Henry Ford Rallies to Defeat Warriors, 4-3

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. ---- Jake Morris fanned nine in his collegiate debut, but Henry Ford rallied to score single runs in the sixth and seventh to earn a 4-3 comeback victory against the Massasoit baseball team on Friday night.

Massasoit dropped to 0-2 with the loss, while the Hawks upped their record to 4-6.

Morris, from Bourne, went the first 4.0 innings and did not figure in the decision. In his first start donning the Green and White, the righty struck out nine, but did walk six, and kept Henry Ford to one earned run off two hits.

A back-and-forth contest saw the Warriors trailing 2-1 through three-and-a-half innings, with Massasoit's lone run coming off a sac fly from Ricky Sherlock (Whitman).

In the last of the fourth, Bryan Dwyer (Abington) started the frame off with a walk. After stealing second, he would come around and score off a base knock to center off the bat of Preston Rankin (Oak Harbor, Wash.) to even the game at 2-2. Later in the inning, Pat Matthews (Dedham) hit a hard grounder that was booted by the Hawks infield allowing Jimmy Lawless (Hull) to race home and give the Warriors a one-run edge.

Massasoit would maintain its lead until the top of the sixth as a Henry Ford RBI single knotted up the score at 3-all.

After the Warriors went down in order in the last of the sixth, the Hawks bunted over a leadoff single and eventually scored in the top of the seventh. Massasoit was retired in order in its final at-bat.

John Tinker (Weymouth) was saddled with the loss to drop to 0-1 on the young season. The righty pitched well in his first appearance, giving up one earned run over 3.0 innings, fanning three and walking one.

Offensively, the Warriors we held at bay, totaling only two hits, a double by Lawless and the RBI single from Rankin. Lawless also scored two of Massasoit's four runs.