Woodruff Fans 10 in Win Over Dunedin


Brandon Woodruff
Brandon Woodruff
The Brevard County Manatees won their second game of the weekend in Dunedin on Saturday, led by right-handed ace Brandon Woodruff who tied a career high with 10 strikeouts, leading the visitors to a 7-2 victory. 

Woodruff struck out at least one Dunedin batter in each of the first six innings. He struck out two in the first, second, fourth and fifth innings. He got D-Jays shortstop Richard Urena four times.
The game was quite a pitchers’ duel for much of the night, as Woodruff’s counterpart Justin Shafer held the Manatees scoreless for six innings. He allowed two hits, walking three and striking out three, before giving way to MLB rehabber Aaron Loup. Shafer threw 73 pitches, 45 for strikes. Loup did not have the same success. 

Jose Cuas was not in the starting lineup, but an injury to starting second baseman George Iskenderian pressed him into duty as a pinch-runner in the top of the fourth. Cuas started the seventh with a single. He moved to second on a Dustin Houle ground out and later scored on a Fidel Pena single. Taylor Brennan and Omar Garcia both walked to load the bases and end the night for Loup.

Matt Dermody came out of the Blue Jays ‘pen and Brandon Diaz welcomed him with a double off the wall in left, scoring two runs and giving the Manatees a 3-0 lead. With Diaz at second and Garcia at third, Johnny Davis grounded out to second, plating the fourth run of the inning.

Woodruff (4-1) came out for the bottom of the seventh, but gave up a double to Jason Leblebijian to lead it off and Matt McBroom followed with a deep drive over the left-center field wall, cutting the ‘Tees lead in half. Woodruff came back to retire Emilio Guerrero, but his night was done. He pitched 6.1 innings, allowing two runs on four hits. He had the 10 strikeouts and did not walk a batter. 60 of his 81 pitches were strikes, in a dominating performance. 

Birthday boy Brad Kuntz came in to finish the seventh. He walked two and struck out two, but kept Dunedin from doing any further damage. Brevard County on the other hand, would do more damage in the eighth against Blue Jays reliever Adonys Cardona.

Cuas singled with one out and stole second. A wild pitch moved him to third and Houle followed with a walk. Pena knocked him in with a ball that hopped off the mound and then ricocheted off the bag at second and into center field. Dickie Joe Thon tried to make a play on the ball, but the lights may have been a factor once the ball hit the mound. Either way, the Manatees lead was 5-2. After Brennan walked to load the bases, Omar Garcia fought off a handful of two strike pitches, before stinging the 11th pitch of his at bat to right, making it 6-2. 

The Manatees added a run on Pena’s RBI single in the ninth. It was the third straight inning with an RBI for Pena and it was 7-2 Manatees. Jon Olczak came in to pitch the ninth for Brevard County and sent the home team down in order.

For more info: Brevard County @ Dunedin boxscore
Pena had three of the Manatees nine hits on Saturday, to go along with his three RBIs. Cuas went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and Omar Garcia went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. The Manatees have gone 7-6 in May and upped their overall record to 12-24. Dunedin falls to 15-21.

Game Notes: The injury to Iskenderian came when he crossed the bag at first, beating out an infield hit. Dunedin radio man Spencer Siegel said Iskenderian seemed to be favoring his hamstring, but of course any diagnosis would be premature at this point. Adding to Woodruff’s spectacular outing is the fact that he picked off Dunedin leadoff man Anthony Alford in the bottom of the first. Alford did not agree with the call at first base and as he voiced his displeasure, he was tossed from the proceedings.


The final game of this series is scheduled for Sunday at 1:00 p.m. As has been the case all series, the starting pitchers have not been named.

This article originally appeared on the now defunct Examiner.com on 5/14/16

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