Walk-Off Slam Sinks Bandits in Extras

Beloit, Wisconsin – The Quad Cities River Bandits lost their third game of the week to the Beloit Sky Carp on Friday night at ABC Supply Stadium, as Bennett Hostetler walked-off the Bandits with an extra-inning grand slam for a 6-3 final.

In addition to the game-winning hit, Hostetler plated the first and only run of the game against Quad Cities’ starter William Fleming, who allowed a run on the catcher’s first-inning sac-fly.

After Fleming responded with scoreless second and third inning, the Bandits broke into the run column against Jackson Rose, taking a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth on a two-run blast by Peyton Wilson that scored Diego Hernandez.

In the top of the fifth, Cam Williams hit a ball off the batter’s eye in center field, however, it was ruled a triple and Quad Cities failed to score him from third, with Josan Mendez helping Rose post a zero by recording the final two outs of the frame.

Fleming closed out his 5.0-inning start by stranding a pair of singles in the bottom of the fifth, before handing the ball to Emilio Marquez, who after recording the first two outs of the Sky Carp half of the sixth, allowed a game-tying solo home run to Marcus that knotted the game at 2-2.

Over the final three innings of regulation, only four combined base runners reached, as Marquez completed his outing with a scoreless seventh and then Anderson Paulino pitched a perfect eighth and ninth innings to push the game to extras.

In the top of the tenth, Tyler Tolbert pinch ran for Saul Garza—the placed runner—and stole third against Brady Puckett. Trying to throw him out, Hostetler threw the ball into left field, allowing Tolbert to score and the Bandits to take a 3-2 lead.

However, Hostetler would make up for the miscue in the bottom of the tenth and after Bandits’ reliever Zack Phillips loaded the bases, including the placed runner, launched the first pitch of his at-bat into the Sky Carp bullpen for a walk-off grand slam.

Puckett (2-1) got the win for Beloit, allowing just the unearned placed runner to score, while Phillips (0-1) took his first High-A loss of the season, recording just one out in the final frame.

Quad Cities will look to avoid its 12th series loss of the season on Saturday and sends Rylan Kaufman (1-5, 5.91) to the hill to face Beloit’s Dax Fulton (3-6, 4.56) for a 6:35pm first pitch at ABC Supply Stadium.