BELOIT, WISCONSIN (July 19, 2021) — The Quad Cities River Bandits came up shy of their first six-game sweep of the season on Sunday, as they fell to the Beloit Snappers 5-4 in their series finale and both teams’ final appearance at Pohlman Field.
In his thirteenth start if the year, Anthony Veneziano struck out four Snappers in a scoreless first two innings before the River Bandits got to George Soriano in the top of the third when Nick Loftin took advantage of Logan Porter’s lead-off walk and Gavin Stupienski’s double and plated the former with an in-field hit.
Quad Cities extended the lead to 2-0 in the fourth thanks to Stupienski’s RBI groundout off of Cody Mincey that scored Eric Cole, who had reached earlier in the frame on an error.
After five scoreless innings, Veneziano finally blinked in the top of the sixth when Ynmanol Marinez took the first pitch he saw leading off the inning over the fence to make it a one-run game. The lefty then responded with a pair of back-to-back outs to set a new career-high in innings pitched, but surrendered a game-tying blast to Griffin Conine before he ended the inning two batters later.
Christian Cosby took over for Veneziano in the bottom of the seventh, but ran into trouble early by allowing the first four men to reach including RBI singles by Troy Johnston and Kole Enright that gave Beloit a 4-2 lead.
QC got back on the board in the top of the eighth and received a two-run dinger from Seuly Matias, his second of the series, that cleared the scoreboard and knotted the game at 4-4 and forced Mincey from game. Raul Brito, his replacement, surrendered a double to Eric Cole and a single to Logan Porter on back-to-back pitches, but Conine threw out Cole, the go-ahead run, at the plate to end the frame.
In the bottom half, Cosby would again run into trouble on the hill and saw the Snappers retake the lead on a solo homer by Thomas Jones that put the home squad ahead 5-4.
Tyler Mitzel got the ball for Beloit in the top of the ninth and retired the River Bandits in order to notch his seventh save of the season and end the Bandits’ win streak at five.
Brito (1-0), who pitched just 0.1 inning, got the win for the Snappers, while the River Bandits saw the loss go to Cosby (1-2) who gave up three runs, two earned, in two innings on four hits, one walk, and four strike-outs.
Quad Cities will get Monday off before returning to Modern Woodmen Park for the first time in two weeks, as they’ll host the Peoria Chiefs for game one of a six-game set on Tuesday at 6:30PM CDT.
ABOUT THE BANDITS: The 2021 season marks the River Bandits’ first year as a new Advanced-A Major League affiliate. As such, the team will be offering higher-quality baseball than has ever before been played in the Quad Cities. Additionally, the Bandits will welcome a new MLB affiliate to the Quad Cities, the Kansas City Royals. The River Bandits anchor the Quad Cities’ sports-market, which The Sports Business Journal named the top minor-league sports-market in the country in 2015 and second-best minor-league market in its 2017 follow-up ranking. In 2015, 2017, and again in 2019, the River Bandits earned Ballpark Digest’s award for “Best Charitable Works” in Minor League Baseball, the only club to win that coveted award three times. For more information, visit www.riverbandits.com or contact General Manager Joe Kubly at (563) 333-2768.
