, as voted on by the league's coaches, including a trio of infielders, Matt McCormick, Jared Cushing and Grant Stephenson, as well as right-handed pitcher Luke Hoskins.

Preseason Player of the Year
Jake Studley, OF, UConn

Preseason Pitcher of the Year
Stephen Quigley, SP, UConn

Preseason All-BIG EAST Team*
C – Owen Carapellotti, Georgetown
1B – Matt McCormick, Xavier ^
2B – Jared Cushing, Xavier
3B – Grant Stephenson, Xavier ^
SS – Max Viera, Seton Hall
DH – Jack Grace, Creighton
OF – Joey Urban, Butler
OF – Jake Studley, UConn ^
OF – Devin Hack, Seton Hall
SP – Garrett Coe, UConn
SP – Stephen Quigley, UConn ^
SP – Dominic Cancellieri, Creighton
SP – Cody Bowker, Georgetown
SP – Luke Hoskins, Xavier
RP – Ryan Reich, Seton Hall

^ - denotes unanimous selection
* due to a tie in voting, there is an extra member on the preseason all-conference team.

BIG EAST Baseball Preseason Poll
First place votes in ( )
1. UConn (6) – 48
2. Xavier (2) – 44
3. Seton Hall – 35
4. Creighton – 29
4. Georgetown – 29
6. St. John's – 17
7. Butler – 14
8. Villanova – 8

XU TO HOST THE LEAGUE TOURNAMENT

The 2024 BIG EAST Baseball Championship presented by Jeep will be co-hosted by Xavier baseball at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio, during Memorial Day Weekend.
The four-team tournament opens on Wednesday, May 22, 2024 and is scheduled to run through Saturday, May 25, 2024.
The BIG EAST announced in 2023 that Prasco Park would extend the partnership, which began in 2018, with Xavier remaining the co-host of the annual postseason tournament through 2028.