Big East clearing a path for Bulls

As USF's baseball team prepares for its semifinal Friday afternoon with eighth-seeded Connecticut, the rest of the conference is giving the Bulls a dream path to the school's first Big East crown.

USF already had the benefit of getting Thursday off, giving them a nine-inning advantage in the Pitching Depletion Department over everyone but Louisville, which also had Thursday off. Then UConn, the lowest seed in the tournament, eliminated top-seeded St. John's, and thanks to Rutgers' 12-10 win Friday morning, the Knights and the Cardinals will have to play again Friday night to decide who advances to Saturday's championship game.

So if USF can beat Connecticut this afternoon -- the Bulls took two of three from the Huskies in their regular-season series -- they'd have a nine-inning advantage on Louisville, and potentially 18 fewer innings of pitching fatigue than Rutgers if the Knights were to advance. With a pitching staff as delicately thin as USF's has been in the past month, it's the kind of break USF absolutely needed to pull off the tournament run they're enjoying this week.