For the past four years, the La Salle-Peru baseball team struggled against Morris.

The Cavaliers lost their 13th consecutive game to Morris on Monday.

But L-P bounced back to tie the series on Thursday for its first win over Morris since April 21, 2022.

On Friday, the Cavs fell behind early but responded to win 8-4 to win the opening Interstate 8 Conference series.

“It’s huge,” L-P coach Matt Glupczynski said about winning the series. “We’ve had battles with Morris for a long time. But the last four years or so, they’ve taken it to us. They’ve had some great ball clubs the last four years. So for us to be able to not only take two of three for conference, but to take two of three from them, it feels really good.”

Glupczynski said he hopes the series win over Morris can give the Cavs (7-7, 2-1) momentum.

“I think our guys are proving to themselves how good they can really be,” Glupczynski said. “We told them, as coaches, we like our team and we like how gritty they are. They just have to believe in themselves. I think this series, they really believed in themselves and we’ve seen it come through. I’m expecting it to be a shot in the arm for us.”

Morris (5-9, 1-2), which went 83-18 over the last three seasons, is still trying to find itself.

“I’ve been telling everybody we are a work in progress,” Morris coach Todd Kein said. “We had a lot of guys with no varsity experience (coming into the season), but at this point, conference play has started. That’s why we play all the games before conference opens. You have varsity experience, but we’re still seeing a lack of maturity and just a lack of situational awareness that we’re continually trying to knock out as much of that as we can.”

Morris did get off to a good start Friday with a pair of runs in the first inning.

Mick Smith led off with a double to deep left field and Logan Conroy followed with a walk. Bryce Lee and RJ Kennedy delivered sacrifice flies for Morris.

“I thought we competed well early,” Kein said. “It’s nice to come over here and put up a couple quick runs, but as our younger guys are learning, you certainly can’t get comfortable. I feel like we didn’t compete as well as we are capable in the box consistently throughout the game. I thought we gave their starting pitcher a good opportunity to settle into the game after a little bit of a shaky first inning.”

L-P starter Tyler Spelich kept Morris hitless and scoreless over the next three innings and the Cavs capitalized to take the lead.

With one out in the third, John Sowers and Jett Hill walked before Grey Ernat hit an RBI single to right field.

Ceyton Urbanski followed with a two-run single to left.

The Cavs extended their lead to 4-2 on an RBI double that the wind pushed away from the right fielder, scoring Gavin Kallis.

Morris tied it when Smith launched a two-run home run in the top of the fifth, but the Cavs took the lead for good with two in their half of the fifth on RBI singles by Braylin Bond and Kallis.

“We went down 2-0 and the kid kind of settled in for them, but we kept battling,” Glupczynski said. “We got three (in the third) and flipped the momentum. They answered back, which we knew they would, but our guys kept grinding. They kept fighting. I’m so proud of them and how they kept competing.”

L-P tacked on two insurance runs in the sixth when Bond was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Kallis delivered his second RBI single of the game.

The Cavs finished with eight hits and capitalized on nine walks and a hit batter issued by the Morris pitchers.

“We waited for our pitch,” Kallis said. “A lot of their guys were messing up, so we decided to wait for our pitch. Wait for them to give us one and then do what you can with the ball, whether it’s put it in the air, get someone over or put it on the ground and get someone in.”

Spelich pitched into the fifth inning for L-P, allowing four runs (three earned) on five hits with two strikeouts and two walks. Geno Argubright threw three scoreless innings of relief, giving up one hit with three strikeouts and one walk.

Conroy was the losing pitcher for Morris. Smith led Morris at the plate, going 2 for 4 with a home run, a double, two RBIs and two runs.

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Morris's Brycen Johnson is tagged out at second base by L-P's Jett Hiil after overshooting the bag on Friday, April 17, 2026 at Huby Sarver Field in the L-P Athletic Complex in La Salle. (Scott Anderson)