Quad Cities’ Comeback Falls Short for Third-Straight Loss

Davenport, Iowa – The Quad Cities River Bandits overcame a five-run first-inning deficit on Friday, but ultimately dropped their third consecutive game against the Peoria Chiefs, losing 9-8 at Modern Woodmen Park.

The Chiefs immediately blasted into the run column against Bandits’ starter Ben Kudrna, using homers from Ramon Mendoza and Chris Rotondo to take a 5-0 lead in the first inning. However, after Dustin Dickerson’s sacrifice-fly made it a four-run game going into the second, Quad Cities struck for four against Zane Mills in the bottom of the third.

Five-straight men reached to fuel the Bandits rally, with RBI singles from Juan Carlos Negret and Carter Jensen allowing a Kale Emshoff sacrifice-fly to tie the game 5-5.

Both starters would rebound for a scoreless fourth and fifth inning. Kudrna exited having allowed five runs on a career-high ten hits, but threw four consecutive scoreless frames to end his night.

Peoria broke back into the run column in the sixth, and retook the lead against newly entered right-hander Ben Sears, receiving RBI singles from Mendoza and Francisco Hernandez along with a sac-fly from Jimmy Crooks to jump in front 8-5.

Thomas Francisco tagged Sears for a fourth run in the seventh, launching a solo shot for his second of the series and a 9-5 Peoria advantage, but Emshoff turned in his second and third RBIs of the night for the Bandits, driving in a pair in the bottom half to make it a two-run game.

After Edwin Nunez and Marlin Willis combined for a scoreless eighth inning, Ben Wereski stranded a pair of runners in the top of the ninth. Quad Cities climbed back to within one on a solo homer from Carter Jensen in the bottom half, but Nunez responded with back-to-back outs to close the game.

Mills (7-5) earned the win for Peoria, despite allowing five runs (4 ER) over 5.0 innings, while Sears (0-1) took his first High-A loss for Quad Cities, surrendering four runs in 2.0 relief innings. Nunez (4) earned a save, completing 2.1 innings out of the Chiefs’ bullpen.

The River Bandits will look to snap their three-game skid on Saturday, as Steve Zobac (1-3) will take to the hill against Peoria’s Inohan Paniagua (0-2, 4.24.). First pitch at Modern Woodmen Park is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.