Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Marcus Morgan was darned near perfect Friday night for West High, and darned if the Trojans didn’t need all of his magic to beat Muscatine in a 4A substate opener at West High.

Morgan tossed a two-hitter, struck out 15 and drove in the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly in beating the Muskies, 2-1.

Morgan, a sophomore, improved to 8-0 in a complete-game victory in 90-plus degree heat.

“His stuff is really good, and he gets outs,” West coach Charlie Stumpff said. “He’s got a great curveball and impeccable command. His makeup… he’s a warrior out there. He will fight you all the way. He’s got all the pitches. The sky is the proverbial limit for him.”

Second-ranked West High (32-7) will have a bye in the substate semifinals and will face the winner of the game between Davenport West and Cedar Rapids Prairie in the substate final on Wednesday at West High.

In a scheduling quirk West High and Muscatine finished the regular season against each other on Monday with the Trojans winning 16-5.

Muscatine came into Friday’s game with an unimpressive 9-21 record; starting pitcher Drew Logel was 1-4 with a 4.98 ERA.

But the playoffs, especially in high school, are a different animal.

“Obviously it’s a little different, higher stakes coming into the game,” Morgan said. “I think we did see a better pitcher this game, but it’s not like we weren’t hitting him. We were hitting balls and (defenders) were just right there.”

Logel pitched very well, holding the potent Trojans to just three hits. He stranded eight Trojan runners, and he pitched around three errors by his teammates.

But Morgan was magnificent.

He had a perfect game through four innings and a no-hitter through six. A double by Logel leading off the seventh broke up the no-hitter and eventually led to the Muskies’ only run.

Morgan was blissfully unaware of his brilliance.

“I don’t pay attention to that stuff,” he said. “I just go out there and try to give my best because I just want to win.”

He faced 25 hitters and 15 struck out. He walked only one. Only two balls were hit to the outfield.

“Most everything was working, but I think we were working the curveball a little bit more than usual,” Morgan said. “That was working, so we kept going to it and it worked.”

“The vast majority (of his pitches) were on the money, on the money,” catcher Ryan Cooper said.

Morgan pitched the whole game from the stretch because of a back issue, but he had no trouble over-matching the Muskies.

“I’ve had some ups and downs this year, but me, personally, and us as a team, we’re in a pretty good place right now and we want to keep it rolling,” Morgan said.

Morgan’s sacrifice fly to left in the third scored Nick Fleckenstein for the go-ahead run. Fleckenstein reached on an infield hit and advanced on a wild pitch and a stolen base before Morgan brought him home.

That run held up until the fifth when Nick Biancuzzo walked, was sacrificed to second by Morgan, and Cooper doubled high off the centerfield fence for the crucial second run.

“At that point it’s a 1-0 game, and they’re putting up a good fight,” Cooper said. “It wasn’t like we were for sure going to win it. So with a dude on second and you get the pitch you want you kind of have to take advantage of it.”

It nearly went out of the park.

“You know, I trotted for a little bit,” Cooper confessed. “Then my first base coach said ‘get three,’ and I’m like that’s not happening. I’ll get two.”

West High played without senior slugger Jason Strunk, who has an injured ankle and was wearing a protective boot.

“We think he’s good to go on Wednesday,” Stumpff said. “If not, we’ll figure it out. We’re plenty deep enough.”

Muscatine     000  000  1  –  1  2  3

West High     001  010  x  –  2  3  1

W – Marcus Morgan (8-0)      L – Drew Logel (1-5)

2B – MUS: Drew Logel. ICW: Ryan Cooper

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