Ben Cejka mowed down Salisbury hitters through six innings and got through seven before turning it over the the Eagles' bullpen.  d3photography.com photo by Steve Frommell

Postgame news conferences

By Pat Coleman
D3sports.com

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. -- Senior right-hander Ben Cejka started with six shutout innings and the bottom half of the UW-La Crosse order came through twice as the Eagles dispatched with Salisbury in the teams’ opener at the 2015 Division III World Series, 7-3.

• Jim and Pat recap Day 1 (video)
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• Cortland-Webster photo gallery
• Emory wins opener for first time
• World Series scoreboard

La Crosse, which improved to 34-13, will face Emory in the winner’s bracket of the second pool, with the game scheduled for 7:45 p.m. CT. Emory defeated Trinity (Texas) 9-7 in the pool’s other first-round game. Trinity and Salisbury are scheduled to meet at 4:30 in the elimination game of the second pool.

Cejka struck out nine batters, seven of them in a span of nine outs, en route to his eighth win of the season. He gave up two runs in the seventh and Caleb Boushley came in to finish it out.

Joel Zyhowski, the No. 8 hitter, who came into the game hitting .216, was credited with two hits and also walked in four trips to the plate, while Travis Buxton-Verstegen had two hits, including an RBI double, to fuel rallies in the second and fourth innings.

UW-La Crosse got on the board with the help of a couple of infield errors and a blown call in the bottom of the second. Bryce Barsness reached on an error to start the inning as Salisbury shortstop Pete Grasso misplayed a ball, and Shane Adler followed with a bunt attempt that first baseman Kyle Goodwin bobbled and dropped. After an infield grounder moved the runners up, Zyhowski pushed a bunt beyond the pitcher into the dead space between first and second. Brett Collacchi recovered and made the throw in time to beat Zyhowski, but first base umpire Sheldon Wheeler called him safe. Barsness scored and Adler followed on an infield grounder by Eric Vatch.

“I thought that the ball beat him and he said it didn’t,” said Salisbury coach Troy Brohawn. “There’s nothing else I can do or say about it. That’s what he saw. My angle’s a little different.”

"It’s a good hard 90 (feet). That’s what we talk about," said UW-La Crosse coach Chris Schwarz. "You get down the baseline, doesn’t matter if you pop up, you ground out, hit a double in the gap you’re running hard out of the box. In Joel’s case, that’s what he did. Did his job and busted down the line every single time and good things happen."

In the fourth inning, Barsness led off with a walk and the Eagles got extra-base hits from Buxton-Verstegen and Alex Cordova sandwiched around a Zyhowski single as part of a three-run rally off Collacchi.

The bottom three hitters in the order (Buxton-Verstegen, Zyhowski and Eric Vatch) combined to go 4-for-9 with four RBI.

"We have some grinders at the bottom," said Schwarz. "Joel (Zyhowski), Buxton, Eric Vatch, Adler, just some grinders and that’s what they do is play good hard baseball."

Meanwhile, Cejka was dealing. He got Danny Breen to wave at a pitch for strike three with a runner on third to end a Sea Gulls threat in the first inning. The senior went on to fan four batters in a row and struck out seven out of nine the first time and a half through the order.

Cejka got himself into trouble in the fourth, when he walked back-to-back-to-back batters to load the bases with two out. Kyle Goodwin battled through a long at-bat before chopping out to third, however, ending the threat.

"I put myself into a couple of jams and had to pitch my way out of it," Cejka said, "but just getting tough and listening to my team and knowing they had my back and knowing my whole team was behind me was huge for getting out of those tough jams."

"He came at us first pitch, lot of fastballs," said Goodwin, who was 2-for-4 with a run scored. "He just commanded the zone real well.”

UW-La Crosse played in front of the largest crowd of the day, with many fans making the three-hour trip from the other side of the state. "We’re at the World Series," Schqwrz said. "None of these guys and none of these coaches, including myself, have been here before. It was a little bit anxious and exciting and a good type of nervous."