He was right. But the no-hitter was all the hard-throwing right-hander lost as Morrison shook off Jacob Jones’ two-out single in the sixth to strike out the next batter and lift his West Side Wilks Insurance Dodgers to the city championship with a 2-0 victory against the West Side Jeff Pohlman Red Sox.
“Tonight was the first night I pushed him a little bit and threw a lot more curveballs than we’ve thrown,” Dodgers manager Tim Nichting said. “I didn’t use him as much as I could have because he’s still got a long season ahead of him.”
The likely No. 1 starter for the West Side All-Stars, Morrison pitched a no-hitter against the Red Sox earlier in the year and lost a 1-0 decision.
In Thursday night’s one-hitter, he struck out 14 while walking just two and hitting one to help the Dodgers cap their 20-2 season with 15 wins in a row.
“He’s a heck of a pitcher,” Red Sox coach Kenny Coomer said of Morrison. “He’s pretty polished. We knew it was going to be a one- or two-run game and would just be a matter of who capitalized.”
Austin McKee drove in the only two runs of the game with a single to left in the bottom of the third to score Christian Halcomb and Johnathan Hetterich.
“I just was trying to get the runs in,” McKee said. “There were two strikes, so I just choked up on the bat and tried to protect.”
McKee’s hit was one of only four allowed by Red Sox starter Bryce Couch. The left-hander struck out 11, walked three and hit a batter in 4 2/3 innings of work. Halcomb had two of the other hits for the Dodgers, finishing 2-for-3, and Alex Weller went 1-for-2 with a single.
“Nobody expected us to have this kind of season,” said Coomer, whose team also finished second in the city last year had a lot of top players move up to the next age group. “We had a lot of young kids who grew up and stepped up this year.”
The other members of the champion Dodgers are Austin Combs, Ethan Combs, Devon Sizemore, Brannen O’Shea, Ryan Waltenbaugh, Luke Waltenbaugh and Zachery Rothert. The assistant coaches were Terry Elkins and Mike Robbins.
The other members of the runner-up Red Sox, who finished 21-2, were Ryan Higgins, Nicholas Engel, Isaiah Rasch, Isaiah Wilson, Austin Hibbard, Garrett Hogan, Cameron Tuley, Cole Heflin and Justin Fields. The assistant coaches were Andy Hibbard and Mike Jones.
Contact this reporter at (
513
)
820
-2
193
or
jmorrison
@
coxohio.com.
About the Author