2004 Year in Review

Back to Sports: Baseball Listing | Back to Year in Review Index

The Morrison All Star Team

Morrison 11- 12 Year Old District Team Makes History

Article by Ken Burn
Its not happened often… in fact, it’s happened only four times in more than 50 years. The 11 – 12 year old Morrison All Stars were crowned the 2004 District #19 Chanpioins. The District Team, selected form the five Little League teams in Morrison, went undefeated as they secured the district title defeating All Star teams from Freeport and Sterling.

As District 19 Champs, they traveled to Manteno, IL where they competed for the sectional title and the right to move one step closer to a state appearance. For just the second time in more than 50 years of Morrison Little League. These district champs won game one of the Sectional tournament defeating the team representing Milan, Il. Their sectional appearance ended following defeats at the hands of Bradley-Bourbonnais and Streator, IL; both talented and balanced teams.

District Game 1 – July 8, 2004, Morrison v Freeport American

The game proved to be a pitcher’s dual as neither team managed many hits or runs. Morrison Pitcher, Will Bird, held the Freeport American team to just two runs through three innings. Unfortunately, the Morrison bats were sluggish until the bottom of the sixth and final inning. With one out in the sixth, Kyle Dermody reached first on an error by the first baseman. With Morrison down to their last out, Morrison’s Corbin Blean came to the plate and singled, moving the runners to first and second with two outs. Dylon Smith entered the batters box and ran the count to 2-2 before ripping a base hit that scored one run and moved the runners to second and third. Kyle Janssen, with the game on the line, managed a single just over the out-stretched arm of the Freeport first baseman. With runners going on the hit, Dylon Smith slid safely into home plate for the third run of the inning and a Morrison win.

District Game 2 – July 10, 2004, Morrison v Sterling

This game showcased Morrison’s offensive ability as well as dominating performance by Morrison’s pitcher, Connor Stanton. In the first two innings, Morrison plated eight runners on four hits by Dilon Smith, Will Bird, Ben Raney, and Charlie Dennehey. The lead proved to be enough as Connor Stanton held Sterling’s batters to only four hits and three runs for the entire game. Defense continued to be solid throughout as Morrison secured the victory by the score of 13-3 in five innings.

District Game 3 – July 12, 2004, Morrison v Sterling

After losing to Morrison on 7-10-04, the Sterling All Stars played up through the loser’s bracket to face our Morrison team for the District Championship. This game proved to be much closer as neither team was able to establish themselves offensively. Sterling scored a run in the first inning, but Morrison battled back when Kyle Dermody drove in Will Bird to tie the game at one at the end of the first. The game remained deadlocked until Morrison manufactured a run with singles by Dilon Smith and Jason Graham in the bottom of the fourth inning. Unfortunately, Sterling scored two runs in the top of the fifth on two hits to lead 3-2. Trailing by one with the game nearing the end, Will Bird reached first on a single, advanced to second on a past ball, and eventually scored the game-tying run on a base hit by Landon Nelson. After Morrison pitcher, Will Bird, struck out three in the top of the sixth, Morrison came to the plate. With one out, Trevan Burn reached first base when Sterling’s second baseman mishandled the ball. Nick Zuidema came to the plate and with a 1-1, he crushed a shot to left center field that was a walk off, game winning, two run homer to give Morrison the District title. It was quite an effort, both offensively and defensively, for the talented group of Morrison All- Stars.

Sectional Game 1 – July 17, 2004, Morrison v Milan

In Game One for Morrison in the Sectional Tournament, Morrison matched up against District #5 champs, Milan. The Majority of the scoring took place in the first inning as Milan scored twice in the top with Morrison bouncing back with three runs in the bottom of the first. Morrison scored their runs on back-to-back singles by Kyle Dermody and Corbin Blean. With runners on first and second, Dylon Smith pounded a homerun over right center field fence giving Morrison a one-run lead that would maintain itself throughout the game. Solid Defense was displayed throughout the game as exemplified by an inning-ending double play when second baseman Trevan Burn snared a line drive and caught the runner on first straying too far from the base. Morrison won the game 4-2 capturing Morrison’s second-ever sectional game victory.

Morrison’s sectional game play came to an end with losses to Bradley-Bourbonnais on 7-18-04, and to Streator on 7-19-04. In both losses, Morrison struggled to score runs leaving several runners on base. Additionally, the Morrison defense faltered a bit as several balls made their way past the defense.

All in all, players, families, coaches, and fans found the tournament season to be very exciting and extremely rewarding. The District Team, made up of Will Bird, Corbin Blean, Travan Burn, Kyle Dermody, Charlie Donnehey, Jason Graham, Kyle Janssen, Landon Nelson, Ben Raney, Dylon Smith, Connor Stanton, and Nick Zuidema, played as a team and can be very proud of their accomplishments.

The coaches and players would like to thank their parents and fans for all the support throughout the year. As our team left the Little League field in Manteno, IL, the District Administrator, Steve Meredith, congratulated our Morrison team and said, “Thank You Morrison for your sportsmanship. You have represented your community well.”

A special thanks to Matt Tucker for the pictures. For more pictures of the All Stars, please visit www.mattucker.com

by larryg
2004-07-30 23:51:28