Jon Morrison, Noah Scanlon-Dean no-hit St. Mary’s in 2-0 loss for Hopkins Academy

By ADAM HARGRAVES

@Hargraves24

Published: 04-17-2017 9:42 PM

HADLEY — In his second start of the season, Jon Morrison did not allow a hit in six innings for the Hopkins Academy baseball team.

Morrison also struck out nine and gave up only one earned run.

It did not lead to a win for the Golden Hawks. Despite a combined no-hitter, one bad inning and a lack of offense throughout led to a 2-0 loss to St. Mary’s on Monday.

“It’s miserable,” Hopkins coach Dan Vreeland said. “Knowing it was just some early jitters and things not going our way.”

Morrison had three walks and a wild pitch in the first inning. For the game, Morrison gave up seven walks.

“We made mistakes, missed some plays and I had walks,” Morrison said. “It made a difference.”

John Daley’s sacrifice fly made it 1-0 before Morrison’s wild pitch gave the Saints a two-run lead.

After striking out Nate Bonini to end the first, the Division I Rhode Island commit reached 200-strikeout mark for his career.

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The milestone was not on Morrison’s radar.

“I didn’t even know I was close,” Morrison said. “I just go out there and try to give my team the best opportunity to win. If that means striking guys out that’s what I am going to do.”

Morrison has almost two full seasons to add to the overall strikeout count.

“It’s really special,” Vreeland said. “But it’s not about the accolades. He has no interest. He just wants to win games and take care of his arm.”

Noah Scanlon-Dean had Hopkins’ first hit, a single to left field in the third.

Scanlon-Dean pitched the seventh inning for the Golden Hawk and showed good velocity on his fastball, striking out the side for Hopkins (1-2).

The Saints (2-0) got a brilliant performance on the mound from Daley, who pitched a complete-game two-hitter with 12 strikeouts.

Daley ended the game with three consecutive strikeouts.

“I think our whole team was thinking we were going to get blown away,” Daley said. “It’s a good win. We took advantage of mistakes.”

Hopkins did not have many scoring threats, but did manage to get runners in scoring position twice.

“We just didn’t get the timely hit,” Vreeland said.

With runners at first and second in the bottom of the third, Nate Kelley could not lay off a high fastball and struck out swinging.

In the fourth, Morrison reached on an infield single and then stole second.

After a sacrifice fly by Justin Butterfield got him to third, Mike Curran walked to give the Golden Hawks runners at the corners with two outs.

Daley promptly struck out Liam Higgins to end the threat.

Daley retired the next nine batters he faced to end the game for St. Mary’s.

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