Adam Cecere gets emotional discussing possible end of his career as Penn State advances to Big Ten Tournament championship

No. 8 seed Penn State earned a berth in the Big Ten Tournament championship game on Sunday with a 7-6 win over No. 4 seed Michigan on Saturday afternoon. And once again at the center of it all was right fielder Adam Cecere.

Cecere came up with a go-ahead, two-run home run in the top of the 10th inning to give the Nittany Lions a 7-5 lead over the Wolverines. In his final year of college ball, Cecere was honest with the Big Ten Network broadcast about his emotions as he tries to keep Penn State alive, as one more win will have the Nittany Lions in the NCAA Tournament.

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“Yeah I’m going to be honest, it gets to push come to shove,” Cecere said. “And I said after the first game, when we need it, we seem to get it, so let’s see what we can do. And it’s been like that ever since, you know. I love baseball, I love this game and I don’t know what I would do without it. So when I stare at the end of my career, like when I come out and potentially play a game that could end my career, you know, you’ve gotta post up. You can’t let it happen. And it’s really that simple.”

Facing Michigan pitcher Jacob Denner after more than 100 pitches of a relief outing in extra innings, Cecere was expecting him to keep working up and in, as he had all day.

And that knowledge, plus a word of encouragement from mom, helped Cecere uncoil on a fastball and deposit it hundreds of feet away in the right field bullpen.

“Hats off to those guys,” Cecere said of the Michigan pitchers. “They were giving us fits throughout the whole game. But he was coming up and in all game and I’m a big boy, I get that barrel to it and good things happen. I choked up a little bit, heard my mom hit me with a ‘Here we go bud’ and that was that.”

Cecere had some good humor as he expanded on what it means to have his parents in the stands pulling for him, with dad bearing the brunt of the joke.

“Yeah, well I hear my mom and it’s always good, I hear my dad and I’m like, ‘Alright man, that’s enough out of you,'” Cecere said with a chuckle. “I’m just kidding, he’s great over there. I love ’em both. My support system’s unbelievable. Shoutout to everybody back in Nittany nation. Shoutout to everybody back in Johnston, Pittsburgh. Shoutout to Unc, he wanted a shoutout. So I’m feeling really good.” 

And playing at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska, is an emotional spot for Cecere, too. He was on the Wake Forest team that lost the College World Series final to LSU there last summer prior to transferring to Penn State.

His voice caught slightly as the emotion welled up when he discussed being back.

“I walked off this field last year not feeling the way I wanted to feel. And I gotta go get it tomorrow. So let’s do it,” Cecere said.