Four-Run, Two-Out Ninth-Inning Rally Leads Bandits’ Comeback Over Dragons 

Dayton, Ohio – The Quad Cities River Bandits scored seven runs over their final two innings to complete a five-run comeback against the Dayton Dragons on Tuesday and take game one of their six-game series at Day Air Ballpark by a final score of 8-7.

On a night where Cincinnati Reds’ first baseman Joey Votto was in the Dragons’ lineup for a rehab assignment, it was pitching that took center stage early, as Adrian Alcantara and Joe Boyle combined to allow just four hits in the first four innings, with the lone run belonging to Quad Cities after Peyton Wilson’s RBI infield single scored Dillan Shurm in the top of the third.

After pitching 4.0-scoreless, including a strikeout of Votto, the Dragons unloaded a five-run frame on Alcantara in the fifth and blasted three homers to take a four-run lead. Allan Cerda led off the inning with a solo shot, Elly De La Cruz plated Nick Quintana and Votto with a three-run blast, and Joe Torres’s solo bomb capped of the frame, the final of the night for Alcantara.

While Boyle recorded his final six outs all by way of strikeouts to keep Quad Cities off the board, Cerda left the yard again with another solo homer in the sixth, this one against Anthony Simonelli.

Trailing 6-1, but with Boyle out of the game after 6.0 innings of one-run ball, Quad Cities struck out three times in a row against Evan Kravetz in his perfect seventh, but the Bandits got to him for three in the eighth, thanks to Tyler Tolbert’s first of two-RBI doubles and an error on Dragon’s catcher, Mat Nelson who threw a ball into left field trying to back-pick Dillan Shrum, allowing both the Q.C. first baseman and Tolbert to score and make it a two-run game.

After one-two-three innings from both Simonelli in the seventh and Emilio Marquez in the eighth, the Bandits made two quick outs against newly entered Carson Rudd in the top of the ninth. But, despite all three batters winding up in two-strike counts, Diego Hernandez hustled out a double to left field, Shurm was hit by a pitch (Parker Bates entered as a pinch runner), and then Tolbert’s second double of the game cleared the bases to tie the game at 6-6.

With the tying run in scoring position, Wilson worked a walk against Rudd to bring up Tyler Gentry, who—in a two-strike count of his own—tripled for the first time in his professional career and scored both runners for a two-run lead.

After Jake Stevenson was called upon to record the final out in the top of the ninth for Dayton, the home run ball struck again against the Bandits, with Mat Nelson slamming a no-doubter to left to make it a one run game. However, Marquez—who then allowed back-to-back walks—got J.V. Martinez and De La Cruz to fly out and secure the 8-7 Bandits win, stranding the tying and winning runs aboard.

With 2.0 innings of one-run relief, Marquez (4-1) got the win for the Bandits, while Rudd (1-1) took his first loss of the year, allowing four runs in 0.2 innings.

Quad Cities will look for back-to-back wins in game two tomorrow night at Day Air Ballpark, as Rylan Kaufman (0-0, 0.00) will make his High-A and River Bandits debut against Dayton’s Bryce Bonnin (0-1, 3.86) for a 7:05pm ET first pitch.