Morales pitches, hits Souderton past La Salle in PIAA-6A 1st round
WARMINSTER >> Souderton Area’s Jordan Morales gave new meaning to the term, “complete game,” not only pitching all seven innings but also going 2-for-4 at the plate with a solo home run in Big Red’s final at-bat.
“He comes around (third base), and he says ‘I haven’t done that since I was 12,’” Souderton coach Mike Childs said of Morales’ shot to center.
It was Souderton’s day, at the plate, on the mound, and pretty much everywhere else, as Big Red rolled to a 7-1 victory over La Salle in the opening round of the PIAA-6A Tournament at Archbishop Wood High School.
“This one’s huge. It feels pretty good to be on top,” Morales said. “That’s a good team over there. And we just battled through. Our offense showed up and we played some good baseball.”
Souderton’s Luke Taylor is greeted by teammates along the third base line after his solo home run on Monday.
The win advances the Indians to a Thursday quarterfinal matchup with Plymouth Whitemarsh. La Salle, Champions of the Philadelphia Catholic League, saw a tremendous season come to a close.
“We knew that Morales was gonna be ready to go — he’s been good all year,” said Explorers coach Kyle Werman. “He pitched a heck of a ball game.”
Morales struck out 12 and walked just one, with two hit batters. He limited the Explorers to just one run off of five hits.
“I think I spotted fastballs away and I was throwing my curveball,” Morales said. “My curveball was pretty on today.”
After La Salle took a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI single by starting pitcher Gavin Moretski, it was all Big Red.
The Indians tied it up by hitting the first of their three home runs in the third, off the bat of No. 9 hitter Hogain DeSpain, who went 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI’s. Hitters five through nine supplied seven hits for Big Red.
“The bats are coming alive at the right time,” Childs said.
Big Red, scoring in each of the final five innings, broke the deadlock in the third with an RBI double by Morales. Soon after, it was 3-1 when Souderton pushed another run across on an error by the Explorers.
Luke Taylor’s solo homer widened the margin to 4-1 in the fourth, and then Taylor came through again with an RBI single in the fifth to increase the lead to 5-1.
“You need those big hits,” Werman said, “and they got those at the right times.”
Moretski went five innings for the Explorers and also went 3-for-3 at the plate with an RBI.
Said Childs: “I have all the respect in the world for him. I’ve known him since he was a kid. He’s a great pitcher, had a great career. For us to battle back and score runs against a really good pitcher, I’ll definitely take it.”
Big Red capped the scoring in the seventh, with Morales’ homer and an RBI single by DeSpain. Morales then had three strikeouts in the bottom half to end it.
“We’re doing pretty well right now and we just wanna keep rolling,” the lefty said.
PIAA-6A First Round
SOUDERTON 7, LA SALLE 1
Souderton 001 211 2 — 7 9 0
La Salle 100 000 0 — 1 5 3
WP: Jordan Morales (7IP, 1R, 1ER, 5H, 12K, 1BB, 2HBP).
LP: Gavin Moretski (5IP, 4R, 3ER, 5H, 8K, 2BB, 2HBP).
HR: S-Luke Taylor, Morales, Hogain DeSpain. 2B: S-Morales, La-Moretski.
Multiple hits: S-Taylor 2-for-4, R, 2RBI; Moses Clemens 2-for-3, HBP, R; Morales 2-for-4, 2R, 2RBI; DeSpain 3-for-4, 2R, 2RBI.
