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Health & Fitness

Catching Up With Joe Morris About The Upcoming Baseball Season

Joe Morris talks about the Braves season to come.

Joe Morris is entering his third and final season as a member of the Syosset Braves Varsity baseball team. Last season, Morris was recovering from an ACL tear and didn’t get into prime form until after the season had already begun. One year later, Morris is ready to finish his Syosset career off strong. "Last year was a real adjustment for me. Playing with a brace on was a whole different experience, but once I got used to it, it was like second nature to me."

In 2013, Morris is back to 100 percent, and he feels this is the best team that he has been apart of. "This year we have so much versatility, and depth at pitching that we just didn’t have the last couple of years." Besides Morris, a huge piece to this team will be the pitching of seniors Jake Laine, Zach Greenspan and first year varsity player Carlos Solorzano. Morris talked about how down the stretch last season the pitching staff was unreliable. "We felt like we had a real solid team last year, just late in the season our pitching just wasn’t there."

The 2012 season ended with a loss in the first round of the playoffs to Baldwin. " That was probably the toughest loss I have been apart of in both my baseball or football career together." The other varsity players across the roster will be key if the Braves want to be able to win on a consistent basis. "One thing I think all of us seniors need to do is be leaders."

Morris is speaking about his fellow seniors such as second basemen Kevin Kehne. " Kevin is a smart, tough ball player, he knows how to rally his team and get the most out of himself." Other senior players such as Chris Vradis and Mike Shaake will also need to step up this year in order for the team to be successful. 

Behind the plate, second year varsity catcher Stephen Hutchingson will be a rock both offensively and defensively. Morris knows how important catcher is, "Honestly it's the most important position on the field, and to have a guy like Hutch back there gives the rest of the team confidence."

"When we look at our competition, we definitely feel we have a great opportunity to compete in the conference. The combination of our experienced seniors and very talented younger guys will keep us in contention the whole way."

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