College Notebook | Freshman Luke Sefcik is a force for Chippewas

By Mike Walsh
Correspondent

Luke Sefcik, a Marist graduate who is playing baseball at Central Michigan, was named the Mid-American Conference’s Player of the Week for April 10.

The redshirt freshman second baseman hit .625 while helping the Chippewas to a 3-1 record for the week. He collected 10 hits in 16 at-bats, drove in six runs, totaled 10 bases and stole three bases in four games.

Sefcik opened the week with two hits in a 6-3 nonconference win at Oakland, then had three hits in CMU’s series-opening victory at Northern Illinois. He added five hits and four RBI — both career highs — in the Chippewas’ 17-7 victory over the Huskies on April 8.

Sefcik’s hit streak ended at eight games in the Chippewas’ 6-5 loss on April 9. The Palos Heights resident reached base twice, once when he was hit by a pitch and again when he walked. He drove in two runs on a pair of sacrifice flies.

Sefcik leads the team with a .322 batting average. He is fourth in slugging (.422) and tied for fifth in runs scored (24).

He has an OPS of .840 to go with three doubles, two home runs, 18 RBI and 38 total bases in 27 games (25 starts).

Travis raking for Tritons

Missouri-St. Louis softball player Irene Travis has been chosen to the 2023 Tucci/NFCA Division II Player of the Year Watchlist.

Travis, a Sandburg graduate from Orland Park, has started all 42 games this season. The senior shortstop leads the Tritons (26-16 overall, 12-6 Great Lakes Valley Conference) in batting average (.396), hits (59), triples (4) and total bases (87), and is second in RBI (34), third in home runs (4) and runs scored (23), and fourth in doubles (8).

Lauding Luka

Wabash College sophomore faceoff Luka DiFilippo received North Coast Athletic Conference Men’s Lacrosse Athlete of the Week honors for February 20 after his record-setting performance in the Little Giants’ season-opening 16-9 win over Anderson.

In that match, the Evergreen Park resident who prepped at Mount Carmel, won a single-game record 25 of 29 faceoffs. He won all five faceoffs in the final period to earn the new record, breaking the old mark of 21.

DiFilippo also broke the Wabash single-game ground balls record, scooping up 18 in the win over Anderson and erasing a four-year-old mark of 14.

On the season, DiFilippo has started all 13 matches for Wabash (7-6). He has won 194 of 330 faceoffs for a .588 percentage to go along with 100 ground balls, one goal, two assists and three points.