DAVENPORT, IOWA (July 29, 2021) — The Quad Cities River Bandits lost their second extra-inning game of the season on Wednesday as they fell 11-4 to the South Bend Cubs in ten innings at Modern Woodmen Park.
In his first professional start, Dante Biasi faced one over the minimum in the first three innings and set the stage for the Bandits in the bottom of the third, when Nick Loftin led off the inning with a triple against Matteo Bocchi. Michael Massey brought in the game’s first run with a sacrifice-fly and put the Bandits on top.
After Biasi stranded a pair of South Bend runners in the top of the fourth to end his scoreless outing, Quad Cities tacked on another, via an RBI single by Seuly Matias, which scored Eric Cole, who led off the bottom of the frame with his second double of the night.
However, South Bend took advantage of Yohanse Morel’s struggles in the fifth inning as a pair of one-out walks led to Delvin Zinn’s RBI single, which came off the heels of a wild pitch that allowed Josue Huma to plate the Cubs’ first run of the game.
The next batter, Yonathan Perlaza, kept the rally going with two outs and doubled down the right-field line and then scored on Tyler Durna’s RBI single to center, which gave his club the 3-2 before Morel walked Nelson Velazquez to bring in Peyton Gray after just 0.2 innings on the hill. Gray struck out the only man he faced in the fifth, Bryce Ball, to end the frame.
South Bend extended the lead to 4-2 in the top of the sixth as Huma and Edmond Americaan successfully completed a double-steal and got a run when Huma advanced home when Logan Porter overthrew Massey while trying to catch the Americaan at second.
In the bottom of the seventh, however, Quad Cities also found success against the opposition’s bullpen when Tucker Bradley and Nathan tied the game with a pair of solo-shots off of Hunter Bigge to tie the game at 4-4.
Neither team scored in the final two frames as Nathan Webb struck out five-straight Cubs hitters to get to the bottom of the ninth and Bigge settled down to go one-two-three in the eighth before Burl Carraway stranded the winning run on second in the bottom of the ninth to send it to extras.
In the top of the tenth, Webb allowed a lead-off single to Durna, but then struck out Velazquez and Ball with two men on. However, Jake Slaughter’s RBI single to give the Cubs the 5-4 lead started an avalanche of runs, as a walk to Dean Navarez loaded the bases and led to Huma’s bases-clearing triple that blew the game open to 8-4.
Webb’s day came to an end after the righty then allowed another two-out base-runner in Americaan’s single.
Down by four, Chris Widger inserted back-up-catcher/first-baseman Gavin Stupienski, who made his professional pitching début and allowed a two-run homer to Delvin Zinn before eventually getting Durna to fly out and end the inning with Quad Cities trailing 11-4.
The Bandits put up little fight in the bottom of the tenth and went down in order to Graham Lawson, who put the finishing touches on South Bend’s first win of the series.
Webb (0-1) took the loss for Quad Cities after allowing six runs, five earned, on five hits, one walk, and seven strike-outs, while Carraway (1-0) got his first win of the year for the South Bend thanks to a clean frame.
Quad Cities will look to retake the lead in the series on Thursday behind Charlie Neuweiler (0-1, 5.87) who toes the rubber against South Bend’s Blake Whitney (0-0, 2.70). First pitch is scheduled for 6:30PM CDT at Modern Woodmen Park.
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.
