PEORIA, ILLINOIS (May 24, 2021) — In his first start of the season, Drew Parrish’s perfect four-inning start highlighted the Quad Cities River Bandits series finale against the Peoria Chiefs, as his team came away with a 5-2 win on Sunday, 23 May, at Dozer Park.
The former Florida State Seminole was dominant from the get-go and retired the first five Chiefs batters of the game on strikes, before the River Bandits took the lead on Jimmy Govern’s bases-clearing double, off of Jack Ralston, that plated Tyler Gentry, Logan Porter, and a 2-0 advantage.
Now working with the lead, Parrish comfortably worked through the third and fourth innings and punched out four of the last six batters he’d face prior to passing the reigns to 2020 fourth-round pick, Christian Chamberlain for the fifth.
Having been activated just prior to first pitch, Chamberlain, the Colorado native, conceded Peoria’s first-base runner of the night on a two-out single by Hernandez, but would then set down the next four men he would faced to complete his scoreless two-inning début.
Both teams stranded doubles from Govern, his second of the day, and Pedro Pages in the seventh, before Jeison Guzman and Vinnie Pasquantino took Freddy Pacheco deep for their first and seventh homers of the year to extend Quad Cities’ lead to 5-0.
Peoria managed to get on the board in the eighth thanks to a long-ball from Matt Chamberlain, but the two runs was all they would get as Yohanse Morel and Jordan Dipoto worked to close out the remainder of the eighth and ninth innings with the lefty Dipoto striking out the side to secure the victory in the final frame.
Chamberlain (1-0) got the win for the Bandits in his professional début as Dipoto (2) earned his second save of the season. Ralston (0-2), the Chiefs’starter, ended up with the loss after allowing two earned over his four frames.
Quad Cities will begin their first and only series against a High-A Central Eastern Division foe on Tuesday, as LHP Asa Lacy (1-1, 5.00) will take the hill against Dayton’s RHP Graham Ashcraft (1-1, 3.21) at 6:05PM CDT.
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.
