Andrew Morton...Recruiters- check him out

He did it again. According to the Asheboro paper, Morton came in last night to pitch the last 2 innings on 1 day of rest to get his team out of a jam and get the win. What a gamer. I wasn't there (sadly), but maybe UK can give more details. Now he is 11-0 and, for all those interested, he will pitch the first game of the State Tourney at 10am next Friday against Area II's #2 seed (I think).

 

Yea, Mort was the hero again last night. I intentionally left this out of my earlier post because part of me finds this hard to explain. It would be easy to criticize the decision to use this kid again. After all, Andrew pitched 9 innings in game 1...took two days rest...pitched 8 innings in game 2...took 1 day rest...then came in to relieve last night (2 innings). No way Coach Griffin does this to anyone else...period. But Mort considered this season his swan song & asked for the ball.

Situation: tie score...top of 9th...bases loaded...leadoff hitter at the plate. Lexington had used 100% of our players & had zero pitchers left. It was obvious that East Randolph was about to score big again. Mort asked Griff to go in, saying he had an inning in him. Griff rolled the dice & turned him loose. Mort struck out both batters in 8 pitches.

Lexington threatened but failed to score in bottom of 9th. Mort told Griff he could go another inning, but they agreed this would kill him if the series went to a 7th game. Griff took a huge gamble, but it paid off. Mort gave up a harmless single & Lexington capped it in the bottom of 10th.

So Andrew won 3 games in this series, making him 11-0 on the season. I really am in awe of his grit. Mort embodies the consumate image of a competitor: show up, give all, never quit. If there is an MVP crowned in NC Legion ball, this kid has to at least be tied for 1st.

If you come to Cherryville for Lexington's first game (Friday 10 am), you will see lefty do his thing. No, you won't be impressed at first glance. But watch how he hits the spots, uses his change up & turns his fast ball up a notch when the need arises. He is an artist like Greg Maddux...a Picasso in spikes. I'm just glad to have been along for the ride.

 

In most cases, I would never say this because baseball is a team game...but in this case, Lexington Legion team is turning into "The Andrew Morton Show". I say this with all due respect to all his teammates.

 

Braves, the cleanup hitter (4 year starter) is my son. So I can speak with clarity on this: Post 8 IS Andrew's show. Anyone who knows baseball knows that it's all about pitching. I don't care what level you reference, the guy on the rubber defines the success of the team.

Lexington clearly is short staffed this season. Reality is that we had 2 proven quality starters (Andrew Morton & Andrew Hunt). When either of those 2 pitched, we almost always won. We also have rising sophomore Zach White. Zach will be a stud in the future & was a quality #3 this season. Our bullpen has only 4 pitchers, one who was 14 & another who had not played baseball in a year & who only pitched 20 innings. None of our position players can pitch.

When Hunt had surgery last week, Mort's importance elevated. He suddenly had to pitch on 2 or 3 days rest. It was mandatory that he not only win but also go the distance (so our bullpen could rest). If Hunt is still healty, the storyline totally changes. I'm confident that we would have ended the past 2 series one game earlier, thus eliminating Mort's heroics.

But Mort was needed...& boy oh boy did he produce. He beat Mocksville twice (6-3 & 5-1)...Winston 3 times (6-4, 8-5, 6-5)...East Randolph 3 times (5-2, 14-4, & last night in relief). That's 8 of our 11 playoff wins.

A couple of other thoughts:
1--Mort is not a strikeout pitcher, averaging around 6 a game. You have to play defense behind him, which our team has done. From my biased veiwpoint, in our playoff matchups I would rate our defense ahead of 2 teams & close to the 3rd.

2--Also, remember that our kids have been beating up on everyone the past 5 weeks. We've scored 133 runs in the past 16 games (average of 8.3 runs a game). We tallied at least 6 runs in 13 of those 16 games. Mort has not been in the batter's box once this season.

So it still is a team thing. Mort is confident that we will score & play the leather behind him. The team is confident that if they can score 5 runs on the other team's ace, we will always win with Mort on the hill. Confidence breeds confidence. But clearly it begins & ends with Andrew.

 

Braves, you know I have no connections to Lexington,,, but when you comment that Lexington's baseball team is looking like the "Andrew Morton Show",,,,,, you don't realize just how close you are. As UK7Dook3 stated, they actually had another great pitcher (Hunt) who I understand is out now, but the White kid can pitch too. And all 3 are leftys...

Don't get me wrong, Lexington has some great hitters, and those hitters appear to be peaking at the right time of the season too. But Lexington's starting pitching has been their mainstay the past 2 years we've been involved with them. Last year (2004) we had possibly our strongest team ever (according to many) and although we swept Lex in the playoffs, Lex's pitching kept every game very low-scoring.

Andrew Morton isn't new to me. I'm astonished that we're even talking about the fact that he's not on some college roster already.

I'm glad others (not familiar with Lexington) are now hearing about this fine ballclub and kids like Morton. They deserve the attention considering what they've accomplished on the playing field...

 

Yep....I'm glad that we here at TBR can help all deserving players to gain some attention. Sometimes I don't realize how many people read this site until I go out of town and someone says, " Hey Braves...I read about that kid Morton....." And this was from a college coach.

Of course, I get people to ask me, " Hey Braves...who is that Intimidator Coach?" I tell them that he is tj21's brother

 

Hey "B"

care to disclose who the college coach was?

 

I sent you a PM

 

thats funny stuff right there :bananalam

 

That would be cool... That would mean i have a couple of nephews that can flat out play some infield...
:229031_ha