Morris baseball gets past LaSalle-Peru

MORRIS – Baseball, it is said, is a game of inches.

An inch here or there in your favor can mean the difference between a win and a loss.

On Friday afternoon, the inches were in Morris’ favor during the Redskins’ 5-3 win over Interstate 8 Conference rival LaSalle-Peru.

In the bottom of the fifth, with L-P leading, 2-0, Morris’ Matt Lawton led off with a single. Colin Cummings followed with a grounder to short. Lawton was forced out at second, but Cummings beat the relay throw by half a step. An out later, Bryce Quevedo walked and Nathan Jepson followed with an RBI single to score Cummings to cut the Cavalier lead to 2-1.

Owen Burns singled through the middle to load the bases. With Cody Bledsoe at the plate, the L-P catcher tried to pick courtesy runner Aiden Romak off of first, but the ball sailed into right field, allowing Quevedo and Jepson to score and give Morris (4-2, 4-2) a 3-2 lead. Bledsoe then doubled to bring home Romak, and Bledsoe scored on an errant throw on a ball hit to second by Parker Skubic.

“That was great hustle by Colin Cummings to beat that double play,” Morris coach Todd Kein said. “Then Jepson gets an RBI and so does Bledsoe. It was nice to see some seniors step up in critical spots.”

L-P (2-6) did not go away easily, however.

In the top of the seventh, the Cavaliers loaded the bases with no outs. A fielder’s choice to short by Aiden Van Duzer scored Jack Scheri to make it 5-3 with runners on first and third. Nolan Van Duzer started his at-bat with a grounder down the third base line that was inches foul. Later in the at-bat, he hit a line drive down the left-field line that was also just inches foul before striking out. A fly out to center ended the game.

“For five innings, we were flawless,” L-P coach Matt Glupczynski said. “The fifth inning got away from us a little bit. We walked the No. 9 hitter with two outs and then threw the ball away on a back pick. We got in our own way again. We are a young team and we will learn.”

The Cavaliers scored twice in the top of the third off Morris starter Ryan Fischer. With one out, L-P starting pitcher Mason Lynch singled and went to second on a wild pitch. A fly to right by Scheri moved Lynch to third, and Lynch scored on a throwing error on a ball hit to third by Drake Weber. A wild pitch sent courtesy runner Kaedyn Oberholz to third, and Oberholz scored on another wild pitch for a 2-0 lead.

“This game kind of had two chapters,” Kein said. “I had hoped after the way we lost over there Wednesday (10-9), we would come out fired up, but it was L-P that had the energy early. Then, we had a big inning in the fifth and reestablished the tone in our favor. It got a little shaky at the end, but we got it done.

“We have been harping on our offense in the early going, but we need to shift our focus to the mound. It has been a staff problem falling behind hitters, and in high school baseball, that’s playing with fire.”

Brennan Johnson got the win for Morris in relief of Ryan Fischer. Fischer threw the first four innings, striking out four and walking two while allowing three hits. Johnson allowed one run in his two innings, with Paul Mitchell getting the final three outs for the save.

Bledsoe had two hits, including an RBI double, to lead the Morris offense, while Jepson (RBI), Burns, Lawton and Cummings all had a hit.

For L-P, Julius Sanchez and Bill Mini each hit a double, while Aidan Van Duzer had the only RBI.