“To put on the uniform and have USA across your chest and have the flag on your sleeve, to stand out there and hear the National Anthem with that gold medal around your neck, there is no better feeling in the world.” - Hunter Morris
No matter where he goes or what he does, Hunter Morris will always remember the summer of 2008.
On July 27, in the city of Bmo in the Czech Republic, Morris got the biggest hit of his life. After getting the call as a pinch-hitter, he drove the first pitch he saw in the top of the 12th inning, a cutter in on his hands, into left-center for a base hit that scored the game’s only run. The United States National Team beat Japan 1-0 to win the FISA world championship.
Three days earlier, Morris had hit a walkoff home run to lift Team USA to a 3-2 victory over Chinese Taipei in 11 innings.
Morris is back on the Auburn campus now, looking toward his sophomore season as an Auburn first baseman. He attended the first team meeting with new head coach John Pawlowski on Sunday night. But the memories of the adventure of a lifetime are still fresh.
“It was awesome,” Morris told AuburnUndercover.com. “It still goes through my head every single day, both those at-bats. Reliving that is just awesome. For those guys to have the confidence to put me in those situations was just unbelievable.”
But the hits, Morris says, weren’t the best part. That came when the final game was over and Team USA had finished off a remarkable 24-0 run and a world championship.
“To put on the uniform and have USA across your chest and have the flag on your sleeve, to stand out there and hear the National Anthem with that gold medal around your neck, there is no better feeling in the world,” Morris said.
“When you play back at home, you are representing yourself, your school, your team or whatever it is. When you are representing your country, it’s a completely different thing. It’s two different countries with two different causes. It’s just a great feeling. You can’t explain it. It’s something I wish everybody could experience.”
After a spectacular freshman Auburn season, Morris made the elite team of college players. For most of the two months the team was together, he played sporadically. But when it mattered most, head coach Rob Walton of Oral Roberts turned to him. And he came through.
“Obviously, I would have loved to have played every day and get 4-5 at-bats a game, but the goal was to get there, win the gold medal and dog pile in the middle of the field in the Czech Republic,” Morris said. “That’s what we did. If I hadn’t had a single at-bat and we’d won the gold, I’d have been completely happy with it.”
In 2006, Morris played on the 18-and-under National Team that won a silver medal in Cuba. But this was different. Much different.
Morris says Team USA of 2008 established a standard that will never be surpassed in going through its two-month schedule undefeated, beating the Chinese and Japanese Olympic teams along the way and finally winning the world championship tournament. They did it for each other. And they did it for their country.
“Even in the short amount of time we were together, you get unbelievably close,” Morris said. “One of my best friends is the closer (Kevin Rogers) from Oregon State, and he has been since we played together in Cuba. We’ve been best friends since then. Rogers. I love getting to play with guys like that.
“You can look at a guy and say ‘He’s going to be a first-rounder next year. He’s going to play in the big leagues.’ Just being able to play with those guys is awesome. To see them all the time and be in the same uniform, especially representing your country, is a great opportunity.”
Morris, from Huntsville’s Grissom High School, has glittering credentials of his own. He was chosen by the Boston Red Sox in the second round of the 2007 major league draft but chose to play at Auburn. He was the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year. He says is eager to work with Pawlowski and his staff as a new era of Auburn baseball begins.
“They are great guys, and I think they have a lot to offer our program,” Morris said. “I think they are going to be great for the kinds of guys we have on our team.
“(Pawlowski) is very high-energy, a super nice guy. I think the players are going to get along with him well on and off the field. For someone with that kind of energy to be pushing the players all the time is going to be awesome.”
