The Morgan Baseball team defeated Cromwell on Friday, May 29th, to bring home a conference championship for the first time in 29 years.

Morgan established momentum early in the game when Zack Viens led off with a double in the first inning. He then stole 3rd, which put him in a perfect position for Trevor Powell to drive him in on a sac fly to right field, giving the Huskies a 1-run lead. After a throwing error that allowed a runner to advance to third and a miscommunication in a rundown, Cromwell struck back, scoring 1 to tie the game.

For the next four innings, both pitchers held each team scoreless. Jacoby Brown, pitcher for Morgan, struck out four batters while giving up 4 hits and 1 run through his 5-inning start. Tyler Sandquist, Cromwell’s starting pitcher, also threw 5 innings and had 4 strikeouts, but gave up 3 runs. Sandquist’s other 2 earned runs came when he walked the first 2 batters he faced in the 6th. He was then taken out, and Tyler Bonelli came in. The first batter he faced was Trevor Powell, who sacrificed bunted to move runners to 2nd and 3rd. Bonelli then hit Nathan Levy to load the bases. After that, Bonelli proceeded to continue his stretch of wildness and walk the next 2 batters and give the Huskies a 3-1 lead.

Trevor Powell then came in and shut Cromwell down in the 6th, only allowing 1 runner to reach base on a single in the inning, which gave Morgan all the momentum that they needed to put up 6 runs in the 7th that started when Nathan Levy came up with the bases loaded.

Levy singled on a ground ball to the shortstop, the shortstop then threw the ball away, allowing all the runners on base to score. “It wasn’t the best swing, but it did the job…We’ve worked hard and have overcome a lot to get to where we are.” said Levy After 3 more singles, a walk, and a sacrifice fly, the Huskies put up another 3 runs to bring the lead to 9-1.

Cromwell tried to come back in the 7th but failed. They loaded the bases and got 1 across on a walk, then a double drove in 3 more to bring the score to 9-5. That was it, though, after Powell struck out the last hitter to close the game, sealing the first Morgan Baseball championship win since 1997. “Getting that last strike out was a sigh of relief after struggling a little in the inning, but when it happened, it was electric. I am so proud of all of my teammates,” said Powell