Fifth-Inning Surge Launches Bandits to Seventh-Straight Victory

Dayton, Ohio – The Quad Cities River Bandits (60-51, 30-18) erased a three-run deficit with a six-run fifth inning Wednesday and topped the Dayton Dragons (59-55, 20-28) 6-5 at Day Air Ballpark for their seventh win in-a-row.

The win streak ties for Quad Cities’ longest of the season and is the longest active mark in High-A.

Going into the fifth, the River Bandits not only trailed 3-0, but had been held without a baserunner by Dragons’ starter Deivi Villafana. While the right-hander retired the first 13 Quad Cities hitters, Dayton’s bats jumped out to a 1-0 lead via Justin Lebron, who launched a leadoff homer off Tanner Jones in the bottom of the first.

Quad Cities’ starter rebounded with a scoreless second before Lebron’s second hit of the game, an RBI-single, and Ty Doucette’s RBI-double added to the Bandits’ deficit in the third.

Jose Cerice ended Villafana’s perfect game and the Dragon’s shutout bid on the first pitch he saw in the fifth, extending his on-base streak to 37 games with his fifth home run of the season.

After Nolan Sailors drew a walk, Austin Charles drove a single to into left, the infielder’s first hit since returning from the injured list. Tyriq Kemp brought them both home and tied the 3-3 game with a two-run triple.

Two pitches later, Ben North knocked Villafana out of the game and shot the Bandits in front 4-3 with a home run, Quad Cities second of the inning and the shortstop’s third in the last four games.

QC southpaw Dash Albus took over for Jones in the fourth handled the next three innings in relief. The left-hander surrendered a run on Jack Lausch’s RBI-groundout in the sixth, but struck out Lebron the strand the tying runs on base.

An RBI-double off the bat of Jacob Friend trimmed the Quad Cities’ lead to 6-5 in the seventh, however, Asbel Gonzalez, Ben North and Blake Mitchell teamed up to throw out Doucette at the plate to end the inning and keep the Bandits in front.

Aiden Jimenez, who handled the seventh for Quad Cities, began the bottom of the eighth on the bump, but after allowing the tying and winning runs on base with one out, was replaced by LP Langevin. The right-hander retired Lebron and struck out Tyson Lewis to end the rally.

While Quad Cities recorded just one hit after the fifth inning, the lead was enough for Langevin, as the right-hander completed his second save of the season, stranding the tying run on base including two more strikeouts in the ninth. Despite working exclusively out of the bullpen, Langevin’s 95 strikeouts are tied for the seventh-most in the Midwest League this season.

Albus (2-2) earned the win for the River Bandits, while Villafana (0-2) wound up with the loss. Jimenez earned his fourth hold of the season with 1.1 innings out of the QC bullpen.

The Bandits return to Day Air Ballpark for game three of the six-game set tomorrow and send Blake Wolters (3-7, 8.80) to the mound opposite Edgar Colon (0-1, 7.50). First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. ET.