Kaufman’s Clean Start Not Enough in Bandits’ Loss
Davenport, Iowa – Rylan Kaufman pitched a scoreless 5.0-inning start for the Quad Cities River Bandits, but it wasn’t enough, as they fell to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 3-2 on Saturday night at Modern Woodmen Park, After Kaufman and T-Rats’ starter Zach Mort began the contest with two scoreless innings,
Davenport, Iowa – Rylan Kaufman pitched a scoreless 5.0-inning start for the Quad Cities River Bandits, but it wasn’t enough, as they fell to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 3-2 on Saturday night at Modern Woodmen Park,
After Kaufman and T-Rats’ starter Zach Mort began the contest with two scoreless innings, it was the Bandits who broke into the run column in the third, taking advantage of Saul Garza’s leadoff hit-by-pitch and plating a pair of runs on Rubendy Jaquez’s RBI triple and Diego Hernandez’s RBI double on back-to-back pitches.
Working with the lead, Kaufman allowed just one base runner through his final two innings and matched his season-high with eight strikeouts before departing in line for the win.
Mort rebounded from the two-run third with a scoreless fourth and fifth, giving his offense a chance to take the lead against newly entered Patrick Halligan in the sixth, when the Timber Rattlers picked up a run on Jose Acosta’s ground out and then a two-out, two-strike, two-run single off the bat of Antonio Pinero to take a 3-2 lead.
The Wisconsin starter then closed out his 6.0-inning start with a one-two-three sixth including his fourth and fifth strikeouts.
While Quad Cities’ Zack Phillips, Harrison Beethe, and Anderson Paulino each tossed a scoreless inning of relief after Halligan, the Bandits’ offense didn’t muster a hit after the fifth inning, with Robbie Baker tossing a clean seventh and eighth, before James Meeker recorded his third save of the series, stranding a walk with a pair of strikeouts in the bottom of the ninth.
With Mort (5-3) earning the win for Wisconsin, Halligan (1-5) got tagged with a blown save and a loss for the River Bandits, allowing three runs on three hits and a walk in a 1.0-inning relief effort.
The River Bandits will look to salvage a win in the series finale on Sunday at Modern Woodmen Park, sending Beck Way (0-1, 9.64) to the mound for the second time this week to face the Rattlers’ Justin Bullock (1-2, 5.21). First pitch is scheduled for 1:00pm.