Quad Cities’ Come-From-Behind Win Helps Shrink Magic Number to Two

Peoria, Illinois – After a 20-win August, the Quad Cities River Bandits (68-54, 38-21) began September with a comeback victory and, with help from a Beloit loss, dwindled their magic number to two following a 5-4 win over the Peoria Chiefs (60-66, 28-32) at Dozer Park.

Peoria opened the scoring against Quad Cities’ starter Blake Wolters in the second, with Ian Petrutz following Brayden Smith’s leadoff single with a two-run homer. The River Bandits got a run back a half-inning later when Zion Rose stolen third and scored on a Ty Van Dyke wild pitch, but the Chiefs extended the lead back to two on Sammy Hernandez’s RBI-single in the bottom of the third.

Still working against the Peoria starter, Quad Cities knotted the game 3-3 in the top of the fourth, as Tyriq Kemp powered a game-tying two-run shot over the left-center wall.

After Wolters departed, allowing three-runs over a 3.0-inning start, Jordan Woods picked up the reigns in the fourth. The left-hander kept the game even through his first three outs, but surrendered an RBI-single to Jalin Flores in the fifth, putting Peoria up 4-3.

That hit would be the Chiefs’ last one of the night, as Woods worked perfectly the rest of the way through his 4.0 innings of relief, including three of his night’s six strikeouts in the seventh.

While Quad Cities’ bats failed to bite against Bobbly Olsen (1.0 IP) and Zeke Wood (1.0 IP) in the seventh and eighth, Jackson Cleveland kept the Bandits’ deficit at one with a perfect eighth of his own.

With Kemp (fielder’s choice) and Rose (walk) reaching ahead of him, Blake Mitchell completed the comeback effort against Nate Dohm with two outs in the top of the ninth, lining a go-ahead two-run single into right-center for Quad Cities’ 5-4 lead. The hit solidified Mitchell’s fourth three-hit game of the year.

Kamden Edge closed out the victory in the bottom half, stranding the game-tying run at first en route to his fourth save of the season.

Cleveland (1-0) earned his first professional win in the effort, while Dohm (2-6) was tagged with his second blown save of the season and a loss, allowing the tying and winning runs in the ninth.

With Quad Cities’ win and Beloit’s loss to Wisconsin, the River Bandits could secure a second half division title as early as tomorrow, as they send Emmanuel Reyes (6-4, 4.35) to the mound opposite Peoria’s Brandon Clarke (0-1, 3.07) for game two of the set at Dozer Park. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.