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MORRIS – The Morris baseball team might not have played its best game Wednesday against Interstate 8 Conference rival Sycamore, but it was more than enough to come away with a 10-1 win and complete a sweep of the Spartans.
The big inning for Morris (22-6, 14-0 I-8), which has clinched the conference title for the third straight season, came in the bottom of the fifth. Morris scored six runs on one hit, a two-run double by Ximi Baftiri, to break open a 4-1 game.
“Their pitchers were a little wild in that inning,” said Baftiri, a shortstop who has committed to Evansville. “I came up with the bases loaded and wanted to hit the ball hard. He threw me what I think was an inside changeup, and I was able to hit it hard and bring everyone home.
“We know we are capable of playing better, and we will have a good practice tomorrow to fix some things. Our defense is usually very good, but we were pressing a little bit today. It helped that [pitcher] Brett [Bounds] worked quick and hit his spots. It makes it a lot easier to play defense when the pitcher is working fast and throwing strikes. We can’t get back on our heels if they do that.”
Baftiri’s double down the left-field line scored both Merek Klicker and Steven Wagner, and a throwing error allowed Landon Norris to score and Baftiri to reach third. Earlier in the inning, both Wagner and Norris got an RBI by walking with the bases loaded, and Baftiri scored on a grounder to second by winning pitcher Bounds.
Bounds threw the first five innings, allowing one unearned run on five hits while striking out six and walking three. Wagner threw the final two innings, allowing two hits and striking out one.
The normally sure-handed Morris defense was guilty of three errors, and there were several fly balls that dropped because of a lack of communication between the fielders.
“We were lackluster today in multiple phases,” Morris coach Todd Kein said. “This is a good time of year for us to be reminded of who we are. There are some things that are acceptable and some thing that are unacceptable, and we did quite a few unacceptable things today.
“We have to get ourselves refocused. There’s still a lot we want to do. We want to win as many games as we can, and we still have a make-up conference game left with La Salle-Peru, and we would love to go through the conference unscathed. That’s not easy. Our guys have made it look easy at times this season, but it’s not easy.”
Bounds worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the top of the first with a strikeout and a groundout. He stranded another runner in the second and two in the third before the Spartans (15-13, 7-8) got on the board. Sophomore Ben Anderson led off the inning with a single, and Henry Hamingson followed suit. An out later, Tyler Lojko grounded to third and Hamington was forced out at second. The relay throw got away and allowed Anderson to score.
That was the extent of the offense for the Spartans, who got two hits from Adam Eder and Kyle Prebil. Sycamore used four pitchers in the game, sophomores Jackson McDonald and Anderson, junior Hunter Hoerschler and freshman Sawyer Valdez.
“Morris is such a talented, well-coached team,” Sycamore coach Jason Cavanaugh said. “If you make a mistake, they jump on it, and we made our share of mistakes. In their big inning, they got six runs on one hit. They can also throw a very good arm at you every day.
“We didn’t have a very good approach at the plate. We were rolling over a lot of balls, and that leads to weak grounders or strikeouts. We wanted some of our young pitchers to get some experience against a good team, and they did a decent job. Now we have a week to get Morris out of our system and get things together for the postseason.”