Gavin Cross, Cayden Wallace Homer in Quad Cities Win

Davenport, Iowa – Riding home runs from a pair of Royals top prospects, the Quad Cities River Bandits picked up their sixth win in seven games on Friday, topping the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 6-4 at Modern Woodmen Park.

Just as they did on Thursday night, Quad Cities took an early first-inning lead and did so with their first at-bat, as leadoff hitter Gavin Cross took Stiven Cruz over the right-field fence for his second home run of the season and a 1-0 River Bandits lead.

After making his first two appearances of the season in relief, right-hander Luinder Avila got the start on the mound for Quad Cities, and after a one-two-three first, saw the Timber Rattlers score in back-to-back frames, taking a 2-1 lead with Darrien Miller’s sacrifice-fly in the second and Eric Brown Jr. scoring on an error in the third.

Quad Cities quickly responded however, with Cayden Wallace taking advantage of two Cruz walks and launching a three-run blast, his first of the season, to propel the Bandits on top 4-2 in the third.

Both starters pitched a scoreless fourth before giving way to the bullpens, as Avila allowed just one earned run and struck out a season-high matching eight despite not factoring into the decision.

In the sixth, it was Wisconsin who first broke through against the relievers, with Alex Hall taking William Fleming deep for a game-tying two-run homer, his third in the past two games.

After Fleming rebounded with a scoreless top of the seventh, the River Bandits bats finally woke up against Ryan Brady--who retired the first seven men he faced upon entering the game--as David Hollie drove a two-run double down the left-field line to push Quad Cities back on top 6-4.

Fleming concluded his 4.0-inning night with a perfect eighth, while Taylor Floyd stranded a Cayden Wallace leadoff double in the bottom half to keep Wisconsin’s deficit at two, but despite the tying runs working into scoring position in the top of the ninth, Anderson Paulino picked up his third save in as many opportunities, getting Micah Bello to ground out and end the game.

The win went to Fleming (1-1) out of the bullpen who allowed two runs, both earned, with five strikeouts, while Brady (1-1) was saddled with the loss, surrendering two runs of his own in 3.0 innings of work.

Quad Cities will look to claim its third-straight win and a series victory on Saturday, as Chandler Champlain (1-1, 4.09) will get the ball against the T-Rats Tyler Woessner (2-0, 1.50) for a 6:30pm first pitch at Modern Woodmen Park.