Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – To fully appreciate how impressive Marcus Morgan has been throughout his prep baseball career take a look at the last week for the West High senior standout.

Morgan made three appearances in a five-day span last week, allowing just two runs on six hits and striking out 19 over 12 innings.

All three appearances came against ranked teams and resulted in a win and a save for the hard-throwing righthander helping West High go 3-1 against a pair of top-10 teams.

What demonstrates how much success Morgan has experienced during his West High career is last week’s remarkable effort has become the expectation for the University of Iowa recruit.

“That was just Marcus,” West High coach Charlie Stumpff said after Morgan tossed a two-hitter against No. 10 City High. “His growth I think poise wise has been phenomenal. You saw him as a sophomore and was really good but he has really grown with his poise.”

A four-year starter, Morgan emerged as one of the top pitchers in the state as a sophomore going 10-0 with a .71 ERA and 105 strikeouts.

Morgan went 1-2 with a 3.18 ERA in just 22 innings in a COVID-shortened junior season but has returned to dominance this season.

That dominance was on display last week.

The big week for Morgan started on Monday as he worked a perfect seventh inning to record a save in a 3-1 win over sixth-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie.

Morgan helped West High complete the sweep of the Hawks tossing four innings of one-run ball with seven strikeouts in a 9-3 win in the nightcap.

However, Morgan was at his best on Friday holding No. 10 City High to just one unearned run on two hits while striking out 11 in a 2-1 road win.

“I just stuck to the game plan,” Morgan said of the win at City High. “Me and coach (Jamie) O’Meara were grooving pitch call wise and I had my stuff going and I was just trying to hit spots and trying to minimize as much damage as I could.”

Morgan retired the first 10 batters he faced on Friday and stranded the tying run on third base in the seventh as he record his 11^th strikeout on a slider to end the game.

“That’s a high-level pitcher that in a 3-2 count you have to wonder if it’s fastball or slider and you can’t sit,” Stumpff said. “His slider is filthy.”

On the season Morgan is 3-1 with a 1.60 ERA and 1.01 WHIP in 43 2/3 innings while striking out 87.

Morgan is also hitting a team-leading .372 with a career-high four home runs and 32 RBI.

Led by Morgan the Trojans have made a late-season charge winning five of their last six games.

After missing the state tournament for just the second time in the last seven seasons last summer West High has its sights set on a return to the 4A tournament that will be held in Iowa City at Duane Banks Field.

“We had a lot of guys making plays and that was really encouraging to see,” Morgan said. “Those guys a lot of them are jumping straight from freshman ball straight to varsity with the weird year last year and they have made a tremendous amount of growth. We are just going to keep riding this thing until the end.”

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