Morro Bay baseball looks to defend Ocean League title. They won big versus Nipomo
On warm Tuesday evening, Morro Bay hosted Nipomo baseball in a game against two undefeated squads in the Ocean League.
The Pirates’ Coach John Andree said Morro Bay will have a target on its back this season as the defending champs in Ocean League (Morro Bay was 14-1 in league last season).
But the Pirates (7-4, 4-0 Ocean League) didn’t show any signs of wavering — winning 11-1 — against a Nipomo team with good athletes, led by centerfielder Nate Reese, who’s batting .432 on the season, according to MaxPreps.com.
Reese smashed a double to left center in Tuesday’s contest and made a spectacular diving catch to rob a Morro Bay hitter in left-center.
Morro Bay has two go-to aces in Jackson Howell and Morgan Codron, Tuesday’s starter who threw four innings, striking out nine, while giving up one unearned run.
Pirates lefty Gabe Paul came on in relief to throw three scoreless innings against the Titans (5-7, 2-1).
The Pirates got big hits in the game from shortstop Nicky Johnson, who’s hitting about .500 on the season. Johnson laced a double to the wall in left, nearly getting out of the yard, to start a rally for Morro Bay early in the game.
“I got most of it, but the ball doesn’t carry here,” Johnson said. “We’ve been playing well since league started. We don’t make errors. We don’t make mistakes.”
Other big hits came from Johnny Botello, who lined a single to left to score two, and John Skaggs was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Codron shines in Morro Bay win
But the story was Codron, a 6-foot-4 right-hander, who throws a fastball that has topped out at 91 miles per hour, clocked at a game against Mission Prep last week, he said.
Codron, who will be attending University of Portland on a scholarship, struck out nine batters mixing in his fastball, curveball and change-up.
“I think I started as a freshman throwing 70 miles per hour as a freshman, maybe 75, and each year I’ve gradually added 5 to 10 miles per hour each year,” Codron said. “COVID was a good chance to develop. I started eating a lot and lifting weights. That was a big velo jump and gave me a lot of time to work on my game.”
Codron said that throwing pitches for strikes is key. He said he’s having a blast in high school and looks forward to West Coast Conference baseball as well.
“The energy (in college) is just insane,” Codron said.
Morro Bay looks to repeat as league champs
Another key player for the Pirates, Jackson Howell, will attend St. Mary’s College on a baseball scholarship next year, where he’ll pitch.
Howell, who played third on Tuesday, was walked three times, contributing three runs scored.
“This was a good win,” Howell said. “We’re facing everyone in league for the first time and it was a good win for us.”
Howell said that he tries to lead by example and that sets the tone for the rest of the guys.
“We have Pioneer Valley coming up Thursday, another good team,” Howell said. “If we stay loose and relaxed, we tend to do better. We can tense up at times, but we play the best when we’re relaxed.”
Howell complimented Codron, saying he “works very hard and is always in the gym everyday and just throws strikes...He doesn’t walk guys, so you know it’s going to be a quick game.”
Coach John Andree, also Morro Bay’s athletic director, said that his group lost 12 seniors last year, but his squad is a “knowledgeable baseball group” with a lot of talent, led by Codron and Howell on the mound.
“Nipomo is a better team than they played tonight, but it’s hard when they have Morgan on the mound,” Andree said. “It takes them out of their ballgame. We expect to be battled every time out there as the defending Ocean League champs. We’ll have Jackson Howell on the mound Thursday.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 9:39 PM.
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