DAVENPORT, IOWA (July 1, 2021) — After being shut out in the series opener, the Quad Cities River Bandits got back to their offensive ways including a six-spot in the seventh inning that helped them top the Cedar Rapids Kernels 9-4 on Wednesday night at Modern Woodmen Park.
The Kernels matched Tuesday’s run total with their first swing of the bat as Edouard Julien took Zach Haake deep with a lead-off blast that gave his club a 1-0 lead in the first.
The home run would mark the only blemish of the day for Haake, but he’d last just 2.1 innings after leaving in the middle of the third due to injury and was replaced by Christian Cosby, who saw the game tied up on Nick Loftin’s RBI single in the bottom-half of the frame.
With one out in the fourth, Alex Isola quickly put an end to the tie and launched his team’s second home-run of the night, another solo shot that put the visitors back on top at 2-1.
Ben Gross, the Cedar Rapids starter, retired Quad Cities one-two-three in the fourth and stranded a pair of runners in the fifth to complete his one-run five-inning start in line for the win, but in the bottom of the sixth, Michael Massey poked a base-hit to right off Owen Griffith and tied the game at 2-2 by plating Loftin.
After Cosby kept the tie intact with a scoreless seventh, the River Bandits exploded out of their offensive funk and rifled off three-straight RBI singles courtesy of Jeison Guzman, Nick Loftin, and Vinnie Pasquantino, before Michael Massey put the exclamation mark on the frame with a three-run blast off of Derek Molina to make it a 8-2 game.
Mitch Ellis worked his second of two scoreless frames in the eighth and stranded a pair of runners prior to Guzman’s sac-fly in the bottom-half that extended the Bandits’ lead to 9-2.
Cedar Rapids got a pair of runs off of Jonah Dipoto in the bottom of the ninth on an RBI double by Seth Gray and an RBI ground-out from Allante Hall, but it was too little, too late, as the righty got DaShawn Keirsey Jr to bounce out to end the contest at 9-4.
Despite 3.1 innings of one-run ball from Cosby, the win went to Ellis (3-1) for his third of the year, while Griffith (3-4) took the loss by allowing five runs on six hits and one walk over 1.1 innings.
Game three of the series is scheduled to feature Anthony Veneziano (2-2, 4.18) for the Bandits, who will oppose Cedar Rapids’ Cody Lawyerson (0-0, 3.00) for a 6:30PM CDT first pitch at Modern Woodmen Park.
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.
