Morris held West Rowan scoreless for six innings and the Raiders exploded for eight runs in the sixth and seventh frames for an easy 12-1 win. The game at Staton Field kicked off the fifth annual Cliff Peeler Baseball Classic and put South (7-11) into Monday’s semifinals against Providence High.

The extra runs proved unnecessary for Morris. The senior left-hander scattered six hits and struck out seven while working into the top of the seventh inning. He kept the Falcons (11-10) guessing all game with a mix of slow curves and sneaky fastballs.

No matter how long the Falcons waited at the plate for that slow curve to come, they always managed to swing too soon.

“We were laughing — he threw one up there that had quite an arc on it,”said a chuckling Dwayne Fink. “Morris pitched a great game. West is great team, and to hold them like he did tells what kind of job he did.”

Morris got four of his strikeouts in the fourth and fifth innings, when West went six up and six down. Morris retired nine straight at one point in the middle innings.

“I can throw it a little faster but it was doing just fine,”Morris said of his curveball. “I was trying to vary the speed and it was working.”

The Raiders didn’t exactly rip the ball at the plate, either, especially not in the early going. West starter Drew Callicutt gave up an unearned run in the first inning and Greg Deal’s RBIsingle made it 2-0 in the top of the fourth.

In the fifth, Ronnie Shore walked and took second on a wild pitch before Daniel Pinyan looped a high, drifting fly between the first baseman and right fielder along the foul line. Another pitch in the dirt sent Pinyan to second and he scored on Dan Hoffman’s single for a 4-0 lead.

“Their first five runs, they didn’t earn them,”frustrated West head coach Chris Cauble said. “We’d get an out, then have a passed ball and they’d bloop a single to score. We botched the ball around and gave it to them.”

The way the hard-luck Raiders saw things, though, they were due for a break or two.

“We were kidding around, trying to remember if we had gotten a bloop hit this year,”Fink said. “We knew we’ve had several against us. We just felt like it was our time to get those breaks.”

South’s late-inning success had more to do with great hitting than good luck. West reliever Josh Overcash got two quick outs in the top of the sixth on comebackers to the mound. He then walked Craig Haas and gave up a sharp single to Chris Wagner. Dereck Efird’s routine grounder to second took an awful hop over Justin Graham for another hit to make it 5-0, and Pinyan came through again with a two-run single through the left side of the infield. Morris even got into the act with a bases-loaded walk to make it 8-0.

New pitcher John Brooks didn’t fare any better in the seventh. Pinch hitters Brian Yon, Matt Benfield and Brian Billings singled and scored. Morris sent home the last two runs himself with a screaming single down the right-field line.

“We didn’t expect to get 12,”Morris said. “You always want to score that many, especially when you’re the pitcher.”

A disappointed Cauble certainly didn’t expect to surrender 12 runs to the Raiders, who now hold a 2-1 lead in the season series. Of course, West also didn’t expect to be playing the 10 a.m. opener Saturday after being the only team to play Friday night — a key 6-5 win over Piedmont that put the Falcons a step closer to the state playoffs.

“Last night was the game we were after,”Cauble said. “Iknew we’d be tired and we definitely came out flat. That’s no excuse.”

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