The University of Connecticut baseball team, seeded second, will begin the BIG EAST Championship on May 20 against third-seeded Xavier at Prasco Park. The game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and will be available to stream on ESPN+ and broadcast on 97.9 FM Fox Sports Radio with Mike Crispino and Adam Giardino, as well as MIXLR with Chris Jones.
The tournament features a double elimination format. St. John’s holds the top seed and will face fourth-seeded Creighton earlier in the day at 2:30 p.m.
The BIG EAST Conference announced its regular season awards ahead of the tournament, with UConn sweeping major honors: Jackson Marshall was named Player of the Year, Cayden Suchy received Pitcher of the Year, and Cam Righi was selected Freshman of the Year. The Huskies also placed four players—Marshall, Suchy, Charlie West, and Peyton Jemison—on the All-BIG EAST First Team. Nater Wachter, Anthony Belisario, and Rob Rispoli were chosen for the Second Team.
UConn has a history of success in conference tournaments with six titles overall—five in the BIG EAST (1990, 1994, 2013, 2021, 2022) and one in the American Athletic Conference (2016). Entering this year’s event they hold a record of 58-41 over their previous twenty-six appearances in BIG EAST Tournaments since rejoining in 2021.
This season’s starting rotation has been a strength for UConn; pitchers combined for twenty-four quality starts led by Suchy (nine), West (eight), Pudvar (six), and Hale (one). West (106 strikeouts) and Suchy (104) are only the second duo from UConn to each surpass one hundred strikeouts in a single season. The pitching staff leads several statistical categories within both conference play and nationally—including earned run average (4.39), shutouts (five), strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.70), walks allowed per nine innings (3.29), victories by Hale and Pudvar (seven each), as well as league-leading ERAs from Suchy (2.50) and Hale (2.89).
Offensively Jackson Marshall is having an impressive debut season after transferring from Southern New Hampshire; he ranks twelfth nationally with eighty-three hits while leading his team—and conference—in batting average (.382), doubles nineteen times over sixty RBIs along with fourteen home runs during a forty-five-game streak reaching base safely.
Anthony Belisario returned to action midseason after limited play early on; since then he has hit .353 across seventeen games contributing twenty-four hits alongside ten RBIs while helping guide UConn to twelve wins during that stretch.
