Advertisement

Manchester's Morales ready for the next step

kyle maher, journal inquirer, manchester, conn.
·4 min read

May 4—Gio Morales first set his sights on earning a college baseball scholarship in sixth grade.

He dropped basketball and football and joined the AAU baseball circuit, first playing for Team Connecticut Baseball and later for CT Mayhem. He worked with an individual hitting instructor and a personal trainer. And he spent countless hours at the TCB and Mayhem facilities, toiling away at his craft.

Morales, a senior at Manchester High, will soon be rewarded for that work with a baseball scholarship to Division II Lincoln University near Oxford, Pennsylvania.

He is expected to sign a National Letter of Intent to play for Anthony Plá's program after his senior season with the Red Hawks has concluded.

"Lincoln felt like home, it had that kind of feel for me," said Morales, whose family moved to Manchester from Hartford when he was eight. "It's nice to have the hard work pay off and I can't wait to get there and get started."

TCB's coaches decided to convert Morales from a first baseman into a center fielder, a position they felt was more suited for his skillset.

"I was always an infielder but they thought I would be better as an outfielder, so they worked with me on it," Morales said. "It took a little adjustment, but my coaches helped me through it. I took a lot of reps before and after practice and worked on getting my arm ready for the throws and working on my footwork and getting behind the ball. Those were the things I needed to focus on."

He was the starting center fielder on the Cheney Tech varsity team as a freshman, and it was in the Beavers' game against Manchester High that Red Hawks' coach Gary Marineau first watched his future star play.

"He got like two doubles and threw a good inning of relief and I said, 'Who the hell is this kid?' " Marineau said. "And they go, 'He's a freshman,' and Mark Osorio said, 'He's a friend of mine, I played with him at Illing (Middle School).' And I said, 'Wow, he's really good.' "

Morales enjoyed his time at Cheney Tech but didn't think the school was the right fit for him academically or athletically. So he decided to transfer elsewhere.

He considered attending East Catholic but ultimately enrolled at Manchester High.

"I liked Cheney, but they didn't really talk about college very much," Morales said. "It was more 'We want to help you graduate from here and get a job.' I wanted to go to college and play baseball, so I decided to go in a different direction."

Morales was eager to compete for the starting center field position in preseason practice as a sophomore but the year was canceled before it began due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He was named the starter in center as a junior and hit .313 with seven doubles, two triples, and 17 RBIs as the Red Hawks went 13-8 and earned the No. 15 seed in the Class LL state tournament. He posted an OBP of .378 and a slugging percentage of .522.

Morales received interest from Lincoln, Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts, and Husson University in Bangor, Maine last summer after a strong showing on the AAU circuit.

He took visits to Curry and Lincoln in the fall and was thoroughly impressed with what the latter had to offer both academically and athletically.

"There's so much history behind all the buildings there, who taught there, who went there for school," Morales said. "The historic part of it was really interesting to me. And then the coaching, I loved how the coaches interacted with me and my family. I met with the coach, and even before the tour, I sat in the coach's office with my parents and my sister and had a conversation for an hour where we talked about everything. Not even baseball, all sorts of things. And then we took the tour and saw everything the school had to offer. It was great."

This season, Morales is hitting .500 with five doubles, five RBIs and 16 runs scored to lead Manchester to a 10-2 record. The Red Hawks sit in a tie for fourth in the CIAC Class LL playoff rankings and are receiving votes in the New Haven Register/GameTimeCT state media poll.

He has posted an OBP of .531 and a slugging percentage of .678.

Morales will return to the Lincoln campus later this month to attend a baseball game and meet with the coaching staff and players. He isn't sure when he will sign his LOI but said it will occur soon after his second visit.

"I'm going to let the season play out before I sign," Morales said. "I'm not talking to any other schools, but I want to wait until the end of the season before I make it official."

For daily updates on high school sports in JI's coverage area, follow Kyle Maher on Twitter: @KyleBMaher, Facebook: Kyle Maher, and Instagram: @KyleBMaher.