PEORIA, ILLINOIS (June 5, 2019) — The Quad Cities River Bandits could not bounce back from a slow start on Wednesday night at Dozer Park, dropping the second game of the series 6-1 to the Peoria Chiefs. The River Bandits have dropped three straight games and their lead in the Western Division has been reduced to 3.5 games.
A four-run second inning turned out to be all of the offense the Chiefs (26-31) would need. The frame began with back-to-doubles by Juan Yepez and Bryce Denton to put Peoria in front 1-0. The bases became loaded with an error and a Wadye Ynfante single before Brendan Donovan drove in a pair with his base hit. Donovan would score on a wild pitch later in the frame to increase the lead to 4-0.
Peoria added to the lead with single runs in the fourth and sixth innings. Brandon Benson led off the fourth with his first home-run of the season to make it a 5-0 lead and Nolan Gorman’s bases-loaded single off the glove of both first-baseman Michael Wielansky and second-baseman Austin Dennis gave the Chiefs their final run in the sixth.
The River Bandits (35-20) reached the scoreboard on Ross Adolph’s sacrifice-fly in the sixth and added one last run in the bottom of the ninth. Adolph opened that frame with a base hit, moved to second on a wild pitch, and raced to third on a deep fly-ball to right by Carlos Machado. Orlando Marquez brought him in with a bouncer to short that trimmed the Chiefs lead to 6-2.
Jose Rivera took the loss after allowing five runs, three earned, on five hits in 3.2 innings. Matt Ruppenthal followed out of the bullpen with 3.1 innings of work, surrendering a run on seven hits. Riley Cabral finished off the game with 2.0 scoreless innings.
Adolph was the only River Bandits player to finish with multiple hits, going 2-3 with a double, RBI, and a run scored. Peoria received two hits each from Donovan, Yepez, Ynfante, and Delvin Perez.
The teams will conclude the series on Thursday night with a 6:35PM first-pitch. The River Bandits will turn to RHP Cody Deason (3-2, 4.91) in a battle with Chiefs RHP Kyle Leahy (3-4, 3.86).
Peoria (R-H-E): 6-13-0
Quad Cities (R-H-E): 2-6-2
Win: Brettell (2-2)
Loss: Rivera (1-3)
Save: None
HR: Peoria: Brandon Benson (1, 4th inning, 0 on base)
HR: Quad Cities: None
All River Bandits games are broadcast on 1170 K-BOB and TuneIn Radio. Home games are also available with video on MiLB.TV.
