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Bloomington edges Normal West in pitchers duel

May 16, 2014

By Steve Nielsen
Scouting Director – Illinois/Wisconsin

NORMAL, IL – On a wet day in Central Illinois, tied for second place in the Big 12 conference, Bloomington (16-14, 7-2) edged Normal West (16-14, 6-3) 1-0 in an epic pitcher’s duel that featured 26 strikeouts in the game.

Juniors RHP Charlie Cerny (Bloomington) and RHP Reid Birlingmair (Normal West) had their fastballs going on Thursday and both used them primarily to rack up strikeout after strikeout. Although losing the game, Birlingmair won the strikeout contest fanning 15 batters in seven innings allowing just two hits. Cerny struck out 11 in his seven inning effort scattering just two hits as well and walking two, without allowing a run.

The game winning run came in the third when Bloomington’s TJ Christensen led the inning off with a single, but the defensive miscues led to the eventual run. A failed pick-off attempt that went into right field allowed Christensen to get to third, two batters later a safety squeeze by Jack Henderson led to a throwing error on West’s catcher and the eventual game winning run. Birlingmair went on to strike out the side in that inning, and struck out the side in three of the seven innings pitched.

Bloomington’s Cerny was sharp all game, adding and subtracting from his fastball and reaching back late in the game when he needed to. The majority of his 11 strikeouts came via the fastball and Cerny allowed just one base runner to reach second base. His seven innings were highly efficient facing just 23 batters, two over the minimum; finishing with a flurry striking out the last five of six outs.

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