Bandits Drop Game One of Twin Bill, Game Two Postponed

Dayton, Ohio – The Quad Cities River Bandits were walked-off in game one of a doubleheader against the Dayton Dragons on Thursday by a final score of 6-5 at Day Air Ballpark. Game two was postponed due to inclement weather and will be made up as part of another doubleheader tomorrow, beginning at 5:30pm ET.

For the second time in the series, Quad Cities got out to the first lead of the contest in game one and took an early 3-0 lead against Dayton starter, Bryce Bonnin as Tyler Tolbert scored on a passed ball in the first before Kale Emshoff and Diego Hernandez each launched solo homers in the second, with Hernandez’s coming 10-pitch at-bat.

In the bottom of the second however, Rylan Kaufman—who made his High-A and River Bandits debut—gave up a pair of Dayton runs on Justice Thompson’s two-run single, which made it a one-run ballgame.

After both starters tossed perfect third innings, the last in Bonnin’s start, Quad Cities turned to the home run ball again in the fourth as Dillan Shrum came through with a two-out, two-run homer against newly entered Jake Gozzo to go up 5-2.

Kaufman stranded a leadoff walk in a scoreless bottom of the fourth, but a pair of errors on a pickoff attempt netted a Dragons run to make it a two-run game, but the left-hander got Elly De La Cruz to bounce into an inning-ending double play that closed out Kaufman’s 5.0-inning debut in line for the win.

After the fourth inning however, the Dragons’ bullpen held Quad Cities’ offense to just one baserunner on Diego Hernandez’s two-out, sixth inning double with Spencer Stockton striking out Shrum to end the threat and the inning

In the bottom of the sixth, Dayton got a leadoff walk from Jose Torres and though Bandits’ reliever Christian Chamberlain responded with consecutive strikeouts, the Dragons tied the game 6-6 on Allan Cerda’s two-strike, two-out, two-run homer.

Both bullpens worked scoreless seventh innings with Chamberlain getting Joey Votto to hit into a double play in the final at-bat of his rehab assignment and then punching out De La Cruz to send the game to extra innings.

In the eighth, Quad Cities was able to move place runner Tyler Gentry to third base, but Stockton struck out Kale Emshoff to strand the go-ahead run and give his team a shot to win one run in the bottom half.

With Yohanse Morel now in the game for the River Bandits, manager Brooks Conrad opted to walk Torres to put men on first and second to start the inning. But after Rece Hind singled to load the bases, Cerda came through again for Dayton and walked-off the Bandits with a bases loaded RBI single to left for a 6-5 game one win.

Due to Dragon’s placed runner scoring in the eighth, Morel (2-2) took the loss allowing an unearned run in 1.1 innings of relief, while Stockton (3-0) tossed three shutout frames and struck out four en route to his third-straight win out of the bullpen.

With the series even at one game apiece, the Bandits will battle the Dragons tomorrow for the second scheduled doubleheader of the week, with game one beginning at 5:35pm ET at Day Air Ballpark.