Wild 9th Ends in River Bandits Walk-Off Win
W: Will Klein (7-1, 3.20 ERA) L: Eduarniel Nunez (1-3, 4.63 ERA) BOX SCORE More late drama between the South Bend Cubs (51-67) and the Quad Cities River Bandits (77-40) as for the third time this series the game-winning run was scored in the ninth inning. The Cubs had runners
W: Will Klein (7-1, 3.20 ERA)
L: Eduarniel Nunez (1-3, 4.63 ERA)
More late drama between the South Bend Cubs (51-67) and the Quad Cities River Bandits (77-40) as for the third time this series the game-winning run was scored in the ninth inning.
The Cubs had runners at the corners trailing 3-2 with two outs in the top of the ninth inning. Bryce Windham popped one up on the infield, a routine play to end the game for Jake Means. But the third baseman dropped it.
Edmond Americaan scored from third and the game went into the bottom of the ninth.
Eduarniel Nunez entered for the bottom of the ninth and retired the first two batters. Tyler Tolbert, who entered the game in the sixth inning, fell behind in the count 0-2 but worked the count back full and eventually drew a walk. Tolbert swiped second on a bang-bang call with the tag from Miguel Pabon appearing to be made just a hair late. Then Parker Bates sent the crowd of 3,662 home happy with a walk-off single up the middle.
It was the fourth time Quad Cities has walked it off on South Bend this year, and the second time they’ve done so this week with Nunez on the mound.
Bailey Horn (4 IP, 3 H, ER, BB, 4 K) got the start for South Bend and had his best start since coming over from the White Sox farm system at the trade deadline. He gave way to Zachary Leigh (2 IP, H, 0 R, BB, 3 K), who was even more dominant in his third outing with South Bend.
Going into the sixth inning the Cubs trailed, 1-0. Yonathan Perlaza (2-3, HR, 2 RBI, R) changed that with one swing of the bat, hitting a two-run, screaming line drive homer over the wall in left for his 15th homer of the season.
Quad Cities countered with a Jake Means two-run blast in the sixth inning to give the River Bandits back the lead, 3-2.
The River Bandits have now taken four-of-five games in this series and eight of the last nine meetings between these two sides at Modern Woodmen Park.
Next up: The final game of the regular season is tomorrow at 2 p.m. ET, with Jordan Wicks taking the mound for South Bend and Dante Biasi climbing the hill for Quad Cities in a rematch of game one of the series.