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Patience Pays off as Bandits Slip by Snappers

(Josh Franzen)
August 15, 2019

The Quad Cities River Bandits worked four walks in the bottom of the seventh inning and turned them into their only offense of the night in a 3-2 victory over the Beloit Snappers on Thursday night. Beloit led 2-0 entering the decisive frame despite finishing with just two hits in

The Quad Cities River Bandits worked four walks in the bottom of the seventh inning and turned them into their only offense of the night in a 3-2 victory over the Beloit Snappers on Thursday night. Beloit led 2-0 entering the decisive frame despite finishing with just two hits in the game.
Quad Cities (29-23, 72-46) struggled once again against Beloit starter Rafael Kelly. The right-hander entered the night 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA in three previous meetings with the Bandits. This time, he worked 5.2 scoreless innings and recorded a career-high nine strikeouts.
Beloit (23-29, 50-70) appeared to be in good position to hand Kelly another victory after scoring early against Jose Alberto Rivera. In the top of the third, Santis Sanchez was hit by a pitch to open the frame and then scored on Nick Ward's line drive triple into the right field corner. Joseph Pena followed immediately with a sacrifice fly that gave the Snappers a 2-0 advantage. Rivera allowed only one hit in 4.0 innings and struck out five. 

Up until the seventh inning, the Bandits were able to put men on base, but could not drive them in. That changed against reliever Chase Cohen who walked the first three batters to load the bases. The right-hander struck out AJ Lee for the first out of the inning, but Wilyer Abreu dropped a base hit in shallow center field to cut the deficit to 2-1. Grae Kessinger won a long battle to work another walk and force in the tying run. Beloit went to lefty Josh Reagan with the bases still fullof River Bandits and Oscar Campos coming up. The designated hitter swung at the first pitch and hit a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Ramiro Rodriguez and put the Bandits in front 3-2. Cohen took the loss after allowing three runs in 0.2 innings.
The Quad Cities lead was safe for the remainder of the ballgame thanks to the efforts of Matt Ruppenthal. Coming on in the top of the fifth, Ruppenthal pitched the final 5.0 innings without allowing a run, surrendering just one hit and striking out seven. He earned his fourth win of the season as a reward for his efforts.
Campos paced all hitters with a 3-3 day at the plate that included a double and an RBI. His hitting streak was extended to eight games. The only other player with multiple hits was Abreu, who finished 2-4 with an RBI.
The rubber match of the series will be held on Friday evening at 6:35 p.m. RHP R.J. Freure (5-4, 3.71) will work on the mound for the River Bandits. Beloit will hand the ball to RHP Angello Infante (2-7, 3.72). There will be an S.J. Smith River Bandits t-shirt giveaway and fireworks following the game presented by Smart Toyota of the Quad Cities.
All River Bandits games are broadcast on 1170 K-BOB and TuneIn Radio. Home games are also available with video on MiLB.TV.