DAVENPORT, IOWA (August 25, 2019) — The Kane County Cougars turned the tables on the Quad Cities River Bandits by rolling to an 8-2 win on Sunday evening at Modern Woodmen Park. The River Bandits won the opening game of the series on Saturday by the same score.
Kane County (39-23, 72-56) did most of their damage in the third inning against starter Matt Ruppenthal. The eight and nine hitters in the Cougars lineup reached base on a walk and single respectively to put two on for the top. KeShawn Lynch capitalized with a double to right-field, which broke open the scoring and left men on second and third. After the first out was recorded, Zack Shannon worked the count full before shooting a two-run single up the middle for a 3-0 lead. Later in the frame, Kristian Robinson smacked a three-run home-run, his third long-ball of the year, to double the lead to 6-0.
The Cougars later added to their advantage with single runs in the fifth against Joey Gonzalez and ninth off of Jacob Billingsley. Gonzalez issued a lead-off walk to Dominic Fletcher in the fifth, only to watch him score on a two-out triple from Blaze Alexander. In the final frame, two hit batters and a throwing error by Freudis Nova led to an unearned run.
Second baseman AJ Lee drove in both runs for the River Bandits (34-28, 77-51). His RBI ground-out in the fifth inning cut the deficit to 6-1, and then his double in the seventh scored Trey Dawson from second base to make it a 7-2 ballgame.
Adrian Del Moral, the Kane County starter, earned the win by working 5.0 innings and allowing just one run on four hits. At the end of the game, Chester Pimentel came out of the Cougars bullpen and struck out the side in each of the final 2.0 innings to slam the door.
Ruppenthal was handed the loss, surrendering six runs on four hits over 4.0 innings. Both Gonzalez and Billingsley allowed one run out of the bullpen.
Each team finished the game with six hits. Brandon Leyton of Kane County was the only player with multiple hits. Grae Kessinger extended his on-base streak to 16 consecutive games with a single up the middle in the fourth.
The third game of the series will take place on Monday night at 6:35PM. RHP RJ Freure (5-5, 3.78) will get the baseball for the Bandits while Kane County tosses RHP Luis Frias (2-1, 6.35). Free Ferris wheel rides will be offered to all fans in attendance.
Kane County (R-H-E): 8-6-1
Quad Cities (R-H-E): 2-6-1
Win: Del Moral (3-3)
Loss: Ruppenthal (5-7)
Save:
HR: Kane County: Kristian Robinson (3, 3rd inning, 2 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.
