Baseball Hosts Creighton for Three-Game Series to Close Regular Season

Thursday, May 14

Cincinnati, Ohio

Approx. 5:00 PM

Xavier University

Creighton

Baseball Hosts Creighton for Three-Game Series to Close Regular Season

05.13.26 | Baseball

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Game one between Musketeers and Bluejays set to follow Reds vs Nationals at GABP on Thursday

By: Xavier Athletic Communications

CINCINNATI – Xavier baseball returns home to host Creighton for a three-game series to wrap up the regular season, running from Thursday, May 14 through Saturday, May 15 in Cincinnati.

Game one with the Bluejays will be held at Great American Ball Park, set to begin approximately and hour after the Cincinnati Reds game against the Washington Nationals, which starts at 12:40 PM. The game at Great American Ball Park is free for fans with a ticket to Thursday's Reds game. A limited number of tickets for the Reds-Xavier doubleheader are available starting at $8 at Reds.com/Xavier.

Games two and three against the Bluejays will be held at Hayden Field, with Friday's game set for a 2:00 p.m. start and Saturday's scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. first pitch. Xavier will celebrate Senior Day ahead of Saturday's finale.

All three games of the series will be streamed live on XAVIER+.

The field is set for the four-team BIG EAST Tournament at Prasco Park, with St. John's, UConn and Xavier all standing at 13-5 in the BIG EAST standings, and Creighton currently sitting in fourth place with a 12-6 conference record. The Red Storm hold the head-to-head advantage against the rest of the field after going 2-1 in all three season series, and will wrap up the regular season against Butler. UConn went 2-1 against both Xavier and Creighton, and will close out the regular season against Villanova.

WEEKEND SCHEDULE

Game 1: May 14 - Approx. 1 hour after Reds vs. Nationals game at 12:40 PM at Great American Ball Park.
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Reds - Xavier Doubleheader Tickets

Game 2: May 15 - 2:00 PM
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Game 3: May 16 - 1:00 PM
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BIG EAST STANDINGS

School	Conf	Cpct.	Overall	Pct.	Streak
UConn	13-5	.722	30-23	.566	L1
St. John's	13-5	.722	27-23	.540	L1
Xavier	13-5	.722	25-27	.481	W3
Creighton	12-6	.667	28-22	.560	L2
Butler	8-10	.444	19-32	.373	L4
Georgetown	7-11	.389	26-26	.500	W1
Villanova	4-14	.222	18-28	.391	W1
Seton Hall	2-16	.111	15-28	.349	L3

MUSKETEER NOTABLES

Clay Burdette leads the Musketeers with a .360 average at the plate, the second best in the BIG EAST, and has a team-high 43 RBI and 40 runs scored on the season. Among his team-high 64 hits are 16 doubles, second most in the BIG EAST, with his 0.36 doubles per game leading the conference. His 20 multi-hit games lead the Musketeers.
Burdette also ranks second in the conference and 34^th in NCAA DI with 17 home runs on the season and leads the BIG EAST with 0.38 per game (29^th in DI). His conference-lead 0.758 slugging percentage ranks 18^th in the country.
Josh Stonehouse trails only Burdette in RBIs with 39, leading the Musketeers with 13 multi-RBI games this season, and is second on the team in runs scored at 39. His 13 home runs are second on the team and tied for sixth among freshmen in NCAA DI.
Stonehouse leads the league and ranks No. 12 in the NCAA with 24 hit-by-pitches on the year, a Xavier single season record, and he currently has a team-best 26-game reached base streak.
Ryan Piech has team-best 3.53 ERA through 63.2 innings pitched across 12 starts, ranking fourth in the BIG EAST. He also leads the Musketeers with a 1.19 WHIP and has held opposing batters to a .212 average at the plate.
Piech has a team-best 82 strikeouts, third most in the league, while his 11.59 strikeouts per nine innings rank second best in the BIG EAST. His seven victories are tied for the most in the league.
Ashton Chronister has a 3.86 ERA through 58.1 innings pitched across 15 appearances, including 11 starts. He's collected a career-best 38 Ks while walking just 15 to give him just 2.31 walks allowed per nine innings, a number that leads Xavier and ranks fourth in the BIG EAST.
Garrett Helsel has made 21 appearances, including one start, with a 4.42 ERA through38.2 innings pitched, striking out 39. He has three wins on the season and has collected six saves on year, second most in the league.

CREIGHTON

Creighton enters the final weekend at 28-22 overall with a 12-6 record in BIG EAST play, currently sitting in fourth place in the league standings. Creighton clinched a bid to the four-team 2026 BIG EAST Tournament.
The Bluejays were picked to finish second in the BIG EAST in the Preseason Poll, picking up three first-place votes, and had a pair of unanimious selections to the preseason all-conference team, catcher Connor Capece and RHP Wilson Magers.
Creighton went 43-16 in 2025, posting a 17-4 record in BIG EAST play and earning the No. 1 seed at the 2025 BIG EAST Tournament. The Bluejays went 3-0 at the tournament, taking wins over St. John's, Xavier and UConn to win the league title and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
CU opened up play at the Fayetteville Regional with a win over Kansas before falling to hosts Arkansas. After taking a win over North Dakota State to advance to the Regional Final, the Bluejays were eliminated by the Razorbacks.
Xavier and Creighton are even at 22-22 in the all-time series after the Bluejays went 2-1 in the season series and picked up a win in the BIG EAST Tournament last season.

