Bates’ Two-Homer Night Helps Lead Bandits to Win in Series Opener

Beloit, Wisconsin – Led by a pair of home runs from Parker Bates, the Quad Cities River Bandits snapped a four-game losing streak and topped the Beloit Sky Carp 7-3 on Tuesday night at ABC Supply Stadium.

The outfielder’s first blast, a solo shot against Sky Carp starter M.D. Johnson in the third, gave Quad Cities their initial lead, before Dillan Shrum followed up Bates with a two-run blast in the fourth.

While Adrian Alcantara kept Beloit’s offense scoreless through the first four innings, Juan Carlos Negret and Kale Emshoff each struck for a pair of RBI singles against Johnson in the top of the fifth, pushing the Bandits ahead 5-0.

The Sky Carp eventually broke through in the bottom of the fifth with a home run of their own, as Dalvy Rosario lead off the inning with a solo shot before an Ynmanol Marinez RBI triple and a Zach Zubia sacrifice-fly cut Quad Cities’ lead to 5-3 in the sixth.

While the Bandits threatened to respond in their half of the sixth, loading the bases with no one out, Caleb Wurster worked out of the jam and stranded all three runners, before Matt Givin and Q.C.’s Delvin Capellan worked a scoreless seventh, with the former striking out the side in order.

Quad Cities got back on the board in the eighth and ninth, taking the 7-3 lead on Bates’ second homer of the game—a solo shot against Givin—and then their fourth blast of the night—a Herard Gonzalez shot off Jake Schrand—in final frame.

After Capellan posted his second scoreless inning in the eighth, Brooks Conrad turned to Anderson Paulino for the ninth who, despite allowing a pair of singles to start his outing, retired three Sky Carp hitters in-a-row in order to secure the Bandits’ win.

Alcantara (7-5) posted his fifth quality start of the season en route to the win, giving up three runs, on six hits, three walks, and five strikeouts over 6.0 innings, while Johnson (9-8) took the loss, allowing five runs in five innings.

Quad Cities will look for back-to-back wins on Wednesday, as they send Noah Cameron (2-0, 2.33) to the mound to face Beloit’s Edgar Sanchez (0-1, 3.38) for a 6:35pm first pitch at ABC Supply Stadium.