KSU’s A.J. Morris Beats ASU’s Mike Leake

It was a Super Regional caliber pitching match-up even if nobody really knew it…yet.  It was Tuesday, March 10, and Kansas State was going to play perreniall power Arizona State in Suprise Arizona at the spring training home of the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals.

The Sun Devils’ pitcher, Mike Leake, was a known commodity.  Leake was the reigning Pac 10 Pitcher of the Year and a Second Team All-American as a sophomore in 2008 after going 11-3 with a 3.49 ERA.  He was one of just two ASU pitchers to earn 20 wins in his first two seasons on the mound in Tempe.

At 3-0, the Kansas State pitcher, A.J. Morris, had pitched solidly to that point, but to say his first three years as a college pitcher were much more modest than Leake’s would be an understatement.

Morris red-shirted in 2006 in his first season at K-State after lettering twice at Humble (TX) High School.  He was 4-2 with a 3.78 ERA in 19 appearances (5 starts) in 2007, and an unspectacular 4-4 with a 6.04 ERA with 12 starts and 14 appearances in 2008.  Hardly ace-like stuff by any measure.

But  if nobody knew about Morris and the Wildcats before the game, they would

A.J. Morris was 14-1 in 2009.

remember them afterward.

In a head-to-head duel with one of the top pitchers and teams in the country Morris had what was to that point the best game of his career.  Morris gave-up two runs on five hits in a (then) career best 8 1/3 innings as K-State shocked Arizona State with a 6-2 win. The red-shirt junior did not allow a hit in 6 of the 8 full innings he pitched, and he faced the minimum in an inning three times.

Arizona State came into the contest averaging better than 9 runs through its first 12 games.  The only real offense the Sun Devils could manage against Morris was a solo home run by Carlos Ramirez that ended Morris’ run of 19 2/3 scoreless IP to start the season.

Leake didn’t pitch poorly, but he was far from dominant.  The righthander surrendered two runs (one earned) on seven hits with just three stikeouts in 7 IP to suffer the loss.

The 6 runs and 11 hits by the Wildcats were the most allowed to that point by a Sun Devil pitching staff that had a 1.01 ERA entering the game.

Both teams stood at 11-2 after the KSU win, and it would set the tone for what would be a record-setting season for both the team and its starting pitcher.

Morris finished with a 14-1 record and 2.09 ERA with 100 strikeouts in 116.1 IP. He was named the 2009 Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and received multiple All-American

KSU head coach Brad Hill & A.J. Morris

accolades.  His 14 wins tied with LSU’s Louis Coleman for the second-most in the nation.

K-State head coach Brad Hill was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year.  In his sixth season he led Kansas State to a school record 43-18-1 record and the program’s first ever NCAA Tournament berth.

Arizona State made it all the way to the College World Series.  Leake finished with an NCAA-leading 16 wins with a 1.71 ERA and 162 ks in 142 IP as the ASU staff ace.

The March 10 loss to Morris and Kansas State would be his only loss of the season.

Other Top Moments Of 2009

19.  North Carolina’s Mike Fox Wins His 1,000th Game

20.  Illinois Shocks #1 LSU In Baton Rouge

21.  Alabama’s Kent Matthes Launches Longballs

22.  Freshman Levi Michael Starts In North Carolina’s Season Opener

23.  LSU Opens The New Alex Box Stadium

24.  Oregon Brings Back Baseball

Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires shares some thoughts from another day at the College World Series…

• Does Arizona State’s Kole Calhoun remind anyone else of the character ‘Ham” Porter from the movie Sandlot?   Calhoun (pictured right) and his teammate, Carlos Ramirez, are built more like beer league softball players than college baseball players, but they play the part well.  Neither strikes out a lot for power guys, and they both know how to work a count.  Calhoun’s OPS is .981, while Ramirez’s is 1.126. After Thursday’s win over North Carolina, Calhoun now has 3 home runs and 10 RBIs in Omaha, including a grand slam vs. the Tar Heels. Meanwhile, Ramirez has caught all 64 of the Sun Devils’ games this season.  Like Oakland’s Billy Beane has said “We’re not selling blue jeans”.

• Speaking of movie characters…ASU’s Pat Murphy reminds me of Mickey Rourke’s “Marv” in Sin City.  Murph was born in New York, and he brings that east coast toughness to the desert & the Pac 10.  The confidence his players exude often borders on, if not crosses into, cockiness, but given the results (3 CWS in the last five years) that’s not a bad thing.

• The ebb and the flow…Arizona State jumped-out to a 6-0 lead in Tuesday’s game vs. Texas, only to see the Longhorns score the last ten runs of the game.  North Carolina opened Thursday’s game with the first four runs of the game, to bring ASU’s total to 14 straight combined unanswered runs.  The Sun Devils then used an 8-run seventh inning en-route to 12 unanswered runs of their own before UNC finally got a run in the 9th in ASU’s 12-5 win.

• North Carolina’s Garrett Gore played in the 21st and final College World Series game of his career Thursday night.  He’s played in more CWS games than anyone in the history of the event.

• Gore’s teammate, Dustin Ackley, collected a ninth inning double Thursday to extend his record NCAA Tournament hitting streak to 21 games. It was his 28th career CWS base hit, a CWS record.

• Robin Ventura is just a dude who knows baseball.  When he talks baseball during a game as an ESPN analyst he makes me listen intently to what he has to say.  Ventura speaks and explains the mechanics of the game, both pitching and hitting, in a manner that’s easily understood. His breakdown of Ackley’s swing during Thursday night was eye opening.

Is it just a coincidence? Since 2000 the winner of bracket 2 has gone on to win the College World Series.  Texas and Arizona State are the remaining teams from bracket 2 this year, while LSU and Arkansas reside in bracket 1.