HADLEY — The Hopkins Academy baseball team held on to a narrow 5-4 victory over Sabis behind a strong starting performance from Jon Morrison Wednesday.
The sophomore went six innings, struck out 10 and allowed three runs on three hits.
The right-hander shut out the Bulldogs through five innings as the Golden Hawks improved to 2-0. Morrison credited his early dominance to pitch location and changing speeds.
“I think I was able to spot my fastball well in the early innings,” he said. “I kind of fell away from that in the sixth inning, had some walks and it worked up my pitch count a bit. But for the most part I thought I spotted my fastball well which allowed me to mix in some offspeed stuff.”
With a 5-0 lead, Morrison allowed three consecutive walks to open the sixth. With the bases loaded, a dribbler down the line got through third baseman Nick Delaney’s legs, scoring two runs. A passed ball followed as Sabis pulled within 5-3.
“I think it was just a matter of it being early on in the season and having to build up my pitch count,” Morrison said of his late-game struggles. “That was the most I’ve pitched since around August, so I just have to work on that and build up my endurance.”
Trevor Fil closed the door in the seventh. After a sacrifice fly that narrowed the margin to 5-4, the junior induced a foul pop out with the tying run on second base.
Going into the season, Hopkins head coach Dan Vreeland knew starting pitching was a position of strength on his team.
“Jon has a lot of experience. Patrick Michalak has a bunch of experience who we haven’t seen yet this season. Brett Morrison hasn’t had a lot of experience but he’s got a hell of an arm and Fil cleaned up two games for us so far,” Vreeland said. “I’ve seen a lot from my starting pitching, I know the starters are good and we have to rely on that, considering we lost so many bats from last season.”
The offense was powered by a big fifth inning, all with two outs. After Caleb Wintsch reached on an error and both Brett Morrison and John Earle reached via walk, senior center fielder Zack Yahmen cleared the bases with a double as Hopkins led 4-0.
After getting picked off at first base earlier in the game, Yahmen was eager to come up with the big hit.
“Coach was talking to me before the at-bat and pretty much just told me to relax,” he said. “I know I had that bonehead play early on in the game, so I knew I just had to come through for my team.”
Earle and Fil pitched in with a third-inning RBI double and fifth-inning RBI single, respectively.
Despite a lineup that featured four underclassmen, Vreeland believed his younger players’ experience in other sports helped with their composure in a tight game.
“I think it comes from them playing big games in other sports at this school,” he said. “The younger kids that I do have, like (first baseman) Mike Curran, he’s played big soccer games here and (second baseman) John Earle has played big basketball games here. So even though they haven’t been here for very long and they’re young, they’re used to playing in these high-pressure situations and they’re not phased by it.”
Vreeland believed timely hitting is crucial in order for his team to be successful.
“I think we could be a little more consistent as far as stringing hits together,” he said. “I know that were not going to be a huge power team, so those innings where we get two or three hits in a row and mix in some walks, that’s the type of stuff I want to see, but we didn’t see much of that today. We left some guys on base, we didn’t get on the board until the third inning and then luckily we had the big fifth inning. It’s just a matter of consistency.”