WEEKLY AWARDS

Xavier outfielder Jorge Valdes earned a spot on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll, the league office announced on Monday.
Valdes, a sophomore from Milton, Ontario, batted .375 through Xavier's 3-0 weekend at Butler, leading Xavier with six hits and five RBIs and matching for team-high with four runs scored for the series.
Valdes picked up an RBI in game one against the Bulldogs. In game two, he finished 2-5 with a walk, driving in an RBI and scoring a pair of runs. In the series finale, Valdes matched his season highs for hits with four (4-6) and RBIs with three, scoring a pair of runs.

2026 BIG EAST TOURNAMENT

Xavier clinched a bid to the 2026 BIG EAST Tournament at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio, and will be joined at the 2026 tournament by St. John's, UConn and Creighton, with seeding dependent on the final weekend of the regular season.
The Musketeers open tournament play on Wednesday, May 20, at 6:30 p.m., with their opponent to be determined.
This is Xavier's 10th appearance in the four-team BIG EAST Tournament since joining the conference, including earning a spot in the event in every season it has been held since 2019.
Xavier advanced to the conference championship series seven times in the Musketeers' nine 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.

2026 SCHEDULE

The Musketeers have faced teams from nine conferences outside of BIG EAST play, as well as Oregon State, which is competing as an independent in baseball this season.
Among the 23 programs Xavier faced this season, 10 played in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, with three teams that took part in the College World Series.
Six teams on the 2026 schedule were ranked in 2026 USA TODAY Preseason Coaches Poll: No. 4 Georgia Tech, No. 5 Arkansas, No. 11 Louisville, No. 12 Oregon State, No. 18 Vanderbilt and No. 23 Oregon. East Carolina, UConn and Cal State Fullerton also received votes in the poll.
Xavier played 17 of the first 18 games on the road, traveling to North Carolina, Arkansas, California and Oregon for the first four weekends of the season.
The Musketeers have traveled to 10 states outside of Ohio as well as the District of Columbia.
Xavier's non-conference strength of schedule has ranked in the top 10 in each of the last three seasons, currently sitting at No. 8 for 2026, after finishing 2025 at No. 5 and 2024 at No. 3.
The Musketeers overall strength of schedule is currently ranked No. 50 for 2026, and also ranked in the top 50 in the last two seasons (2025 - No. 37, 2024 - No. 25).

XAVIER HOME BROADCAST INFO

Xavier Athletics announced that 17 spring home sporting events will be broadcast live via XAVIER+. The baseball and lacrosse broadcasts will be available through a subscription on GoXavier.com.
All 27 home spring sporting events for baseball and lacrosse will be broadcast on either ESPN+ or XAVIER+ .

XAVIER+ Subscription Plans:

Per Game: $10
Spring Season: $120 (includes all 17 games)
Lacrosse Season Pass: $40 (includes all five games)
Baseball Season Pass: $100 (includes all 12 games)
Baseball Weekend Series Pass: $25 (includes all three games in a weekend series vs. St. John's or Creighton)

All purchases are subject to the customer's state sales tax.

A subscription to ESPN+ is required to view the 10 baseball and lacrosse broadcasts. An ESPN+ subscription will also include a number of road baseball and lacrosse contests (determined by the host institution).
A detailed broadcasting list of each home and away baseball and lacrosse contest is available on the sport specific schedule pages at GoXavier.com.

XAVIER VS. CREIGHTON AT GABP

Xavier will host the series opener against Creighton on Thursday, May 14, at Great American Ball Park following the Cincinnati Reds game against the Washington Nationals.
The Reds and the Nationals are scheduled to begin at 12:40 p.m. with the game between the Musketeers and the Bluejays starting approximately an hour following its conclusion.
The game at Great American Ball Park begins a three-game series with the Bluejays, with the remainder of the series running through Saturday, May 16, at Xavier's Hayden Field.

XU TO HOST THE LEAGUE TOURNAMENT

The 2026 BIG EAST Baseball Championship presented by Jeep will be co-hosted by Xavier baseball at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio, in the week leading up to Memorial Day Weekend.
The four-team tournament opens on Wednesday, May 20, 2026 and is scheduled to run through Saturday, May 23, 2026.
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.

BIG EAST PRESEASON POLL

Preseason Player of the Year
Connor Misch, 1B, Sr., Xavier

Preseason Pitcher of the Year
Steven Svenson, RHP, So., Seton Hall

Preseason All-BIG EAST Team *
Sean Finn, RP, Jr., UConn
Tyler Minick, OF, Jr., UConn
Rob Rispoli, SS, R-So., UConn
Connor Capece, C, Jr., Creighton ^
Wilson Magers, SP, So., Creighton ^
JT Raab, SP, Gr., Georgetown ^
Jon LeGrande, OF, Jr., St. John's ^
Shaun McMillan, 2B/DH, So., St. John's
Jayder Raifstanger, 3B, Jr., St. John's ^
John Downing, RP, Sr., Seton Hall
Steven Svenson, SP, So., Seton Hall
Clay Burdette, OF, Jr., Xavier
Connor Misch, 1B, Sr., Xavier ^
Ryan Piech, SP, Jr., Xavier

^ - Unanimous Selection
* - due to a tie in voting, there are extra members on the preseason all-conference team.

BIG EAST Baseball Preseason Poll
First place votes in ( )
1. UConn (5) - 46
2. Creighton (3) - 43
3. Xavier - 37
4. St. John's - 32
5. Seton Hall - 26
6. Villanova - 19
7. Georgetown - 13
8. Butler - 8