Cavalier Corner is the publication just for UVa sports fans!
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1124998
JUNE 2019 29 cavalier profile TANNER MORRIS Second-Year • Baseball Coming off a solid rookie year for the Wahoos in 2018, Tanner Morris put to- gether an even better second-year cam- paign and earned himself some postsea- son recognition in the process. The 6-2, 190-pound infielder from Crozet, Va., was named to the All-ACC third team in May. The former Miller School standout was one of the league's best hitters this season, batting .353 with five home runs and 38 RBI. His 21 doubles were the most in the ACC and 16th most in the NCAA. In fact, he finished only two shy of matching the program record for doubles in a season. Coming off a campaign where he started in 50 of 51 games and was named to the league's All-Freshman team, he ended last summer as a member of the Cape Cod League All-Star team and the Harwich Mariners' MVP. The biggest reason for his surge, he be- lieves, was experience. "I guess I came away with 200 at-bats my freshman season," Morris explained. "I went to the Cape and got another 154. I think when you get that amount of at- bats, you get accustomed to the way that these coaches are calling pitches in col- lege. Through that, I just became a better hitter. "When I first got on Grounds, I expected to compete for a starting position. Then throughout my freshman year, I learned a lot about pitch sequences. You need to figure them out to understand what kind of pitches you're going to get and then adjust throughout the season as they start to get more video on you. When you get halfway or three-quarters of the way through, you have to continue to make adjustments as they start pitching you differently." Given what a hitter is likely to see at the college level, Morris — who is a draft- eligible sophomore — said he didn't need to make dramatic tweaks to his swing. "Maybe standing up a little bit taller and not leaning quite as far over, hinging at the hips," he noted. "Really it's just the approach part of it, because I guess in a college game you don't see as many fastballs as what you'd see in high school or at the showcase level in high school. "You have to adjust and be able to hit all kinds of different speeds so you can get more fastballs." — Brad Franklin Photo by Matt Riley/ Courtesy UVA