The bar was already set pretty high for Shoreham-Wading River athletes when Brian Morrell stepped foot on the high school field for the first time. They already had Keith Osik (1987) and Mike O’Reilly (2012) win the coveted Carl Yastrzemski Award.
Even with that, Morrell re-wrote the school’s record books during his remarkable five-year career. He graduates as the program-leader in career games played (123), at bats (476), hits (164), doubles (34), triples (8), home runs (26), RBI (124), runs scored (134) and total bases 292). He won 23 games on the mound with 295 K over 213 IP and a 1.15 ERA.
Head Coach Kevin Willi stated that while he was “clearly the best player the program has ever had”, you would never know it by how he carried himself.
“For a five-year varsity player and three-year captain, Brian never put himself above the team,” said Willi. “He was always a team-first player and he always said his goal was to win a championship. The other players were never in awe of him because they grew up with him and they recognized what a special player he is. He did a good job of just being one of the guys.”
This year he performed like a super-human between the lines.
The Notre-Dame commit compiled a record of 10-1 on the mound with 93 strikeouts, a 1.28 ERA over 67.1 IP while firing three no-hitters. He finished his career with six no-hitters. He also batted .494 with 7 HR, 39 RBI and .899 SLG and 37 runs scored. He saved some of his best work for the postseason when he smacked grand slams in consecutive games en route to their first Suffolk County title since 2012.
“For him to win this award twice means so much for the program,” he added.
The Wildcats had a phenomenal season, winning 20 consecutive games leading up to the Long Island Championship before finally being defeated by Wantagh–the two-time reigning Class A Long Island Champions.
While they will be graduating 16 seniors this season, Willi noted that they will be returning a tremendous pitcher in Ryan Mullahey who flew under-the-radar this year due to Morrell’s performance but he was 7-0 and threw 31.1 IP before allowing his first run of the season.
“We really have a good core of younger players and nobody knows who we will be coming out with next year.”
The loss of players like Morrell, Nick Manesis, Miles Kelly and Tommy Brady will be undoubtedly hard to replace, but tonight is about celebrating the accomplishments of one of the best players to ever step foot on a Long Island baseball field.
