Morris baseball falls to Sycamore, 6-2

Redskins manage just 5 hits in Interstate 8 loss

MORRIS – The Morris baseball team had it chances Wednesday in a 6-2 Interstate 8 Conference loss to Sycamore. The Redskins, despite mustering just five hits on the day, left 11 runners on base. Sycamore was able to capitalize on a couple Redskins mistakes in the top of the fifth inning to score four runs and put the game away and award coach Jason Cavanaugh with his 500th career win.

“Jason Cavanaugh is a friend,” Morris coach Todd Kein said. “We graduated from the same high school [Ottawa Township High School] together. He is a very good representative for high school baseball and he has done a heck of a job over 20-some years.

“He runs a good program and they are good on all levels year in and year out. I am happy for him to reach that milestone. I wish it wasn’t against us, but it’s a great achievement for him.”

The Spartans got on the board first in the top of the second on an RBI single by Byron Blaise, scoring Jimmy Amptmann, who had singled and reached second on a wild pitch. Sycamore tallied another run in the top of the third when Joey Puleo drew a bases-loaded walk to score Blake Novinsky. Blaise had three of Sycamore’s eight hits, while Novinsky and Amptmann each had two.

Morris (4-4, 4-4) tied it in the bottom of the third. Aiden Romak led off the inning with the Redskins’ first hit, a single to left, and Nathan Jepson walked. An out later, Cody Bledsoe ripped a two-run double to right, scoring both Romak and Jepson. Matt Lawton followed with a walk, but both runners were left on base. Morris also left two runners on in the second and fourth innings, left the bases loaded in the sixth and had another runner on when the game ended.

“You aren’t going to beat any Sycamore team if you leave 11 runners on base,” Kein said. “We had a lot of opportunities. We got one big hit, but we needed more.

“We can hang our hat on the fact that we had a lot of runners on, but now we need to be able to get them home. We’ve had some games where we score a few runs in an inning, but that’s it. We need to do it more than once a game.”

Sycamore put runners on first and third with one out in the top of the fifth, chasing Morris starter Colin Cummings. Blaise greeted reliever Ryan Fischer with a single to score Ethan Storm before Kiefer Tarnocki was hit by a pitch. An out later, Novinski was hit by a pitch to score Puleo, who had walked, and an errant throw on a grounder to third allowed the final two runs to score.

“We had a chance to get out of that inning with only one run scored,” Kein said. “But, we hit a guy on an 0-2 count, and then we made an error. I know that no one wants to make mistakes in that situation, but those are things we have to execute.

“Colin executed our game plan well today. He definitely deserved a better fate with the way he threw the ball. We gave up 15 runs to them Monday, and we were tied at 2 in the middle of the game. We just didn’t give him the offensive support.”

Cummings struck out seven in his 4 1/3 innings, allowing four runs, all earned, on six hits. Fischer fanned five in his 2 2/3 innings, allowing two unearned runs on two hits.


Rob Oesterle

Rob Oesterle

Rob has been a sports writer for the Morris Herald-News and Joliet Herald-News for more than 20 years.