APPLETON, WISCONSIN (April 14, 2019) — The Quad Cities River Bandits had their five-game winning-streak snapped by the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in a 6-3 loss at Fox Cities Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Wisconsin hitters capitalized on eight walks from Bandits pitchers and collected eight hits. The Bandits took two of the three games in the series.
After the River Bandits (6-4) stranded a pair of baserunners in the top of the first, Wisconsin took the lead in the home-half of the frame. Bandits starter Mark Moclair walked the first two hitters he faced before David Fry drove in both with a double to the wall in right-field. Following an infield single by Chad McClanahan, the Timber Rattlers had runners on the corners with no outs. Gabriel Garcia hit a shallow fly-ball to left in the next at bat that was caught by Marty Costes for the first out. Fry tried to tag up and score from third on the play, but Costes threw him out at the plate for the team’s first outfield-assist of the year. As a result, the deficit remained 2-0 after one.
The River Bandits cut the margin in half in the top of the third. Costes opened the inning with a base-hit up the middle. He stole second-base and moved to third on Enmanuel Valdez’s groundball to the right-side. Jonathan Lacroix brought him home with a sacrifice-fly into center-field.
The Timber Rattlers (5-5) gained separation with a three-run fourth-inning off of reliever Devin Conn. Brice Turang drove in the first run with a double to left field and McClanahan brought in the final two with his line-drive base- hit into shallow-left. The inning ended with Wisconsin in the lead by a 5-1 score.
The Wisconsin lead grew to 6-1 in the bottom of the 6th. Yeison Coca beat out an infield single to start the inning. Fry worked a walk in the next at-bat to put two on with no outs. The next two hitters were retired, but with two outs, Je’Von Ward slapped a ground-rule down the left-field line to score Coca.
The River Bandits climbed closer with single-runs in both the seventh and eighth innings. Austin Dennis drove in Scott Schreiber with a ground-out in the seventh, and in the next inning, Valdez hit his third double in the last two days to plate Ross Adolph and close the gap to 6-3. The Bandits put one man on in the ninth inning, but could not pull any closer.
Quad Cities finished with five hits. Pena and Schreiber each extended their hitting-streaks to seven games, while Costes pushed his to six.
Moclair, the starting pitcher, went 2.0 innings and allowed two runs on two hits and four walks. Conn followed with 2.0 innings of his own, surrendering three runs on three hits. Luis Garcia pitched the final 4.0 innings and gave up one run on three hits while collecting six strikeouts. The trio combined for 12 strikeouts giving the Bandits double-digit strikeout totals in each of the first 10 games this season.
The River Bandits stay on the road by opening a three-game series in Cedar Rapids at 6:35PM on Monday night against the Kernels. The entire series was moved from Modern Woodmen Park due to limited access to the stadium. RHP Shawn Dubin (0-1,1.50) will take the ball for the Bandits against Kernels RHP Luis Rijo (0-1, 3.60).
Quad Cities (R-H-E): 3-5-0
Wisconsin (R-H-E): 6-8-0
Win: Bullock (1-0)
Loss: Moclair (0-1)
Save: Strzelecki (1)
HR: Quad Cities: None
HR: Wisconsin: None
All River Bandits games are broadcast on 1170 K-BOB and TuneIn Radio. Home games are also available with video on MiLB.TV.
