Bandits Trounced in Series Opener

Davenport, Iowa – The Quad Cities River Bandits walked a season-high 13 batters and allowed four home runs as they fell to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 17-4 on Tuesday night at Modern Woodmen Park.

Despite issuing three of his six walks in the first two innings, River Bandits’ starter, Tyson Guerrero allowed just two runs, including Ethan Murray’s solo homer run, before Quad Cities scratched across a run in the bottom of the second as Kale Emshoff took advantage of Burle Dixon’s leadoff double and plated the outfielder with a sacrifice-fly.

After giving up a second homer—this one with two outs—to Joe Gray Jr. in the third, Guerrero issued the final two of his six walks, before Emilio Marquez took over on the mound, but the newly inserted left-hander allowed both men to score on back-to-back RBI singles from Carlos Rodriguez and Antonio Pinero and then a three-run home run to Tyler Black, which made it an 8-1 Wisconsin lead.

The Quad Cities offense got its second and last run against T-Ratts’ starter Brandon Knarr in the bottom of the fifth as Tyler Gentry capped off a three-hit night with an RBI single and Kale Emshoff left the yard with a two-run shot off of Cristian Sierra, but the Bandits bullpen collapsed in the seventh with Wisconsin bringing 12 men to the plate in a six-run frame.

Ruben Ramirez ended up on the hook for all six runs in 1.2 innings of work.

With one out in the eighth, Bandits’ manager Brooks Conrad was ejected from the ballgame arguing balls and strikes with plate umpire Mitch Trzeciak, marking the first time the skipper has been tossed this season.

Chase Wallace pitched 2.0 innings of relief for Quad Cities and after giving up Rodriguez’s RBI double in the eighth and walking three-straight to allow Wisconsin’s 17th run with two outs in the ninth, infielder Morgan McCullough made an appearance on the mound for the second time in his professional career and became the only Bandits’ pitcher not to allow a run on the night, getting Rodriguez to fly out in his 0.1-inning performance.

Guerrero (0-3), who allowed five earned in his sixth start of the year, took the loss for Quad Cities, while Knarr (4-1) got the win, going 5.0 innings, allowing two runs, and striking out five.

Quad Cities will look to end its three-game slide on Wednesday at Modern Woodmen Park, as they’ll start Adrian Alcantara (2-1, 3.50) for the first time this season against Wisconsin’s Antoine Kelly (1-0, 2.49). First pitch at Modern Woodmen Park is scheduled for 6:30pm.