One of the signs of a great pitcher is dominating the top competition. Brian Morrisey certainly did that today in Commack’s 7-0 shutout over League 2 rival Connequot.
The Stony Brook-commit struck out 14 batters, allowing only two hits, walking two and hitting one batter as the Cougars improved to 4-0 on the season after last week’s sweep of Central Islip. He was fired up, displaying tons of raw emotion after his clutch strikeouts.
“I just wanted the team to be pumped as much as I was,” said the aXcess pre-season top 30 player. “First series was more of an easy sweep, we had some fun but this series we wanted to come back out really good,” he added.
He impressed the bevy of MLB scouts that were in attendance with advanced feel for three pitches and a high-octane fastball that he overwhelmed the Thunderbirds with.
“I felt great right from the bullpen before the game–everything felt great,” . “Change up was working good, slider was good, trying to keep everything same arm speed and I feel like the change up had good movement today,” he added.
The offense got going right away against starter Chris Ryan, after Peter Theodorellis led off with an infield single, advanced to second on an error and third on a ground ball, Jason Salerno drove him in with a sacrifice fly to center. That was essentially all Morrisey would need on this afternoon but TCU-commit Tim McHugh added an RBI single to center field to extend the lead to 2-0.
That’s 9 strikeouts including five in a row for Morrisey in front of a handful of MLB scouts pic.twitter.com/agDfzDRYVn
aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) April 10, 2017
In the second, Theodorellis hit a well-struck triple over the center fielder’s head to make it 3-0. They added three more in the third on a two-run single by Johnny Pohlman and a sacrifice fly.
Connetquot mounted a rally in the fourth inning on a lead off double, walk and hit by pitch. With the bases loaded, Morrisey was able to bear down and record a strikeout of the very dangerous Jared Yalon with a nasty change up down in the zone.
The Cougars added another run in the fourth on an RBI double by Jake Jacobs to score Salerno who reached on a fielder’s choice. Jacobs was 3-for-4 with two runs scored as well.
Morrisey noted that the early offensive production allowed him to settle in.
“That was just quality baseball by the guys. I was feeling good about everything–about the whole team and I was ready to go.”
