The Morrison Regional Finals featured two of the elite teams in the area and two of the elite lefties and the trophy was taken by Erie-Prophetstown after a 1-0 win oover the Morrison Mustangs.
The Erie-Prophetstown Panthers and the Morrison Mustangs shared the TRAC 8 conference title in the recently completed regular season and Saturday they were competing again for the oppportunity to advance to the IHSA Sectionals. The pitchers assigned were two junior lefties with Morrison sending Bill Lee Greul and Erie-Prophetstown sending Ken Cole to the mound. The first inning turned out to be the story of the game and the two lefties only gave up three hits each, but the lone tally came as the results of two consecutive base on balls by Greul in the first inning. After walking Zach Hart and Kyle coleman, Owen McConnell stroked a line drive to center that allowed Hart to cross the plate and take a 1-0 lead.
The Mustangs never threthened until the fourth when they had runners on first and second with only one out, but closed the inning with an infield fly and a fly out to center. The fifth inning offered another chance as theycollected back to back hits from Isaih Bailey and Triston Houzenga and had runners on first and third with one out when Danny Willis lined out to the shortstopp and Alex Volckmann popped out to the shortstop to end the threat. Joey Brackemyer lined a single in the sixth inning but could advance no further as Cole retired the next four Mustangs to end the game.
Morrison’s Greul only allowed a single in the fifth inning and a double in the sixth after the fatal run scored in the first and he ended the day with eleven strike outs, but the lone run held up as the Panthers moved on to Sectional play and the Mustangs ended a weather shortened season with a record of 15 wins and 6 losses.
Moeeison 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 = 0
Erie-Prophetstown 1-0-0-0-0-0-X = 1