Xavier baseball had a dream run to a regional final last season after upsetting UConn to win the the BIG EAST Tournament title. 

Now, with the 2024 college baseball season already here, Xavier baseball’s future is at a crossroads.

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UConn is still the league-favorite, and if the Musketeers want to get back to the national postseason, they’ll have to go through the Huskies yet again. 

But after what Xavier did in 2023, is a hangover on the horizon—or is the start of a golden era in XU baseball just beginning?

Here’s all you need to know about Xavier baseball ahead of the 2024 season, which includes an early-season three-game series with Top 25 talent Indiana State. 

How Did Xavier Baseball Do In 2023?

Take a bow, Xavier baseball. You set a high standard in 2023. 

After three consecutive trips to the championship series of the BIG EAST Tournament all came up empty, the No. 2-seeded Musketeers finally secured the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament again by upsetting regular-season champion UConn. It was Xavier’s first spot in a regional since 2017. 

Sent to the Nashville Regional, hosted by powerhouse and No. 6 national seed Vanderbilt, Xavier didn’t budge, taking out Eastern Illinois, before shocking the Commodores in an elimination game. That set up a meeting with Oregon (which the Musketeers lost to in their opening NCAA tourney game) for a chance to get to a Super Regional for the first time. 

The Ducks dashed those dreams by beating Xavier in the regional final, but when the dust settled, the Musketeers had tied their program record for wins in a single season (39), firmly establishing that the BIG EAST isn’t just UConn and a bunch of cupcakes. 

Starting pitcher Brant Alazaus, outfielder Andrew Walker and catcher Matthew DePrey were first-team All-BIG EAST picks, while right-handed pitcher Ethan Bosacker was selected in the 13th round of the 2023 MLB Draft by the Kansas City Royals.

Who Coaches Xavier Baseball?

A Cincinnati-born former Xavier catcher, Billy O’Conner became head coach in 2017 after six years as an assistant there, with a one-year stint as a volunteer assistant at Northern Kentucky mixed in. 

O’Conner does not have a winning overall record at Xavier across his six seasons (152-154 entering the 2024 season), but his teams do generally get it done in BIG EAST play (61-41 conference record). The heights the Musketeers reached in 2023 showed that postseason ball is possible for other teams in the BIG EAST. 

His teams generally love having a ton of offense—Xavier in 2022, for example, destroyed the program record for home runs (100) by over 30 and established a program-best for runs scored with 450.

Many of those gaudy offensive trends continued into 2023, as Xavier once again led the BIG EAST in homers (88) and brought home 407 runners in all, which ranked second in the league only to UConn.

Has Xavier Baseball Ever Won The College World Series?

No, Xavier baseball has never won the College World Series. 

The Musketeers made their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2009 and haven’t yet advanced out of the regional round in their five opportunities.

Notable Returning Players

Matthew DePrey, C

From being an off-and-on starter his first two seasons at Xavier to turning into the Musketeers’ Mr. Consistent behind the plate, Matthew DePrey owned the backstop and tied the school’s single-season record for appearances by starting in all 64 games in 2023. He was one of four players on the roster to do so. 

XU’s only returning first-team All-BIG EAST nod, DePrey will be aiming to build off his career-best numbers from a season ago, which included a .278 average, 14 home runs and 42 RBIs, along with the fact that he caught 21 baserunners stealing. 

Matt McCormick, INF

A Chicago native, Matt McCormick left college baseball for a year after spending two seasons at West Virginia (2020-2021), not playing ball at all in 2022. 

Xavier sure is glad McCormick decided to take its offer and give the college game another go. 

McCormick will have a major role in Xavier’s plans on offense as the only player on the roster to return an over-.300 average (.309 last year). 

His on-base percentage of .421 and slugging percentage of .552 in 2023 were the best figures among the Musketeers’ everyday starters, and his 14 homers matched DePrey and the also-returning Jared Cushing for the team lead, too. 

Notable Newcomers

Matthew Aukerman, RHP

After losing two of its weekend starters in Bosacker and Alazaus, Xavier had to look far and wide for some experienced arms, and it has seems to have found one from the Division III level in Matthew Aukerman. 

A three-year starter at John Carroll (located outside of Cleveland), Aukerman had below-average numbers for the Blue Streaks, until an explosive senior season made him one of Division III’s top aces.

In 2023, Aukerman posted an 8-0 record with a 1.88 ERA and a .186 opposing batting average allowed. 

He even threw a no-hitter in 2023 en route to being named a D3Baseball.com first-team All-American, and the 6-foot-4 righty parlayed his success into a subsequent move to the Division I level. 

Terry Murray, RHP

There might just be something the Musketeers’ coaching staff likes about 6-foot-4 right-handers transferring in from Division III, because they’ve got two new ones this season. 

Terry Murray is the other one, along with Aukerman, with the former coming in from Rhode Island College after being named his former league’s pitcher of the year. 

Holding an 8-2 record with a 2.57 ERA and 77 strikeouts over 70 innings in his final season in Division III, Murray was rocking with an ERA under 2.00 until a blowup final start of the year, and the bullpen could be where Murray sees himself early in his first season with Xavier. 

Xavier Baseball Schedule 2024

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2024 Xavier Baseball Roster 

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