JV orange baseball player Jake Morrow ‘18 wanted to play basketball instead of baseball when he was six years old. Despite knowing this, Morrow’s father signed him up for basketball and baseball without informing him. One day after school his father casually told Morrow, “Hey, son, you have baseball practice today.” This infuriated Morrow because he had no interest in playing baseball. After, when he arrived home from practice that day, he realized how much fun he had had. He did not want to admit to his father that he was wrong about baseball.

“Over time, ever since then, I have fallen in love with this sport,” Morrow said. “My greatest memory of my sports career was very recently, it was at the away game against Rouse.”

The Tuesday before they had just played Rouse and won 10-2, and went into the last inning winning 5-2. Rouse scored four innings, so the score went up to 5-6, so Westwood had to score a run or two to either tie or win. The team all knew that they would have to focus and play their hardest to win, and by the end of the game they ended up scoring two runs to win the game.

In middle school, Morrow played football both years, but only won one game out of the two years he went to Grisham Middle School. He played basketball and won only two of their games and won no soccer games for both the years he played in middle school. His freshman year at Westwood his baseball team went 3-13.

“It has been a losing experience for me,” Morrow said. “But this year, we are currently 8-0 in district for baseball and that feeling and rush you get from winning is exhilarating, because I’ve never been on a team that has gone this far on a winning streak.”

When Morrow was asked what the most inspirational thing his coach has told him over the years, he said it was something from his current baseball coach, Coach Carter. He told the boys that they should get one percent better than what they were yesterday. Getting the boys into this mindset has really helped the boys improve as a whole and get the team to where they are today, 8-0 in district.

“I try to push the best that I can be a little bit further,” Morrow said. “For example the game before I caught all fly balls that came to me, but this game I’m going to go at it in a different angle and do everything a little bit better, and eventually over time have a greater effect on my playing abilities.”

He feels that one of the major reasons for their performance this season is how close they all are with one another. Morrow told us that his ultimate achievement or goal would be going 12-0 this season.

Morrow began playing baseball and basketball when he was five. He played basketball for Town and Country and stopped when he got to middle school and didn’t chose one sport until his sophomore year in high school.

“My earliest memory of baseball would be when I was about six,” Morrow. “I was running the bases and got out when I slid into a base and scraped up my knee. I started to cry and refused to shake hands with the other team after the game.”

When Morrow was asked about his superstitions he said his morning routine was one of them.

“I wake up at about four or five in the morning and pray,” Morrow said. “After school I will go out with the team for food and then when I go home before the game I sit in front of the TV with fan on full blast. Before the game I will eat the same seeds, Bigs Seeds, dill pickle flavor. Before the game, Reed Harrington and I will hit each other’s gloves whenever we pass each other.”

In baseball, Morrow believes the persistence in baseball has taught him the daily routine aspect of doing something over and over again helps him get into a routine with his daily life along with school. Morrow said the biggest challenge he has in baseball is how hard he gets on himself. He stated, for example, how he hates losing more than he loves winning.

“The best advice I was ever given was when I was in middle school,” Morrow said.“We had just lost a pretty bad game and our coach said, ‘You have to work better than the guy next to you in order to improve yourself to be the best that you can be.‘”

Morrow said he would never forget this because baseball is known as the game of failure. Great hitters hit .300 average. If you look at it this way, it means you fail 70 percent of the time. According to Morrow, you are almost guaranteed to fail.

Morrow draws his inspiration from his teammates. He likes to think of it as he’s playing for his team, even if he played well that game they lost in. He would be mad because he believes he’s playing for his team and not for himself.

“Those guys are my best friends,” Morrow said. “I love those guys. I learn from failure. I was talking to one of my former coaches, and he told us one of the hardest things about this sport is that it’s a game meant for failure. Failing a lot – you have to learn to take something from it, learn from it, and be able to recognize what you did wrong to be able to improve and get better.”