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Following facial injury, Doyle back to playing again

By Staff | Aug 2, 2019

Doyle

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Cleared to play baseball again after sustaining a freak injury, former Shepherd outfielder Brenton Doyle has rejoined the Grand Junction (Colorado) Rockies of the Rookie Pioneer League.

Doyle had begun his professional baseball career in early June after being drafted in the fourth round of that month’s selections by Major League Baseball. He was sent to the Pioneer League to begin his professional baseball journey.

Getting off to a good start at the plate, Doyle was hitting .327 on June 28 when he suffered an unusual injury while in his own dugout waiting to bat.

A foul ball from a teammate shot into the Rockies’ dugout and hit Doyle in the face on the fly. At first, reports were not certain what damage had been done to the player’s cheekbone. He could have suffered a fracture that would have meant spending considerable time on the injury list.

However, Doyle was cleared to play again within three weeks, and made his next appearance in the Grand Junction lineup on July 18.

He has appeared in every game the team has played, since his initial appearance on July 18.

In a total of 18 games this season through July 26, he was batting .303 in 66 official plate appearances.

Doyle had scored 17 runs, usually batting second in the lineup. Of Doyle’s 20 hits to that time, he had three doubles, a triple and three home runs. He had accumulated 30 total bases and driven in nine runs.

The fleet-footed outfielder had attempted to steal seven bases and had been successful on all seven tries.

The rookie Pioneer League season carries through all of August and into very early September. The league schedule has two halves, with the second half beginning with August’s games.

As a high draft choice and with signing a lucrative bonus contract, should he be healthy, Doyle will likely play in a fall instructional league, either in Arizona or Florida, to complete the first injury-shortened phase of his professional baseball career.