Holmen’s Cejka breaks school records on way to victory
APPLETON, Wis. – It’s called small ball. Perhaps it was strategy. Perhaps it was spur of the moment. Whatever the reason, the UW-La Crosse baseball team broke out, not the bats, but the bunts, to take the pressure off in its first-ever College World Series.
Salisbury, ranked fifth in Division III, was here a year ago, but it was the Eagles that looked like the veteran team. The Sea Gulls committed four errors Friday.
The Eagles played small ball to score two runs early and soared after that, defeating Salisbury 7-3 at Fox Cities Stadium in a rollercoaster and record-breaking performance for Holmen, Wis., native, Ben Cejka, on the mound.
The 6-foot-3, 220-pound junior struck out nine in eight innings for the win. Those strike outs moved him to No. 1 all-time at UW-L with a 191 in his career, passing Tom Klawitter’s 185 (1977-80). The win ties him with Jack Gurholt (1976-79) with 18 for a career. And he’s also three outs away from passing the innings-pitched record of 235, held by Tim Verthein (2009-13).
The Eagles (34-13) play at 7:45 p.m. Saturday against Emory (30-13), which took advantage of three errors to defeat 15th-ranked Trinity, 9-7. If the UW-L wins Saturday, it’s not inconceivable that Cejka sees the mound Monday, in what could get him those two school records, not to mention, a National Championship.
In the opener, Friday, however, it seemed like everything went the Eagles’ way. Cejka put runners on the corners with two outs in the first inning, but got out of it unscathed, and the offense took some of the pressure off in the second in a very unusual way.
It went something like this for UW-L’s offense that inning: 1. reached on error, 2. bunt/error putting runners on first and second, 3. sacrifice bunt, 4. bunt-single for a 1-0 lead, 5. fielder’s choice to the pitcher for another run.
The Eagles went up 2-0 and hadn’t gotten the baseball out of the infield in the inning. They waited until the top of the fourth to do that.
There, Bryce Barsness walked to start the inning, and Travis Buxton-Vers scored him with an RBI double to right-center field – the ball finally leaving the infield and then it was contagious.
Joel Zyhowski followed with a single to right field and Eric Vatch hit a sacrifice fly to right for another run. Alex Cordova followed with another RBI double and that was all the runs Cejka needed.
But it was a good thing his offense got him a 5-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth. The junior pitcher started things off in the inning great with a pair of strikeouts, but he proceeded to walk the next three batters to load the bases. With that lead, having the bases full and two outs isn’t exactly the end of the world, and Cejka, again, came away unscathed, getting the final batter on a groundout.
By the seventh, up 6-0, the two runs Cejka gave up to the Sea Gulls (33-5-1) on two hits, were of little consequence.
Now things turn to Emory.