DAVENPORT, IOWA (September 20, 2021) — The Quad Cities River Bandits won their third game of the week on Friday as they beat the South Bend Cubs 8-3 to secure at least a split of the six-game set.
In his first outing since returning from the injured list, Zach Haake started the night with three shut-out frames for the Bandits, facing one over the minimum, and allowed his offense to take a 1-0 lead against Chris Clarke on Jake Means’ two-out RBI single in the second.
After Haake gave up a lead-off triple to Yohendrick Pinango in the fourth, South Bend tied it up with Yonathan Perlaza’s RBI ground-out, which forced Haake from the game in favor of Anderson Paulino. Two batters later, Tucker Bradley failed to locate Jake Slaughter’s fly-ball and saw Bryce Ball score on a fielder’s-choice to put the Cubs in front 2-1.
Paulino responded with a one-two-three fifth, and after getting Tyler Durna to bounce into an inning-ending double play in the sixth, the Bandits’ offense exploded in the bottom of the sixth.
Leading off the frame, Logan Porter blasted a solo homer to quickly tie the game, but after Eric Cole and Maikel Garcia singles and Clarke’s walk of Bradley, South Bend turned to Jose Albertos with two outs and the bases loaded. Pinch-hitting for Nick Loftin, Gavin Stupienski drove in two with an RBI single to center, but after Alexander Canario misplayed the base hit, Bradley also scored to put QC ahead 5-2.
The next batter, another pinch-hitter in Rubendy Jaquez, doubled down the left-field line to score Stupienski and put up a Bandits’ five-spot in the frame.
While Paulino pand Nathan Webb pitched a perfect seventh and eighth respectively, a solo homer from Eric Cole — his twelfth of the season — and another South Bend error to plate Garcia extended the lead to 8-3.
Caden Monke pitched the top of the ninth and gave up a sac-fly to Jake Slaughter, but struck out Bryce Windham to end the game.
Thanks to 3.1 innings of one-run relief work, Paulino (1-1) earned the win for Quad Cities, while Clarke (0-6) took the loss allowing five runs on 10 hits.
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.
