CHRIS MANNING/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Keystone shortstop Gio Cej swings at a pitch during the team's Section 3 major tournament game against Elk Lake on Saturday, June 12, 2025, at Sam Fairbanks Memorial Park in Athens. Keystone won 7-2.

ATHENS – On Sunday night at Sam Fairbanks Memorial Park, the Keystone major baseball team took on a familiar foe in Selinsgrove in hopes of advancing to Tuesday’s Section 3 championship game. The result was another defensive slugfest, one where Keystone once again came out on top.

Gio Cej put together his best performance of the summer, never leaving much room for doubt behind a 12-strikeout, one-hit shutout from the mound. And though the Keystone bats struggled to convert their eight hits into runs, a pivotal fourth-inning run was enough to give them the edge, as the team edged out Selinsgrove, 1-0.

“I think it was a good team win,” said Keystone manager Matt McDermott on the team’s performance. “Defensively, we’re strong. Offensively, we were putting the ball in play and only had one strikeout. If you’re only getting on strikeout through six innings, that’s pretty good.”

The crucial game-winning run came at the tail end of a chaotic fourth inning. After Hunter Kisko got to first on a Selinsgrove error, shortstop Jaxon Orndorf would get him into scoring positive with a one-out single on a grounder to right.

Both runners would keep moving on some uncharacteristic pitching from Selinsgrove, each getting into scoring position on third and second on a wild pitch before the defining moment occurred. Though Selinsgrove attributed outs on both the ensuing at-bats, a passed ball with two outs allowed Kisko to get home, giving Keystone a 1-0 lead it would never relinquish.

Offensively, there was room for improvement, as Keystone managed to get a runner in scoring position in every inning with little to show for it, even loading the bases in the second. But with that pivotal sequence, the team now has more time to focus on its hitting in scoring position.

“You’ve just got to make the best of what you’re given,” said McDermott when discussing the team’s offense on Sunday. “Hopefully in the future, some of those big hits will fall down when we have runners in scoring position.”

From there, it was just a matter of maintaining the lead, which Cej and his field managed with little issue. Through the last two innings, just one Selinsgrove batter got on base off a walk, a trend that was active from first pitch onward.

After giving up a two-shot homer in Saturday’s opening sectional matchup against Elk Lake, Cej bounced back and then some in the run back, retiring the side in the first with three strikeouts and never looking back.

He and his field would go on to retire the side in the next two frames. And though Cej’s prospects at a no-hitter/perfect game ended in the fourth, when Selinsgrove managed a two-out single, he wouldn’t buckle. He had a strikeout in every inning, three in the first, two in the second, third, fourth and sixth, and one in the fourth, punching out 60 percent of the batters he faced on the day.

“Gio threw a heck of a game,” said McDermott on Cej. “He looked like the old Gio. He’s getting more reps, and I think the speed is starting to come back, along with the locating of pitches. So, he’s looking good.”

“If we had some more key hits, I would have pulled him earlier, but you’ve got to win today and worry about tomorrow,” he added when considering upcoming pitching.

With the win, Keystone moves on to Tuesday’s Section 3 championship game, where it’ll face the winner of Tri Valley and Selinsgrove at 5:30 at Sam Fairbanks Memorial Park in Athens.

It heads into that matchup with room for error, with Wednesday’s if-game there if the team falters. But for McDermott and his team, that’s not something that’s being considered at this time.

“I told the kids that we’ve just got to buckle down, get those key hits in key moments and go from there,” said McDermott. “These pitchers (Adam Meyer and Gio Cej) are done for this tournament, so we’re gonna have other kids on the mound. The defense has to do their job, and I think as long as that happens, we’ll be good to go.”