Roller coasters. Hot dogs. Kade Morris.
Each had tourists and baseball enthusiasts on Coney Island delighted Wednesday afternoon as the Brooklyn Cyclones (New York Mets High-A affiliate) defeated the Hudson Valley Renegades (New York Yankees High-A affiliate) by a 3-1 score.
The Cyclones, who play home games at Maimonides Park on the famous Riegelmann Boardwalk, were backed by a dominant performance from Morris, a 2020 graduate of Pitman High School and third-round pick by the Mets in last year’s MLB Draft out of the University of Nevada (101st overall) who was formally promoted from Single-A St. Lucie on Monday.
With the roller-coaster-filled skyline to his back and 4,473 fans in attendance, the 21-year-old right-hander delivered six strong innings of one-run baseball, which included seven strikeouts while allowing four hits and a walk. Morris struck out at least one Renegade hitter in five of his six innings of work, including the last two batters he faced. He kept the Yankee prospects off-balance with his fastball-slider-curveball-changeup arsenal.
The only run produced by the Renegades came in the very first inning. After retiring the first two batters, Morris gave up an RBI single after allowing two straight batters to reach on a single and a walk. Morris got the next batter to fly out, and it was smooth sailing from there.
In total, he threw 83 pitches, 56 for strikes.
The win was the first of Morris’ professional career.
Speaking with Cyclones broadcaster Johnny Gadamowitz after the game, Morris admitted he had some jitters as he took the mound, but was able to relax after escaping the first inning with minimal damage done. From there, it was all about executing pitches and soaking in the experience.
Morris’ promotion came after appearing in seven games with St. Lucie in which he posted a 3.63 ERA and 39 punchouts over 34 ⅔ innings. In his last Single-A start on May 15 against the Palm Beach Cardinals, he tossed seven shutout innings, allowing five hits while whiffing six.
The recent string of stellar performances has caught the attention of national media and scouting experts. On Friday morning, Morris cracked the Mets’ top prospects list on Fangraphs.com, landing at #28. It’s the first time Morris has been ranked on any of the major top prospects lists (MLB Pipeline, Baseball America, Fangraphs, etc.).
