Morris rallies to take down Romeoville

Morris' Justin Porter closes out the game against Romeoville.
(Larry Kane/For the Herald News)

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MORRIS -- A word the wise in the high school baseball world. Don't let up against Morris.

Just ask Romeoville.

For the second straight day, the Spartans had the Redskins on the ropes, only to see Morris (5-8, 2-3) stage a comeback for a Southwest Prairie Conference win.

Romeoville took advantage of two Morris errors in the top of the second inning Wednesday to take a 6-0 lead. The Redskins answered with a four-run inning of their own in the bottom of the second, but Romeoville (6-3-1, 2-3) tacked on another in the third and led 7-4.

In the bottom of the fourth, though, Morris plated five runs to take a 9-7 lead and held on for the 11-8 victory.

"We've been down in a lot of games this year." Morris coach Todd Kein said. "A lot of teams would have folded confidence-wise after giving up six runs early, but our kids never think they're out of it.

"There are people out there that don't think we're very good, but we can play a little baseball."

They had to play a little baseball after the second.

Romeoville's Paul Johnson led off with a single down the third-base line, but was forced at second on a bunt back to the pitcher by Brandon Basek. A wild pitch send Basek to second and a Morris error on a ball hit by Jeremy Pociask put runners on first and second. A walk by Jesse Valles loaded the bases before Kyle Lenihan doubled in two runs. Lenihan was out when he overran second.

Dale Cholke then lifted a fly ball to right that looked to have Morris and pitcher Matt Hussey out of the inning, but the right fielder dropped the ball, allowing Valles to score and the inning to continue. Cholke stole second, then came home on a double by Joe Cecchi. Jordan Pemble followed with a bloop single over third that plated Cecchi and, following an infield hit by Anthony Faraci, Johnson delivered his second hit of the inning, an RBI grounder to left that scored Pemble for a 6-0 lead.

"We hit the ball well today," Romeoville assistant coach Adam O'Reel said. "We knew that when the weather got nicer, we would see a little better hitting out of our guys."

Unfazed by the deficit, Morris went right to work in the bottom of the second. Brett Borgstrom (3-for-4) led off with a single and Taylor Bonic followed suit. A walk to Hussey loaded the bases and a single to right by Danny Niewinski scored both Borgstrom and Bonic, cutting the Romeoville lead to 6-2. A single to left by Josh DeGraaf scored Hussey for a 6-3 score and, after a strikeout, David Balzer doubled to right to score Niewinski and make it 6-4. Balzer was 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI doubles, while Niewinski was 1-for-2 with 4 RBIs from the No. 9 slot in the order.

"We have different defensive rotations based on who is pitching, and the role players have to get in there and do their jobs," Kein said. "Danny Niewinski did a great job of that today.

"And, David Balzer is really coming into his own in the No. 3 spot. Everyone on the team -- all the kids and myself included -- have a lot of confidence in him. Now, he just needs to settle into that No. 3 spot because that's where he's going to be."

Romeoville touched Hussey for another unearned run in the third. With two outs, Lenihan hit the second of his three doubles and scored when Cholke reached on an error.

Hussey's line didn't look great, but he still got the win. He went 5 innings, allowing 12 hits and 8 runs. Only 2 of the runs were earned, however.

"Matt didn't get the help he needs in the field," Kein said. "We had some miscues that happened in the same inning and that hurt us. But, he was able to find a groove after that and our bats kept us in striking distance."

The Redskins struck hard again in the fourth. DeGraaf led off by reaching on an error and Ryan Burling singled him to second. A double to left-center by Balzer scored DeGraaf to make it 7-5. Kjeld Torkelson then grounded to short, scoring Burling, and a low throw allowed Torkelson to reach and Blazer to score the tying run. A single to left by Justin Porter chased Cholke, who had relieved starter T.J. Esquivel.

Borgstrom greeted Brandon Basek with an infield single that loaded the bases before Bonic grounded to first and Torkelson was forced at home. Hussey then helped himself with a single up the middle to score Porter with the lead run and Niewinski hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Borgstrom and put Morris ahead 9-7.

Romeoville countered with a run in the top of the fifth. With one out, Valles singled to right, and Lenihan doubled to left, putting runners on second and third. A wild pitch scored Valles, but Hussey escaped further trouble by inducing a pop fly to short and a fly to center.

The Redskins, who go for the sweep today at Romeoville, tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth.

With one out, Bonic walked and Hussey reached on an error, allowing Bonic to get to third. Niewinski then squeezed home Bonic and another error on a ball hit by DeGraaf sent home Hussey for an 11-8 lead.

Morris reliever Justin Porter threw two scoreless innings for the save, striking out 3 and allowing no hits.

"Those two runs in the sixth were huge," Kein said. "Niewinski did a beautiful job getting the squeeze down. It's a lot nicer feeling going into the seventh inning with a 3-run lead opposed to a 1-run lead.

"And Justin Porter had good command when he came in. We knew Romeoville was going to be more aggressive with the bats today, but he came in and did a good job."

For Romeoville, it was a case of what might have been.

"This is the first real offensive outburst we've had this season," O'Reel said. "We've had a couple of games where our pitching and defense really carried us, but today it was the reverse.

"Our pitchers weren't very sharp and we can't give away as many bases and runs like we did. We definitely need to work on our defense and our pitchers need to hit their spots. We gave up some hits on 0-2 counts and then we booted some balls. When we're up on a team early like we were in this game, we need to be able to put them away. We can't do that if we are giving away bases and runs."