{"id":313294,"date":"2026-05-29T02:01:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/313294\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T02:01:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:01:30","slug":"bryce-lee-helps-power-morris-past-plano-in-class-3a-joliet-catholic-regional-semifinals-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/313294\/","title":{"rendered":"Bryce Lee helps power Morris past Plano in Class 3A Joliet Catholic Regional semifinals \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was no mystery that coming into the season Morris <\/a>would have a lot of production to replace from last year. A wealth of four-year varsity players graduated, Jack Wheeler, now with the Texas Rangers.<\/p>\n

As such, it\u2019s not too surprising that Morris has had an up-and-down season, often alternating between winning back-to-back games and dropping back-to-back games. <\/p>\n

Still, coach Todd Kein has been doing this for more than two decades and knows about winning in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

It was just the regional semifinals, but winning in the playoffs is exactly what Morris managed to do on Thursday.<\/p>\n

After falling behind in the first inning, Morris pulled away as the game went on to secure an 8-1 victory over Plano<\/a> in the Class 3A Joliet Catholic<\/a> Regional semifinal.<\/p>\n

Morris (16-18) went into the postseason as the third seed in the Washington Sectional while Plano was the sixth seed. That\u2019s to say Morris was favored, but the Reapers were a very young team that grew as the season went on.<\/p>\n

That growth was evident in the first inning when Julian Gates smacked a double to score Eric Nunez and put Plano up 1-0. The Reapers\u2019 youth was also evident, however, as they committed three errors and surrendered three walks in key situations.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, six Morris batters combined for 12 hits while Bryce Lee had one of his best all-around games of the year. The senior went 3 for 4 with two RBIs at the plate and struck out eight on the mound.<\/p>\n

The Purdue Northwest commit bent in allowing nine hits, but he never broke, walking one and not allowing another run after the opener.<\/p>\n

\"Class<\/p>\n

Morris\u2019 Bryce Johnson celebrates beating the throw to the plate against Plano\u2019s Sean Garton in the Class 3A Joliet Catholic Regional semifinal on Thursday, May 28, 2026 in Joliet. (Gary Middendorf)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cliche but we firmly believe that it all starts on the mound,\u201d Kein said. \u201cHe\u2019s the guy that goes out there and sets the tone. Even though they put that early run across I could tell very early on he was going to settle in nicely and that\u2019s exactly what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part, Lee credited his teammates with putting him in a strong position on the mound.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to shout out Grady Hutchraft for making the last catch of the game,\u201d he said. \u201cLandon Norris had a great day at short stop. Nothing I do on the mound is possible without the guys behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kein credited the run support for making Lee\u2019s job easier. In addition to Lee\u2019s bat, Landon Norris went 3 for 3 with three runs while Mick Smith and Cade Laudeman had two hits a piece as well with RBIs.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday you saw a little bit of our contagious hitting,\u201d Kein said. \u201cThat\u2019s been a thing for us at times this year. It was timely for our first postseason game. Once that dam broke it helped give me confidence in our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the record would indicate, Morris\u2019 hitting this season has been streaky. That streak was hot on Thursday, particularly in the third inning when Morris put up half its runs in four separate at bats.<\/p>\n

With that being said, they\u2019ll be hoping to build consistency as the playoffs continue.<\/p>\n

\"Class<\/p>\n

Plano\u2019s Eric Nunez connects for a single against Morris in the Class 3A Joliet Catholic Regional semifinal on Thursday, May 28, 2026 in Joliet. (Gary Middendorf)<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time of the year you can\u2019t have an off day in one of the key facets of the game,\u201d Kein said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way the postseason is built. We have to have strong pitching, keep moving the baseball and continue fielding which I thought we did a really good job of today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plano (14-21-1) did have bright spots to be encouraged by. Collecting nine hits against a talented pitcher like Lee will be something to hang their hats on for the future, especially with so much production returning for 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just told my seniors I\u2019m really proud of them for creating a culture of grinding to earn the position,\u201d Plano coach Tyler Mulligan said. \u201cI told (Kein) before the game I started three freshmen and two sophomores. The growth and improvement throughout this year has been so impressive and I can\u2019t wait to see them keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plano was led by Beckett Schwartz, who went 3 for 3.<\/p>\n

Morris will play second seed Joliet Catholic at 10 a.m. on Saturday for the regional title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was no mystery that coming into the season Morris would have a lot of production to replace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1816,1442,110681,160,162,161,41688,599],"class_list":["post-313294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-baseball","tag-kendall-county-front-headlines","tag-morris-preps","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-plano-preps","tag-premium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}