Morris baseball team relying on experience of its leaders

The Morris baseball team finds itself in a good position entering the 2025 season.

Morris went 30-4 last season, finished third in Class 3A and has six of its nine starters returning for this season. Experience will be the name of the game this year.

Not only does that experience come from baseball, but three of Morris' captains – Ximi Baftiri, Brett Bounds and Jack Wheeler – all played football and basketball throughout their careers, and the fourth – Griffin Zweeres – was a three-sport athlete for three years before sitting out basketball this season.

Both Wheeler and Bounds were All-Interstate Eight Conference selections in both football and basketball, while Zweeres earned All-Conference honors in football. Baftiri was a key member of both teams as well.

It’s not often that a school has this many multi-sport athletes, let alone having baseball be their best sport. Wheeler is a University of Illinois commit, while Baftiri has signed with Evansville, giving Morris a Division I left side of the infield with Wheeler at third and Baftiri at short. Catcher Zweeres has signed with Lewis University, while Bounds is one of three Morris players – along with Merek Klicker and Colin Pfeifer – to have committed to Purdue Northwest. Pfeifer was also a starter for the Morris basketball team while Klicker was a mainstay on the football team.

“At a school our size, we can’t function as an athletic program without having our key athletes participating in as many sports as they can,” Morris baseball coach Todd Kein said. “The icing on the cake for me is that their best sport is baseball.

“This is a very special group. They are players you wish you could have around for a decade. They have shown the younger guys the way we do things through their actions, and I am fortunate to be able to take advantage of everything they have to offer in the time they have with us.”

Kein pointed out that he put up a sign in the locker room that reads, “Sustain Our Culture,” and it is a feeling he believes in.

“I feel like it’s a full program responsibility,” Kein said. “The varsity feels it the most, but the culture here goes back to way before I even got here. We want to make sure our tradition continues.”

The players feel some of the same responsibility.

“We feel like we have to lead by example and by our words,” Bounds said. “Our team this year has been very good. We’ve only been practicing together a couple of weeks, but all the younger guys have bought in already.”

The core group of seniors have played together in both travel and school ball for the majority of their lives, and they feel that bond will be a strength this season.

“We have a lot of experience playing together,” Baftiri said. “We all know each other so well. We know what we can expect out of each other and we expect to go out there and win.”

Even while playing their other sports, baseball was still on their minds.

“You get kind of antsy,” Zweeres said. “Even though you are playing another sport, you want to take some swings or put on your glove and play catch. So, we would get together even during other sports seasons and play catch or hit.”

“Yeah, we did a lot of work on our own,” Baftiri said. “Even though we were busy with other sports, we found time to work on baseball.”

Even with all the success of last season, Morris feels like there is still work to be done.

“We just want to go out, have fun and play like we know how to play,” Wheeler said. “It was great getting third last year, but we feel like we could have won the semifinal game [a 5-2 loss to Crystal Lake Central], so we want to go farther this year.”

“Even though last year’s team was great, there was still room for improvement,” Zweeres said. “We feel like we can improve this year.”