Scrappy Plum Junior Legion team shows promise under new coach

By: Michael Love
Saturday, June 17, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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The Plum Junior Legion baseball team picked up a key Westmoreland County league victory June 14 with a 10-9 triumph over Connellsville at Plum High School.

It was the third win for Plum this season and one head coach Markus Cestra hoped would help the team build additional momentum towards a stretch run to the playoffs.

“We faced a pretty good Penn-Trafford team (June 1), and they beat us 15-2. Then we played them again at their place a week later, and it was a 1-0 game in the fifth or six inning,” Cestra said.

“They fight and battle. They really do. I think we got overmatched a couple of times, but there’s been several times we’ve had close games where we had opportunities to score runs but just weren’t able to get a key hit. This is a scrappy team that doesn’t give up, and I feel their best games are ahead of them.”

Plum is the youngest team in the nine-team league, and it experienced a high level of turnover from last year. Only four players — John Nonnenberg, Andrew Verrengia, Brady Linhart and Brennan Ryan — are back from last year’s team, which qualified for the playoffs but fell short of its goal of advancing to regionals.

Plum’s victory over Connellsville snapped a four-game skid. The teams played a second game the same night, and it ended in a tie to put Plum’s record at 3-5-1.

Cestra is about a month removed from the conclusion of his baseball playing career.

The former Plum standout continued on at IUP and maintained a high level of success on the collegiate diamond. He earned All-PSAC West first-team honors for 2023.

Cestra signed on to be the new Plum coach in February, early on in his fifth-year season at IUP.

“One of the players’ dads on the team, who is my chiropractor, texted me and said last year’s Junior Legion coach is no longer doing it, and they were looking for coaches to keep the team together,” Cestra said. “They were having a difficult time finding someone, so they asked me. I always wanted to coach when I was done playing, so I thought this would be a really great opportunity to get my foot in the door this summer.”

Cestra said he hopes to take a little bit away from each of the coaches he’s played for, including Carl Vollmer with Plum varsity, Mike Kosko at the youth level and Steve Kline at IUP.

“I just want to see what works and continue to develop my coaching style,” said Cestra, who played for the Plum Senior Legion team three years starting his freshman year at Plum while also coming up in the ranks with Plum and AAU travel teams.

“It was a weird feeling to know that my playing career, at least for now, is over. It was one heck of a ride. It just went so quick. Now, I am starting a new chapter this summer with a good group of guys, and I am grateful for this coaching opportunity I have.”

Cestra said around 10 of the 15 on the Plum Junior Legion roster are pulling double duty with a travel team this summer.

“It is a lot of baseball for them, but it works out,” he said. “They will play Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and all of our (Junior Legion) games are usually during the week, Monday through Thursday. They like that because they love playing the game. Some of the pitchers I have to keep an eye on because they might be throwing during the weekend, so I want to see when I can throw them and how much I can throw them.”

Cestra said that knowing that one’s time on the baseball diamond can go by so fast, he wants to make sure his players savor each opportunity to play and not take it for granted.

“We’re always working on bringing more energy to the field,” Cestra said. “As soon as they got done with school, I was like, ‘Guys, you just come here and play baseball now. There should be a lot of excitement to do this.’ We’re always looking for guys to step up and be leaders.”

Plum has games remaining in the regular season against Smithfield, Uniontown and Ligonier Valley.

Each of the nine teams play the other eight teams twice for a 16-game regular season.

All nine teams qualify for the playoffs set to start early next month. The seeding for the tournament is based on regular-season records.

The top two teams from the WCYL playoffs qualify for the Western Regional tournament.

The third-place team from the league also will qualify if it can beat the Indiana County champion in a play-in game.

The top three teams from regionals head to states.

Murrysville is the defending state champion, and Penn-Trafford won the state title in 2021.

Also representing Plum Junior Legion this summer are Lukas Duncan, Marques Brown, Michael Stover, Miles Duncan, Tyler Baleno, William Peifer, Zander Cobb, Caden Svidron, Cam Napierkowski, Grant Clark and Jacob Scheible.

“One thing that coach Kline told me is that once you get to the playoffs, it’s just different,” Cestra said. “Anything can happen with a new opportunity. We just have to clean up a couple small things that hurt us early on in the season in order for us to get over that hump.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.