DAVENPORT, Iowa – Backed by the strong pitching of starter Carson LaRue, the River Bandits defeated the Burlington Bees 7-1 on a sunny Monday afternoon at Modern Woodmen Park. Chuckie Robinson and Taylor Jones belted home runs for Quad Cities.
LaRue and Burlington (11-22) starter Travis Herrin tossed shutouts through three innings. Robinson broke the scoreless tie in the home half of the fourth with a solo shot to left. The following inning, Jones peppered one on to the berm in left field to make it 2-0 Bandits (17-18). Burlington got a run back in the sixth when Jack Kruger singled home a run.
Errors and walks haunted Burlington in the later innings. Bees’ reliever Blake Smith put two runners on by throwing eight straight balls to start the sixth. The next batter, Marcos Almonte, laid down a bunt that Smith threw into the right field bullpen, scoring a Bandits run. Yordan Alvarez hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-1 Bandits after six. Two more walks and another error by the Bees in the seventh, added three more runs to the Bandits total.
LaRue (4-1) went six innings, allowed one unearned run, three hits and stuck out seven. Herrin (0-3) was ousted after 4.2 innings in which he allowed two runs. Abdiel Saldana picked up a three-inning save, his first of the year. Saldana did not allow a run and yielded just one hit.
Game two of the series commences at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday at Modern Woodmen Park. The Bandits will look to win two in a row sending RHP Dustin Hunt (0-3, 5.40) to the mound to oppose Burlington’s RHP Joe Gatto (2-2, 3.71). Pregame coverage can be heard at 10:45 a.m. on riverbandits.com and 1170 AM KBOB with Jake Levy and Connor Onion.
