Davenport, Iowa – The Quad Cities River Bandits (65-53, 35-20) saw their five-game win streak come to an end and lost just their fifth game in the month of August, falling to the Beloit Sky Carp (62-60, 35-22) 11-5 on Thursday night at Modern Woodmen Park.
While the contest saw 16 total runs on 20 combined hits, neither team cracked into the run column through the first third of the ballgame, as starters Emmanuel Reyes and Nate Payne matched each other zero-for-zero.
Chase Jaworsky and Esmil Valencia helped Beloit end the deadlock in the top of the fourth, driving in a 2-0 Sky Carp lead with a single and a sacrifice fly respectively.
Reyes did not have to wait long to see his bats respond, as Jose Cerice capitalized on three-straight Bandits baserunners with a go-ahead three-run double in the next half inning. The gapper put Quad Cities in front 3-2 and extended Cerice’s franchise-best on-base streak to 43 games.
People are also reading…
Reyes ran into more trouble in the fifth when five-straight Beloit baserunners lifted the visitors back in front. After Cody Schrier tied the game with an RBI double of his own, Carter Johnson drove in two with a single, his first hit of the series.
With the River Bandits trailing 5-3, Aiden Jimenez entered the game to pick up the final out of the inning and did so on just one pitch with help from Asbel Gonzalez’s sliding catch in center field.
Payne kept Quad Cities from responding in its half of the fifth and saw the Carp offense kick back into gear in the sixth when Dillon Head drove in a pair with a double, his third of four hits on the night.
Erick Torres’s sacrifice fly trimmed Beloit’s lead to 7-4 in the bottom of the sixth, with Jesus Rios aiding Payne through the frame, but a sacrifice fly off the bat of Jaworsky in the seventh put Beloit back up by four.
Jackson Cleveland took over on the mound for the Bandits in the eighth and retired the first two batters he faced, before a Head double and Max Williams walk extended the inning for Schrier. The first baseman then launched a three-run homer for an 11-4 Beloit lead. The long ball marked the third of the series for Schrier and his sixth in the last 12 games.
Torres turned his night into a multi-RBI effort with a run-scoring single off Juan Reynoso in the eighth, but it would prove irrelevant after Reynoso and Cannon Pickell combined to end the game out of Beloit’s bullpen.
Payne (5-7) finished two outs shy of a quality start, but earned the win for the Sky Carp, allowing four runs, three earned, on five hits, three walks, and five strikeouts over 5.1 innings. Reyes (6-4) was saddled with the loss, surrendering five earned in 4.2 innings. Rios (1) earned a hold with a scoreless appearance (1.2 IP).
Still with a full one-game lead in the Midwest League West Division, the River Bandits return to Modern Woodmen Park for game four of the six-game set tomorrow night and send David Shields (10-5, 3.97) to the mound opposite Beloit’s Emmett Olson (0-0, 9.00). First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.
