LumberKings Blow Late Lead, Split Doubleheader

Clinton, IA - Clinton, IA - For 11 innings of Saturday night's doubleheader between the LumberKings and River Bandits, Clinton owned Quad Cities. The LumberKings took game one and led 5-0 in the fifth inning of game two before the River Bandits staged a dramatic comeback to steal game two.   

Victor Sanchez and Matt Vedo combined on a 4-hit shutout in a game one, 1-0 win. Sanchez earned his first Midwest League win with six innings of 3-hit ball. 

Clinton scored the lone run of the game in the fifth when Gaby Guerrero led off with a double. Taylor Ard followed with a productive groundout to second as Guerrero moved to third. Brock Hebert struck out for the second out but was picked up Jabari Henry who banged a double off the left field wall to score Guerrero. 

Vedo came on for Clinton in the seventh and found trouble after he retired Miles Hamblin to start the inning. Rio Ruiz walked and was quickly replaced by pinch-runner Austin Elkins. With Ariel Ovando batting, Elkins was gunned down trying to swipe second. Ovando then singled and moved to second when Brian Blasik walked. 

A wild pitch allowed both runners to move up 90 feet. Vedo buckled down and got Ryan Dineen to bounce out to first to end the game. The shutout was the fifth for the LumberKings in their last 16 games.

Tyler Pike started off game two where Sanchez and Vedo left off. The southpaw struck out five and kept the River Bandits off the scoreboard until the fifth inning. 

By that time, Clinton had built a comfortable 5-0 lead. In the third, the LumberKings got hits from Guerrero, Janelfry Zorrilla, Ketel Marte, Dario Pizzano, Patrick Kivlehan and Tyler Marlette. The six hits, combined with a Quad Cities error, resulted in a five-spot for the LumberKings. 

It stayed 5-0 until the fifth inning when Pike hit a wall. He walked the first three batters of the inning, uncorked a wild pitch and allowed a sacrifice fly and the lead was down to 5-2. 

In the sixth, the downward spiral continued. With one out and runners on first and second, Teoscar Hernandez hit a routine double play ball at Tim Lopes who had the ball roll up his glove. One run scored on the fielding error and Lopes delivered a throw home that popped away from Tyler Marlette, allowing a second run to score and trim the lead to 5-4.

With Carlos Correa batting, Hernandez moved to third on a wild pitch. Correa then walked and stole second. Miles Hamlimb delivered the knockout punch with a sharp single to left scoring Hernandez and Correa for a 6-5 lead. 

There was a glimmer of hope in the bottom of the seventh when Guerrero led off with an infield single. He moved to second on another infield single, a bunt by Zorrilla. With Marte batting, Guerrero was picked off second by catcher Roberto Pena. To make matters worse, Marte singled. 

With one away, Dario Pizzano bounced into a game-ending 4-6-3 double play to give the River Bandits a come-from-behind 6-5 victory. The two teams meet for game three of the series on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 PM CT.