Morrison Pitches Baseball Into FCIAC Tourney

With its FCIAC playoff hopes on the line, John Morrison came up huge for the Ridgefield High School baseball team.

The senior right hander tossed a three-hitter Thursday afternoon as the Tigers defeated Greenwich, 4-1, to clinch a berth in the league playoffs for the third consecutive season.

The win, coupled with Westhill's 5-1 loss to Norwalk,enabled Ridgefield (12-8, 11-7)  to secure the No. 7 seed, meaning the Tigers will avoid playing Staples in the first round. Ridgefield's opponent will become known following Friday's game.

"My mindset before every game is that if I throw my stuff, they're not going to hit me," said Morrison, who walked four and struck out nine. "If I give my team a chance, we'll get the runs needed to win."

This season hasn't been all smooth sailing for the Tigers, who lost games they should not have. But now the slate gets wiped clean, and they can thank Morrison (5-1), who was Ridgefield's best pitcher down the stretch.

"You start fresh," Tigers coach Tony Wilmot said. "Anybody can win this thing. In fact, last year, or the year before, the five, six, seven and eight (seeds) all advanced. One, two, three, four went home."

"I'm thrilled to be in the tournament, and lets see what we can do," he said.

In the last two weeks, Morrison twice halted two-game losing streaks, beating Trinity Catholic, 4-2, in his last outing, and he did it again on Thursday.

"We talked to the seniors about putting the team on their back," Wilmot added. "We needed somebody to do that, one of our pitchers to take the ball and give me seven innings and shut down a very impressive Greenwich team. And he did just that."

Coming off a 15-4 loss at Staples, the Tigers had not been playing well, losing four of their previous five games entering Thursday's contest. Ridgefield's confidence might have been shaken a bit, but Morrison took control after briefly struggling in the first inning.

He walked leadoff hitter Michael Dunster, who stole second, went to third on a throwing error and scored on Yuta Okazaki's RBI single.

But Morrison was in command thereafter, allowing only a bad-hop single to Okazaki in the sixth and an infield hit to Casey Gaynor in the seventh. 
 
"Really nothing matters now, as long as we're in the tournament," Morrison said. "It doesn't matter if we're the eighth seed or the one seed. Any team can win it, and I really think we have the guys that we can a make a run in the tournament."

Ridgefield got back the run in the bottom of the first without the benefit of a hit. Dillon Becker led off with a walk, moved up on a passed ball and groundout and scored on a wild pitch.

Greenwich starter Connor Grealy settled down and matched zeroes with Morrison, as each had only one hit through the first three innings.

The turning point of the game occured with two outs in the bottom of the fourth, when Mike Devivo hit a slow roller down the first-base line. Devivo beat first baseman Randall Weisenburger to the bag as second baseman Okazaki failed to cover on the play.

Dan Zarnik made the Cardinals pay with a booming triple to center field that gave the Tigers 2-1 lead. Zarnik then scored on a wild pitch.

Ridgefield added an insurance marker in the sixth when Mark Giles singled with one out, stole second and came home on Spencer Judge's double to center.

The Tigers played a crisp game in the field—which wasn't always the case this season—as their only error was the one in the first inning.

"If we get that kind of pitching and that kind of defense, I'll compete against anybody because we bunt and hit-and-run and do the little things very well," Wilmot said.

Greenwich (16-4, 14-4) had nothing to play for as the Cardinals already were assured of hosting a first-round game on Monday.

Greenwich was coming off Wednesday's 1-0 win over St. Joseph in which Ryan Carr tossed a nine-inning no-hitter, the Cardinals' first no-hitter in more than a decade.