DAVENPORT, IOWA (September 20, 2021) — Despite tying the game in the bottom of the ninth, the Quad Cities River Bandits fell to the South Bend Cubs 5-4 in their final regular-season game of the year on Sunday and finished the year 77-41 overall after the ten-inning loss.
Quad Cities took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first with Nathan Eaton plated Tyler Tolbert’s lead-off single, with an RBI double against Cubs’ starter Jordan Wicks, who then stranded three base-runners in the scoreless second and third.
After Dante Biasi gave the Bandits his fourth scoreless frames with a pair of strike-outs and Tyler Santana took over for the Cubs for the bottom of the fourth, the Bandits extended their lead to 2-0 as Will Hancock drove in Parker Bates with a sacrifice-fly.
South Bend then found the home-run ball and got a two-out solo-shot off the bat of Jake Washer that tagged Biasi for his only run of the game before Yohendrick Pinango led off the sixth with a blast against Patrick Smith to tie it at 2-2.
In response, QC loaded the bases with less than two outs in the sixth and the seventh, but failed to score either time against Santana or Gabriel Jaramillo, who got Gavin Stupienski to bounce into an inning-ending double-play to end the seventh.
After a scoreless inning from Kasey Kalich, Nathan Webb pitched the top of the eighth for Quad Cities and allowed a lead-off single to Edmond Americaan, who then stole second and got to third on a Stupienski error. Then with two outs, the Cubs’ center-fielder scored on a wild pitch to give South Bend the 3-2 lead.
The Bandits tied it up in the bottom of the ninth after a Rubendy Jaquez infield hit eventually led to Jake Means’ first sacrifice-fly of the season against Bailey Reid to send it to the tenth.
Having already used four relievers, including Caden Monke, who pitched a scoreless top of the ninth, Bandits’ manager Chris Widger turned to usual starter Charlie Neuweiler for the tenth. In his first relief appearance since 2017, the righty allowed both a placed-runner, Washer, and his lead-off walk, Americaan, to score on a pair of sac-flies by Yonathan Perlaza and Canario that put South Bend up 5-3.
Facing Dalton Stambaugh in the bottom of the tenth, Parker Bates drove in the placed-runner, Eric Cole, with an RBI single, but despite Hancock later reaching on a walk to put the tying and winning runs on base, Stambaugh got Tolbert to ground out to second to secure a Cubs’ win.
Giving up two runs, one earned, in the tenth, Neuweiler (2-3) got the loss for Quad Cities, while Reid (1-1) got the win in the victory despite blowing a save and allowing a run in one frame.
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.
