AISA PLAYOFFS: Macon East fights through difficult back-half of the season
Bryant Morrison and the Macon East Knights face Morgan Academy today in the AISA playoffs. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
CECIL -- Christian Coston was new to the Macon East Academy baseball program, but it didn’t take him long to figure out that Bryant Morrison wasn’t playing at the level Coston had expected from his senior leader.
“Bryant struggled at the beginning of the year,” the first-year Macon East coach said. “We really had a heart-to-heart with him. He told me he was going to become the player I fully expected him to be and he has done that. He’s been a huge part of our area championship and what we’ve accomplished so far. I hope he’ll continue the run he’s on in the postseason.”
Morrison and the Knights (23-13) open play in the 2025 Alabama Independent School Association state baseball playoffs today in a best-of-three quarterfinal series at home against Morgan Academy. The Knights and the Senators will play a doubleheader at 4 p.m., with a third game, if necessary, on Wednesday.
This has been anything but a normal year for the Knights. Through the first half of the season, Macon East was 12-4, including a 6-2 record against the teams participating in the AISA playoffs, with both losses coming in one-run defeats. In the last half of the season, Macon East is 11-9 and its record against playoff teams is 5-8. Clearly, the Knights’ doubleheader sweep of Chambers (13-3 and 11-1) for the area championship is the highlight to a rollercoaster season.
“I think our team can be mature if they want to,” senior Thad McKinney said. “In a game where we know we need to win, I feel like we can get it done. Sometimes, I feel like we come out and play too much and we lose to teams that we shouldn’t. I think that’s been our main downfall.”
Morrison and McKinney, two of the four seniors (along with Carter Hopson and David DeMaio), are the two constants on a squad that looks unbeatable one day and incredibly average the next. Morrison’s emergence late in the season has been crucial as the senior pitcher and first baseman recovers from an early-season shoulder injury.
“He had some injuries early in the year and was kind of down on himself, maybe not as confident as he is now,” Coston said. “He has turned into a really confident hitter and pitcher for us. We count on him day in and day out.”
Morrison is batting .453 with 11 doubles and three home runs, 30 RBIs and a .553 on-base percentage. On the mound, he has a 0.98 earned run average and at first base -- where he plays when he isn’t pitching -- he has committed just two errors this season. He was one of the hottest hitters in the state in the final two weeks of the regular season, but can’t put his finger on what triggered the turnaround in his season.
“I reckon my motivation was it’s my last year playing and I just don’t want to miss an opportunity,” Morrison said. “Something just drove up in me and I wanted to be the best that I could be for this last year and not take anything for granted.”
His shoulder injury played a role as well, limiting his pitches late in the season and perhaps providing some motivation as well for a player who knows all too well his next loss may be his last in his high school career.
“It just kicked something in me,” he said.
The Knights have certainly benefited from the added motivation.
“I think we’re peaking at the right time,” Coston said. “I hope we can continue to peak so we can obtain our ultimate goal, which is to hopefully win a championship.”