Sky Carp Hold Off Bandits in Series Opener

Beloit, Wisconsin – The Quad Cities River Bandits lost their first ever game at ABC Supply Stadium on Tuesday night, falling to the Beloit Sky Carp 7-5 in the opener of a six-game series.

In a battle between both teams’ innings leaders, it was the Bandits who struck first against M.D. Johnson, with Luca Tresh driving in Diego Hernandez with a sacrifice-fly in the top of the first. However, the Sky Carp responded with a three-run bottom half against Charlie Neuweiler in the bottom half, tying the game on a Nasim Nunez RBI double and then jumping in front by a pair with an RBI single from Bennett Hostetler and a run-scoring groundout courtesy of Ynmanol Marinez.

After a scoreless second, Quad Cities fought to tie the back up in the third, getting an RBI triple off the bat of Peyton Wilson and then the second sac-fly of the game from Luca Tresh.

Neuweiler posted back-to-back perfect frames in the second and third, but again surrendered the lead in the bottom of the fourth with a pair of RBI singles on consecutive pitches to first Kyler Castillo and then Jose Salas to put Beloit up 5-3.

Tresh drove in his third run of the game off Johnson in the fifth, bringing home Hernandez with a two-out single, but after a scoreless sixth, the Sky Carp jumped on Bandits’ reliever Zack Phillips for a pair of runs on Victor Mesa Jr.’s RBI triple and Hostetler’s second RBI of the game, which came on a groundout.

Quad Cities manufactured another run via sac-fly in the eighth, this one off the bat of Juan Carlos Negret against Brady Puckett, but it would be their final run of the game.

In the top of the ninth, Tyler Tolbert and Morgan McCullough each worked into scoring position with no outs on a double and a walk respectively, but Chandler Jozwiak would strike out the next three batters he faced to seal a Beloit victory and his third save of the season.

Despite allowing four runs, three earned, Johnson (7-7) got the win for the Sky Carp with the help of six strikeouts in 5.0 innings, while Neuweiler (6-6) also worked 5.0 frames, but took the loss allowing five runs on seven hits and a walk.

The River Bandits will look to snap a three-game losing streak on Wednesday at ABC Supply Stadium and will send Rito Lugo (0-1, 3.38) to the bump against Beloit’s Luis Palacios, who makes his Sky Carp debut. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35pm.