Plum grad Markus Cestra earns All-PSAC honors

Michael Love, The Valley News-Dispatch, Tarentum, Pa.
·3 min read

May 13—Markus Cestra started his fifth-year season for the IUP baseball team in an offensive hole.

The Plum graduate and Crimson Hawks infielder began the 2023 campaign 1 for 13 through four games.

But in his fifth game, a victory over Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East foe East Stroudsburg, he broke out with three hits in five at-bats. He doubled, homered and finished with a pair of runs batted in.

Indiana cruised to a 9-1 victory.

Cestra continued to play well from there. He entered the PSAC playoffs on a 16-game hitting streak and played a role in IUP's 8-1 first-round thumping of East No. 1 seed and nationally ranked Millersville on May 10.

For his efforts throughout the season, he was named to the All-PSAC West First Team.

In the Millersville upset, Cestra led off, played second, and finished 1 for 4 to extend his hitting streak to 17 games.

His sacrifice fly to right in the fifth put IUP up 8-0.

Millersville was eliminated with the loss, and the Crimson Hawks moved to the second round.

Cestra hoped to keep his streak alive last Thursday (May 11) as IUP faced East No. 3 seed West Chester.

Cestra entered the matchup with West Chester tied for second on the team in batting at .335 (55 for 164) with 37 RBIs and 38 runs scored while owning 10 doubles, two triples and six home runs.

He also was a perfect 8 for 8 in stolen base attempts.

Cestra's 38 career doubles through the Millersville victory ranked him fourth in program history.

His double against Millersville put him eighth in IUP history with 162 hits.

Cestra earned All-PSAC West second-team laurels as a senior in 2022. He set a program single-season doubles record with 22 as he started all 47 games. He hit a team-best .369 and added four triples and five home runs while driving in 30.

Sante continues to fuel Presidents

The Washington & Jefferson baseball team finished the regular season 28-12 overall and 17-3 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference, and senior Evan Sante was a big part of the Presidents' climb to the No. 1 seed for the PAC tournament that was to begin last Thursday (May 11).

W&J won its final three games, and the Plum graduate went 5 for 11 with four RBIs, two doubles and a home run.

Sante raised his batting average to a season-best .312 (39 for 125) with 36 RBIs, eight doubles and five home runs.

Multi-hit games against both Otterbein and Allegheny gave him 10 for the season. He went a season-best 4 for 4 with a double and a triple, four runs batted in, and two runs scored in a 10-3 win over Chatham on April 8.

His walk-off double five days earlier in a 2-1 win against Grove City helped the Presidents salvage a PAC split with the Wolverines.

W&J was to host Westminster in the first round of the four-team double-elimination PAC tournament. The tournament winner earns and automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship.

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at 724-226-4665, mlove@triblive.com or via Twitter .