Winquest Whiffs Nine, Chiefs Clobber Dragons
PEORIA, IL - Chiefs starter Cade Winquest dialed up a career night in Saturday’s 6-1 victory over the Dayton Dragons. Winquest tossed five scoreless innings and punched out a career-high nine batters. The nine strikeouts were the most by a Chiefs hurler this season and the most since Brycen Mautz
PEORIA, IL - Chiefs starter Cade Winquest dialed up a career night in Saturday’s 6-1 victory over the Dayton Dragons.
Winquest tossed five scoreless innings and punched out a career-high nine batters. The nine strikeouts were the most by a Chiefs hurler this season and the most since Brycen Mautz whiffed 12 batters on August 20, 2024. Winquest struck out the side in the first and capped off his start by accomplishing the same feat in the top of the fifth. The right-hander lowered his Dozer Park ERA to 1.21 on the season.
Peoria buoyed Winquest with some early run support on Saturday. With two on in the bottom of the second inning, Tre Richardson ripped an RBI double to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead and put runners on the corners. Moments later, Johnfrank Salazar grounded out to bring in another run. Jon Jon Gazdar followed with a single to center, scoring Richardson to make it 3-0. Gazdar tacked on three more hits Saturday after recording a career-best four hits on Friday.
An inning later, the Chiefs tacked on another run. Zach Levenson walked, stole second, advanced to third on a balk, and scored on an RBI single to left by Won-Bin Cho to make it 4-0.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Levenson put the game away for good. The right fielder lined an RBI double to left, scoring a pair of runs to make it 6-0.
Jawilme Ramirez and Michael Watson combined to cover the final four innings, surrendering just one run on five hits to seal the win. Dayton’s lone run scored in the top of the seventh inning via a wild pitch.
The series wraps up Sunday night with first pitch set for 6:35 p.m. Cardinals No. 13 prospect Chen-Wei Lin takes the mound for Peoria. Tickets are still available for Sunday’s contest. Following the game, the Chiefs and FanCave Tickets will raffle off two tickets to Morgan Wallen’s June 28 show at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. The winner of the raffle will also receive a one-night hotel stay. For more information, visit peoriachiefs.com or call the Dozer Park box office at (309) 680-4000.