Bandits Lose 6-2 After Slow Start in Peoria

The Quad Cities River Bandits could not bounce back from a slow start on Wednesday night at Dozer Park, dropping the second game of the series 6-1 to the Peoria Chiefs. The River Bandits have dropped three straight games and their lead in the Western Division has been reduced to 3.5 games.
A four-run second inning turned out to be all of the offense the Chiefs (26-31) would need. The frame began with back-to-doubles by Juan Yepez and Bryce Denton to put Peoria in front 1-0. The bases became loaded with an error and Wadye Ynfante single before Brendan Donovan drove in a pair with his base hit. Donovan would score on a wild pitch later in the frame to increase the lead to 4-0.
Peoria added to the lead with single runs in the fourth and sixth innings. Brandon Benson led off the fourth with his first home run of the season to make it a 5-0 lead and Nolan Gorman's bases loaded single off the glove of both first baseman Michael Wielansky and second baseman Austin Dennis gave the Chiefs their final run in the sixth.

The River Bandits (35-20) reached the scoreboard on Ross Adolph's sacrifice fly in the sixth and added one last run in the bottom of the ninth. Adolph opened that frame with a base hit, moved to second on a wild pitch and raced to third on a deep fly ball to right by Carlos Machado. Orlando Marquez brought him in with a bouncer to short that trimmed the Chiefs lead to 6-2.
Jose Alberto Rivera took the loss after allowing five runs, three earned, on five hits in 3.2 innings. Matt Ruppenthal followed out of the bullpen with 3.1 innings of work, surrendering a run on seven hits. Riley Cabral finished off the game with 2.0 scoreless innings.
Adolph was the only River Bandits player to finish with multiple hits, going 2-3 with a double, RBI and a run scored. Peoria received two hits each from Donovan, Yepez, Ynfante and Delvin Perez.
The teams will conclude the series on Thursday night with a 6:35 p.m. first pitch. The River Bandits will turn to RHP Cody Deason (3-2, 4.91) in a battle with Chiefs RHP Kyle Leahy (3-4, 3.86).
All River Bandits games are broadcast on 1170 K-BOB and TuneIn Radio. Home games are also available with video on MiLB.TV.