August 23, 2007

CMU pitcher spends summer in Alaska

By Steve Vedder
The Grand Rapids Press

Bryce Morrow would have preferred the cooling breeze from the Atlantic Ocean as a backdrop to his summer baseball season.

Instead, he got the mountains of Alaska.

The former Caledonia star and Central Michigan sophomore pitched for the Mat-su Miners of the six-team Alaska Baseball League this summer. And although the league is not as prestigious as the Massachusetts-based Cape Cod League, where Morrow had hoped to play, the Alaska League's competition combined with the state's natural beauty made it a memorable experience for Morrow.

"The Cape was my first choice, but I had fun in Alaska in experiencing different things," he said. "It was great, definitely a good place to go to work on baseball skills."

With a baseball schedule that included reporting at 3:45 p.m. games that started at 7 p.m., Morrow did not have much time for anything but baseball. He still, however, worked in mountain climbing -- including a 5,000-foot challenge that took four hours -- postgame bonfires at a river near the ballpark and a fishing expedition.

"We played a lot of baseball, but other than that, there was a lot of hanging out," he said.

The Alaska League is considered among the better leagues sanctioned by the NCAA. Among the league's graduates are major leaguers Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Michael Young, Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew, Adam Kennedy and Jacque Jones.

The league is comprised nearly entirely of Division 1 players from such schools as Washington, Stanford, Oregon State, Cal-State Irvine, Santa Clara and Cal-State Fullerton.

Morrow put together a decent summer of pitching after going 2-3 with a 4.34 ERA in 23 games as a freshman at Central Michigan last spring.

In Alaska, he was 0-1 with nine strikeouts in 10 innings and a 3.60 ERA before his season was cut short by a tired arm.

Morrow said the league fulfilled his goal of playing in a competitive summer league.

"The Mid-American Conference is a good conference for baseball, but the Alaska league draws a lot of the best players from California to Oregon," he said. "There's definitely good competition there."

Morrow said he disappointed that his stay in the league was limited to 10 innings, including three scoreless and hitless innings in his last appearance before being shut down.

"I was throwing pretty well," he said.