Back against the wall can be an uncomfortable position.
But sometimes that discomfort reveals a team's true character and it reminds them what they're playing for.
That's what has happened to Xavier University's baseball team over the last 24 hours.
After losing to top-seeded Connecticut, 11-1, Thursday in the opening round of the Big East Conference Tournament at Prasco Park in Mason, the Musketeers have refused to go out quietly or easily.
Facing elimination Friday night against Seton Hall – in a game that started after 10 p.m. because of a prolonged storm system and didn't finish until nearly 1:30 a.m. Saturday – Xavier won 4-2 behind seven strong innings from starter Lane Flamm, which led to another elimination game about 14 hours later against Creighton Saturday evening.
Xavier sophomore Jonathan Kelly strolled to the mound in the bottom of the ninth inning with the Musketeers nursing a 2-1 lead and walked the leadoff batter to put the tying run on base. Two batters later, after a flyout to left field, Kelly allowed a single that advanced the tying run to second base and put the game-winning run at first.
Unaffected by the pressure or the magnitude of the win-or-go-home moment, Kelly confidently closed the game with back-to-back strikeouts, finishing off a six-out save that sends Xavier through to Sunday's Big East championship against UConn, a team Xavier will need to beat twice in order to win the title and earn the Big East's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
"Not done yet, that's what we've been saying the last couple days," Xavier head coach Billy O'Conner said. "After the game last night, we talked about one day at a time, stay positive, believe. We talked about 2009 when I was on the team and we won (the conference tournament) and how we came through the losers bracket there and I said the biggest thing was we all believed. We knew we were gonna do it. The minute doubt starts to creep in that's when you're in trouble, but if you believe it with all your being you can make it happen and where we're at, I love our team. I love our pitching depth, I love our offense. We're executing. We're competing like crazy. We've got a tough challenge tomorrow against UConn having to win two against those guys with the way they're playing right now, but man, it's one game at a time right now."
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The Musketeers had options for who would start Saturday's game on the mound.
O'Conner said sophomore Ethan Bosacker was an easy choice – that proved to be true.
Bosacker, a right-hander from Minnesota, got off to a rough start. He allowed a double to the first Creighton batter he faced and the Bluejays scratched a run across with three hits in the first inning.
Bosacker didn't flinch, though. He got the train back on the tracks, and cruised over the course of seven dominant innings, allowing five hits with six strikeouts.
"I made a few mistakes early and they're a good team," Bosacker said. "That's what they do, they take advantage."
From the third inning to the sixth, Bosacker didn't allow a hit. He leaned on his favorite pitch, a breaking ball cutter that carved Creighton up like a Thanksgiving turkey.
"That's my go-to, my bread and butter," Bosacker said of his cutter. "In high school, I called it a cutter because I thought I could throw it harder and that would make it have later break, but I wanted a slider so I tried to throw a slider and it wouldn't break that much so I'm like, well, it's just a crappy slider, so I'll throw a cutter and it's late, it moves when it needs to so I just rode with that ever since."
O'Conner said, "Ethan's been really good for us. He's a super competitive kid. He's got really good stuff, throws a bunch of strikes. He can throw multiple pitches for strikes and this (performance) is well within his character. We had our choice of who we wanted to start today. We had some different options. Ethan was our guy. Hands down, no doubt about it. He's a guy who thrives in big situations and he's not gonna back down from a challenge. We knew he'd step up."
Bosacker also knew the team behind him would step up and they did.
"If I give up a run I'm not worried and I know I don't have to pitch perfect to win games just knowing the defense I had behind me," said Bosacker. "I wasn't worried about my strikeouts, I wanted them to put the ball in play because I got guys behind me that will do the work for me."
Xavier scored its two runs in the third inning. Sam Olson drew a leadoff walk and Luke Franzoni was hit by a pitch behind him. A wild pitch advanced both baserunners, then Jack Housinger lifted a sacrifice fly into right field that scored Olson and a balk followed that plated Franzoni.
This season marks the fifth time since joining the Big East that Xavier has qualified for the conference tournament as one of the top four teams in the league.
The Musketeers have now reached the championship series all five times they've played in the conference tournament (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021), and Xavier's won the title in three of the four previous trips, only coming up short in 2019.
Xavier and UConn play at 1 p.m. Sunday at Prasco Park and the game will be televised on Fox Sports 2. If Xavier wins, that game will be followed by another to crown a champion.
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