Keenan’s 12 K’s Help Bruins One-Hit D-Backs

By Dean Barker
Carl Keenan struck out twelve and helped the Broadway Bruins defeat the Stuarts Draft Diamondbacks 4-0. With the win, the Bruins improved to 2-1 on the year, while the Diamondbacks fell to 1-2. 

“This win shows resiliency,” Bruins head coach Bryce Strawderman said.” “We’ve still got a lot of guys that aren’t here from high school, but with the guys we have, we were able to show up and compete, and put some decent at-bats together at the plate.”

Keenan got the win for the Bruins, pitching  7 ⅓ innings and giving up no runs on just one hit with  four walks and twelve strikeouts. Hayden Fravel pitched a scoreless inning with no hits, two walks and a strikeout. Karson Jennings pitched the last two outs of the game, giving up no runs on no hits with no walks and no strikeouts.

“I was getting a lot more whiffs tonight on my fastball, that carried me through most of the game,” Keenan said. “Offspeed wasn’t working great, then I got to it about (the) fourth inning, and just took off from there.”

Jacob Dunford took the loss for the D-Backs, pitching five innings and giving up one earned run on two hits with one walk and five strikeouts. Peter Shifflett pitched the first two outs of the sixth and gave up one earned run on one hit with three walks and a strikeout. Trever Mitchell pitched 2 ⅓ innings and gave up two earned runs on two hits with four walks and two strikeouts. Chandis Goff pitched a scoreless ninth with no hits, two walks and a strikeout. 

The Bruins got on the board first with a two-out solo shot to left from Ozzie Torres in the third. Grant Landis would lead off the sixth with a walk, then steal second, allowing Torres to drive him in on an RBI single to make it 2-0. The Bruins would leave the bases loaded in the sixth and seventh innings.

The Bruins got back to work in the eighth, as with the bases loaded and one out, Joseph McNamera would drive in one with a sacrifice fly to left. Grant Landis would single to right to make the score 4-0, which is how the game would end.

The Bruins had four runs on five hits with no errors and nine runners left on base. Torres led the way for Broadway, going 2-4 with two RBIs and two stolen bases. Landis was 1-2 with an RBI and two walks. Nixon was 1-3 with two walks. Keenan was 1-3 with a walk and a stolen base. Bower went 1-3 with a walk. McNamera was 0-1 with an RBI.

“Basically, (the key) was teamwork, everybody did their job,” Torres said. “Pitching staff did pretty good, our defense (was) great, and we put the pressure on them (at the plate).”

The Diamondbacks had no runs on one hit with no errors and left six base runners stranded. Nate Wayne had the sole hit for Stuarts Draft and went 1-4.

The Bruins will hope to push their win streak to three when they take on the Montezuma Braves at 7:30 pm on Friday, June 2.

The Diamondbacks will look to bounce back when they host the defending RCBL champion Bridgewater Reds in a rematch of last year’s finals on Friday, June 2 at 7:30 pm. Despite the loss, Stuarts Draft head coach Les Sandridge isn’t worried about his team.

“These guys are motivated, we’ll be fine Friday,” Sandridge said. “They’ll come out ready to hit, pitching has been solid for us. I'm not worried about our pitching, our pitching staff’s been good… We’ll be okay, just got to get the sticks going.”

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