Andrew Morris brilliant, efficient in Cedar Rapids Kernels’ 3-0 shutout of Quad Cities

CEDAR RAPIDS – Andrew Morris pitched Wednesday afternoon like he had a tee time upcoming soon.

And he did. At the Amana Colonies and earlier than originally scheduled.

“At 3:30,” the Cedar Rapids Kernels starter said with a smile.

This was at about 2:20 p.m. or so, after the Kernels took care of Quad Cities, 3-0, in a game that lasted all of an hour and 56 minutes. The weekday nooner drew 3,232 fans to Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Morris was brilliant with a capital ‘B’ and efficient with a capital ‘E,’ going seven innings and allowing just one baserunner on a grounder off the bat of Carson Roccaforte that squeaked through the right side of the infield. He struck out six in a 73-pitch performance that obviously could have been longer.

Kernels pitching coaches Jonas Lovin and A.J. Angulo decided to go to the bullpen for the eighth and ninth innings, with Ricardo Velez closing this thing out.

“Very much,” Morris said, when asked if he wanted to continue pitching. “It wasn’t my call. It’s all right.”

“We talked about it, but we’re looking at the long run,” Angulo said. “It’s hard to sit here and throw him nine when he could be helping us in the big leagues (someday).”

Morris is just another promising arm in a Cedar Rapids rotation that just saw one guy (Zebby Matthews) get promoted by the parent Minnesota Twins to Double-A Wichita. The 22-year-old right-hander from Texas Tech improved his record to 3-1 and whittled his earned run average to 2.15 in seven starts.

He throws over the top, which helps his stuff — which already is good — play up even more. He’s got very good control, as you saw Wednesday, as he got ahead of virtually every Quad Cities hitter and got them to swing early.

“I was really just trying to work ahead and fill up the zone with everything,” he said. “I watched (teammate Miguelangel) Boadas yesterday, and obviously he was fantastic. He really filled the zone with the slider, and I thought if I could do that as well, it’d be really good. So it was just mixing sliders, changeups, some cutters in there early. I should have thrown more fastballs, but there’s always things you can change.”

It’s definitely a real possibility that Morris will join Matthews in Wichita sooner than later.

“He keeps throwing like that, the situation will take care of itself,” Lovin said.

“He’s making the decision easier,” Angulo said.

The Kernels (20-14) got a two-run single offensively from Misael Urbina in the third inning and sacrifice fly from Luke Keaschall in the fifth. Urbina entered the game in the top of the third after shortstop Danny DeAndrade somehow injured his left ankle on a rather routine fielding play.

Kernels Manager Brian Dinkelman said postgame DeAndrade was getting the ankle checked out by doctors. The club already was expecting to receive infielder Kevin Maitan, after he was signed out of independent ball Monday by the Twins.

Maitan is a former top prospect of the Los Angeles Angels. Cedar Rapids and Quad Cities play against Thursday night at 6:35.

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