Early Runs Push Cardinals Past Bruins

By Dean Barker
​The Grottoes Cardinals traded runs early with the Broadway Bruins before taking the lead for good in a 7-4 road win on Monday, July 3. With the win, the Cardinals improved to 11-8, while the Bruins fell to 10-7.
 
“We got timely hitting, that’s what we’ve been struggling with some this year, get the big hit when we need it,” Cardinals head coach Tim Nicely said. “Our pitchers threw well, got us out of some jams and pitched a lot of good pitches.”
 
Adam Dofflemyer got the win to improve to 3-1, pitching five innings and giving up four earned runs on nine hits with three walks and four strikeouts. Eli Lam pitched three and a third innings, giving up runs on three hits with three walks and three strikeouts. Noah Burtner picked up the save, striking out the last two batters of the game.
 
Bryce Turner took the loss to fall to 0-1, pitching the first four innings and giving up six runs (one earned) on nine hits with one walk and one strikeout. Karson Jennings pitched two innings and gave up one earned run on four hits with one walk and no strikeouts. Dalton Benson pitched two scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk with no strikeouts. Grant Landis pitched a scoreless ninth with no hits, no walks and no strikeouts.
 
After leadoff singles from Dalton Nicely, Cameron Irvine and Dylan Nicely in the first inning, Garret Huffman hit a sacrifice fly to center to put Grottoes up 1-0. The Bruins would respond in the bottom half with an RBI double to left from Micah Canterbury.
 
With two outs in the ninth, a soft grounder from Dalton Nicely to first was too much for the Bruins infield, bringing home Clayton Michael for the Cardinals’ second run. Broadway put the run back on the board in the bottom half with an RBI sacrifice grounder from Ozzie Torres.
 
A two out bases loaded triple from Michael gave the Cardinals a 5-2 lead in the third.
 
“I’ve really been struggling lately, so I was just trying to put a ball in play and hit something hard to try and boost the offense and get the win,” Michael said.
 
In the bottom half, Carl Keenan drove in one with a bases loaded single to center, and the Bruins cut it to one when Brody Bower grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. 
 
Eli Lam singled with runners on the corners to make it a 6-4 Grottoes lead in the top of the fourth.
 
Luke Tomajcyzk’s sacrifice fly to left would extend the Cardinals lead to 7-4 in the sixth.
 
Hunter Devers and Keenan walked with one out in the bottom of the ninth, and Bower’s single to right loaded the bases, but Burtner came in and struck out Ethan Burgreen and Jayden Nixon to end the game. 
 
“I know my defense is gonna go out there and always try to make good plays behind me,” Burtner said. “Very talented defensive team, as well as offensive. Adam and Eli both threw the ball very well tonight. Just going out there and trying to attack with the fastball early, try to keep it low and just blow it by them.”
 
The Cardinals had seven runs on fourteen hits with two errors and twelve runners left on base. Dalton Nicely went 4-6 with an RBI. Irvine was 3-5. Dylan Nicely was 2-4. Eli Lam was 2-5 with an RBI. Tomajcyzk was 1-4 with an RBI. Michael was 2-5 with three RBIs. 
 
The Bruins had four runs on thirteen hits with three errors and fourteen base runners stranded. Canterbury was 1-4 with two RBIs. Colin McGuire, Deavers and Bower were 2-4. Torres was 2-5 with one RBI. Nixon was 1-4. Burgreen went 1-5. Keenan was 2-3 with an RBI.
 
The Bruins will hope to bounce back at the RCBL Shockers on Wednesday, July 5 at 7:30 pm. The Cardinals will hope to win their fourth in a row when they travel to the Stuarts Draft Diamondbacks on Thursday, July 6 at 7:30 pm.

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