Morris' five hits lead Marauders to win in regional first round

Thursday, May 18

Millersville, PA

2:30 PM

Millersville University

41-8

Charleston

43-12

Charleston (W.V.)

Millersville

Photo by: Mark Palczewski

Morris' five hits lead Marauders to win in regional first round

5/18/2023 5:39:00 PM | Baseball

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By: Ethan Hulsey, Director of Athletic Communications

MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - Millersville head coach Jon Shehan debated who to start in right field in game one of the NCAA Atlantic Regional. Before the game, he penciled in Sam Morris, and that decision led directly to Millersville's 6-4 win over Charleston Thursday. Morris went 5-for-5 with four RBIs as the Marauders eliminated the Mountain East Conference champs and advanced to the second round.

Morris drove in Millersville's first two runs and added a game-breaking double in the eighth. It was the first five-hit game of his career, and it came at the perfect time.

"He's a big game player," said Shehan. "He has a lot of poise. He's a winner going back to high school. [Coach David Baker] and I talked about it, and it felt like the match-up was right with a number of guys on their staff. He looked really good this week in intrasquad scrimmages, so we went with him."

Morris gave the Marauders a 2-0 lead with run-scoring singles in the first and third innings. In the eighth, with the Marauders holding on to a 4-2 lead, he recorded his fifth hit--a bloop double to right. That brought home Thomas Caufield and Bren Taylor. Those extra two runs proved essential as Charleston's Tyler Dellerman hit a two-run home run in the ninth that slashed Millersville's lead in half.

Caufield set up the RBI opportunities for Morris as he reached base four times and scored three times, totaling a double, two singles and a walk.

Millersville's bats slowly chipped away at a Charleston club that had played five games in its MEC Tournament last week, including a championship game deep into Sunday night. The Golden Eagles had just taken a 5-1 loss to West Chester 40 minutes before the first pitch of the second game of the day. With the one clutch hit hard to find, the Marauders got creative--and gutsy--in the game's biggest spot.

With the score tied 2-2 in the fifth, Millersville loaded the bases with two singles and a walk. With two outs and Charleston's infield playing deep, Shehan called on catcher John Seibert to bunt. Seibert pushed a bunt down the first base line, far enough that Morris could score from third, and soft enough that he could beat the throw from reliever Austin Dzierwa at first base.

"People don't realize how fast he is," said Shehan. "We are playing against a team that doesn't know us that great. He's bunted before but you'd have to watch a lot of video to figure that out. I figured with two outs and a big guy with a lot of bat speed they are going to miss out on one of his weapons. He got it down and executed it."

That squeeze play gave Millersville starter Carson Kulina (8-1) a margin for error, but he didn't need it. Making his Atlantic Regional debut, Kulina battled his way through one of the region's most potent lineups. He scattered nine hits and allowed two runs over 6 1/3 innings.

"[Ryan] Kramer put a great game plan together, and Kulina went out an executed it," said Shehan. "He was really good with the fastball. (Charleston's) hitters adjust well, but they don't see a lot of 89 to 91-plus fastball pitchers in their league. Our plan was to attack with the fastball, get in on them and then breaking pitches later in the game."

Millersville changed gears in the seventh. After Kulina got the right-handed Dellerman to fly out, Shehan called the lefty Nate Young from the bullpen to face .400 hitting left-hander Kyle West. Young fanned the No. 3 hitter on three sliders, and Andre Martinez flew out to end the inning. Young tossed 2 2/3 innings, allowing only the home run from Dellerman.

It was a bounce-back win for the 41-8 Marauders, who had been eliminated in the first round of the PSAC Tournament with a surprising 8-1 loss against fourth-seeded IUP. The week off did the Marauders some good.

"We were really intense right off the PSACs," said Shehan. "We pushed them a lot with some really tough practices and competitive intrasquad. We backed down and lowered the intensity level and tried to loosen the guys up the last couple of days, get them feeling good about themselves."

MORE FROM COACH SHEHAN
• On what has been learned from hosting regionals in the past: "You have a tendency to get too high, and that could be the case tomorrow. You've got a rival coming in, and it will probably be heated. I need to manage well, and our players need to be themselves. Our team is kind of weird. We don't show a lot of emotion, but if you hear the communication coming out of the dugout, it's really good. That's how I gauge if we are locked in are not. If we can maintain that, that's our best bet.

UP NEXT
• Millersville is now 2-4 all-time in NCAA regional games played at Cooper Park and plays a team in West Chester that has won three-straight games against Millersville at Cooper Park and four in a row overall after the win in the early game Thursday. Millersville and West Chester have had just two previous regional match-ups, splitting the games. Millersville won the 2023 regular season series 2-1 but all three games were decided by one run. With both Millersville and West Chester unbeaten, the team will play essentially a best-of-three series to advance to the super regional.