Whatever you thought of Creighton or Villanova or Butler before tonight can be forgotten as BIG EAST conference play finally kicked off today.
In a surprising turn of events, the Wildcats of Villanova beat Xavier in the most bizarre way imaginable, with Xavier’s ace Zac Lowther going 8 innings of no-hit ball, striking out 16 and putting out an unbelievable performance. In the 9th he walked the leadoff batter and was promptly pulled, with the no-no still in tact, to give way to shutdown closer Taylor Williams. Williams walked two batters and eventually gave up two consecutive singles to let Villanova, the worst RPI-ranked BIG EAST team, win over the reigning conference champion.