LANSING, Mich. -- After being held scoreless the first two games of the series, the Quad Cities River Bandits exploded for four runs in the first inning Saturday night en route to a 6-2 win over the Lansing Lugnuts at Cooley Law School Stadium. The Bandits avoided the sweep thanks to pitchers Justin Ferrell and Albert Abreu striking out seven batters each and Kyle Tucker picking up multiple hits for the fourth time in his last five games.
Tucker had the lone hit in the four-run first for the River bandits (12-17). Three walks and a pair of errors in the inning not only helped the Bandits to an early lead, but also chased Lansing (16-11) starter Angel Perdomo (2-1) after just two-thirds of an inning. He walked three, surrendered the one hit and four runs - two earned - to suffer his first loss of the season.
Meanwhile, Ferrell was sharp in his second outing of the season. He retired the first eight batters he faced and didn't allow a run until the fifth, when four straight batters reached with two outs to cut the lead in half. Ferrell (1-1) got the win for five innings, allowing the two late runs on four hits and three walks while striking out seven. Abreu matched that strikeout total in four scoreless innings for his first save of the year. Abreu's seven strikeouts catapult him into a tie for third in the Midwest League in strikeouts this season with 38.
Brooks Marlow scored on a wild pitch in the eighth inning to add an insurance run and Anthony Hermelyn drove in Johnny Sewald with a sacrifice fly in the ninth to round out the scoring. Quad Cities finished the six-game road swing in the East with a 2-4 record and finished their first-half Eastern schedule with a 5-6 mark.
After a league-wide off day Sunday, the Bandits return to Western division action when the Burlington Bees come to town on Monday for a three-game series at Modern Woodmen Park. Game one is set for 11:00 a.m. CT Monday in a Book Buddies Reading Day game. Tickets are available by calling (563) 324-3000, visiting riverbandits.com or at the box office. You can also catch the game with Jake Levy and Lance Ragland on MiLB.TV and audio on K-BOB 1170 AM, riverbandits.com and the TuneIn app.
