Walks, Errors Bite Bandits to Snap Win Streak

Davenport, Iowa – The Quad Cities River Bandits took a one-run lead into the ninth inning, but fell to the Peoria Chiefs 6-5 on Friday night at Modern Woodmen Park.

For the third game in-a-row, the Bandits opened the scoring and did so in the second inning against Edgar Manzo, who allowed Herard Gonzalez’s leadoff single to come around and score three batters later on Juan Carlos Negret’s sacrifice-fly.

After River Bandits’ starter William Fleming worked a pair of scoreless frames to begin his High-A and River Bandits’ debut, Peoria tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the third on an error and then took the lead in the fourth, as Carlos Soto’s two-out walk was plated on Todd Lott’s subsequent double.

Quad Cities’ bats were kept off the board by Mamzo in the third and fourth before falling behind 4-1 in the top of the fifth, as Tyler Reichenborn took Fleming deep to left for a two-run shot in the righty’s final inning on the bump.

The River Bandits didn’t soon go away however and used Negret’s leadoff double in their half of the fifth to set up Diego Hernandez’s sac-fly.

In the sixth, now facing Leonardo Taveras, the Bandits used a long-ball of their own to tie it up, making it a 4-4 game on Morgan McCullough’s two-run blast.

Both Patrick Halligan and Taveras settled in in the seventh and worked a pair of one-two-three frames, which allowed Quad Cities to manufacture its third run via sac-fly, plating Peyton Wilson on Kale Emshoff’s flyball to left for a 5-4 lead.

Needing three more outs for their four-straight victory, Patrick Halligan returned to the mound for his fourth frame of relief, but allowed just a single and a runner via error to reach before Brooks Conrad called upon Patrick Smith.

After Noah Mendlinger laid down a sac-bunt to move the game-tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position, Smith walked three consecutive batters, including Francisco Hernandez and Reichenborn with the bases loaded to move Peoria on top 6-5.

With one out of help from Ruben Ramirez, Smith was able to minimize the damage, but in the bottom of the ninth, Gianluca Dalatri made quick work of the Bandits and needed just eight pitches to retire the Bandits in order in the bottom of the ninth to secure his club’s first win of the second half.

A pair of perfect relief innings from Dalatri (1-2) netted him his first win of the season, while Halligan (1-3) gave up just one earned run in his 3.0 innings of work to take the loss.

Quad Cities will have another chance to claim its fifth series win of the season on Saturday, as Adrian Alcantara (2-4, 6.16) will make the start against Austin Love (3-7, 7.32) who gets the ball for Peoria.

First pitch at Modern Woodmen Park is scheduled for 6:30pm.