Staff
Jeff Morrison’s pitching acumen is well-known throughout Rainy River District.
But with the game on the line Tuesday evening, the Manitou Thunderbirds’ ace showed he’s got a mighty live bat to go along with that arm.
Morrison launched a 3-2 fastball over the left-field fence in the bottom of the seventh for a walk-off two-run homer to give Team Jesse Tom an 8-7 win over Team Vaughan Wilson in the Rainy River District Fastball League’s all-star game in Stratton.
With Kevin Gemmell (Barwick Blue Knights) hitting a lead-off homer in the first for Team Jesse, Morrison provided the bookend blast against Big Island Huskies’ right-hander Matt Comegan to cap his squad’s rally from a 7-1 deficit.
To top it off, Morrison got the win in relief of starter Jaden Gustafson (Rainy Lake Pirates) after tossing four stellar innings of one-hit ball with eight strikeouts.
D.J. Mosbeck (Barwick) singled home Team Vaughan starter John Desaulniers (Sight & Sound Wolves) in the top of the first before Gemmell’s no-doubter to left tied the game.
Gustafson struck out the side in each of the first three innings but that was more than offset by a five-run third for Team Vaughan, which all started with two outs.
His off-target throw to first on a comebacker by Mosbeck allowed Desaulniers to scored all the way from first after he had walked.
After an RBI triple by hometown favourite Logan Jackson (Stratton Eagles), Ryan Smith (Manitou) followed with an RBI single that scored pinch-runner Shelby Nosan (Windey’s).
Matt Sweigard (Sight & Sound) then jumped all over a Gustafson offering and smashed a two-run homer to centre to make it 6-1.
Desaulniers’ double off Morrison in the fourth cashed in Nosan for a six-run cushion.
But with Desaulniers out after three solid innings, Team Jesse sliced into the deficit against reliever Brandan Pratt (Barwick).
Mike Anderson (Barwick) and Dakota Andy (Rainy Lake) had RBI singles before Linden Indian (Pirates) belted a Pratt pitch for a three-run homer to left to make it 7-6.
Andy led off the seventh with a walk on a full-count pitch from Comegan, then stole second on a head-first slide.
Indian struck out but Comegan wasn’t so fortunate against Morrison, who crunched his game-ending dinger.
The RRDFL begins its playoffs tonight with a tentative East Division doubleheader at Couchiching, starting with third-seeded Windey’s (11-5) playing sixth-ranked Sabaskong Cubs (2-14) at 6 p.m.
The fourth-ranked Couchiching Raiders (10-6) then are slated to host the fifth-seeded Sabaskong Lakers (4-12) right after.
The other games tonight are in the West Division.
The sixth-seeded Rainy River Royals (1-15) head on the road to face third-ranked Stratton (8-8) while the fourth-ranked Dawson Tigers (6-10) host fifth-seeded Manitou (6-10).
The top two seeds in the East Division—Rainy Lake (14-2) and Sight & Sound (12-3-1)—have a first-round bye.
So do the top two seeds in the West Division—Barwick (13-3) and Big Island (8-7-1).
