Stauss Homers Twice, Chiefs Lose 11-10

Davenport, IA – In just his second start in a Chiefs uniform, Wade Stauss homered twice but a Quad Cities rally pushed the River Bandits past Peoria 11-10 Tuesday.

Stauss and the Chiefs exploded out of the gates. The first three batters of the game reached for Peoria on a pair of hit by pitches and a double from Tyler Reichenborn, who extended his on-base streak to 22 games. With the bases loaded, LJ Jones collected an infield hit off the glove of Quad Cities starter Rylan Kaufman to make it 1-0. The next batter, Francisco Hernandez, worked a four-pitch walk to double the Peoria lead. Then, a sac fly from Ramon Mendoza pushed the Peoria advantage to 3-0. Stauss, who came to the plate with just one out, launched a three-run homer to right field to make it 6-0 Peoria and complete the first inning outburst. All nine starters came to the plate in the opening inning for the Chiefs.

Zane Mills, who logged seven innings in his last start, took the bump with a sizable lead. After cruising through the first two outs of the inning, a two-run homer from Kale Emshoff made it a 6-2 game. In the next inning, Juan Carlos Negret hit a two-run blast of his own to make things more interesting at 6-4.

After a rough start, Mills was able to settle in. He punched out three batters in the third and dialed up a double play in the fourth to keep the Chiefs in front.

In the fifth, Peoria tacked on a trio of runs. With runners on the corners, Mendoza streaked for second base on a stolen base attempt. Quad Cities catcher Luca Tresh threw to third in an effort to pick off Osvaldo Tovalin. His throw, however, missed the mark and trickled into left field, allowing both Tovalin and Mendoza to score. With the game at 8-4, Stauss delivered again. The newcomer lifted a solo homer over the wall in left center to make it 9-4. Stauss’s multi-homer game was the first by a Chiefs batter since September 12, 2021, when Jordan Walker accomplished the feat, also against Quad Cities.

The five-run lead all but evaporated in the bottom of the sixth when the River Bandits, buoyed by four singles and a double, tied the game at 9-9. All told, Quad Cities sent 10 men to the plate in the inning to complete the rally.

The tie was short-lived, however. Jones, who is hitting over .300 in the month of June, mashed a solo shot of his own to push Peoria back in front, 10-9. For Jones, it was his fifth home run of 2022.

After John Beller pitched a scoreless seventh inning, Quad Cities took their first and only lead against the left-hander in the eighth. After Tyler Tolbert walked and stole second, Tresh redeemed himself for the earlier error. His double tied the game once again, this time at 10-10. The game-deciding blow came three batters later when Herard Gonzalez singled through the hole on the left side to push Quad Cities ahead 11-10. Peoria got the tying-run aboard in the top of the ninth but did not score.

The Chiefs will look to snap a six-game losing skid Wednesday when Wilfredo Pereira takes the bump. First pitch from Davenport is slated for 6:30.