Resilient Bandits Held Off by Chiefs

Davenport, Iowa – Despite outhitting Peoria 14-10, the Quad Cities River Bandits were defeated by the Chiefs 7-6 on Friday night at Modern Woodmen Park and fell two games behind in the six-game series.

Both teams got on the board in the first inning, with Jordan Walker’s solo homer off of Emilio Marquez giving Peoria a 1-0 lead, before Quad Cities took advantage of Maikel Garcia’s leadoff double and tied the game with a Michael Massey sacrifice-fly in the bottom half.

Marquez continued to struggle with the home run ball in the top of the third, as back-to-back singles by Jacob Buchberger and Thomas Francisco led to three more Chiefs runs when Tyler Reichenborn blasted a bases-clearing dinger onto the left field berm.

After a scoreless third inning toss by Marquez and the combination of Colin Schmid and Michael YaSenka, both offenses added another tally in the fourth, with Zade Richardson smacking the third Chiefs’ homer of the game and Garcia recording his third hit in three at-bats and driving in Nathan Eaton.

Trailing 5-2, Quad Cities got a scoreless frame from Zack Phillips in the top of the fifth, before Eaton struck for his first of two RBI doubles and brought the Bandits to within two.

However, Peoria responded with an RBI double of their own from Richardson, which tagged Phillips for his only run allowed.

In the seventh, the River Bandits notched four hits against Jacob Schlesener and got an RBI single by Logan Porter, the third of three-straight singles to start the frame. Two batters later, Eaton’s second run-scoring double drove in a pair and tied the contest at 6-6.

The Chiefs however, quickly jumped back in front in the eighth and after Todd Lott’s leadoff triple against Kasey Kalich, Francisco drove in his club’s seventh run two batters later with an RBI on a fielder’s choice.

After falling behind for the third time in the contest, Quad Cities could muster nothing against Jack Ralston, who faced seven Bandits’ hitters and retired them all in order, including a pair of pop outs and a strikeout of Eaton to end the game in the bottom of the ninth.

The 2.1 shutout innings earned Ralston (2-5) the win for Peoria, while Kalich (2-1), who gave up the go-ahead in two innings of relief, took the loss for Quad Cities.

The River Bandits, looking to avoid their second series loss of the year, will have A.J. Block (3-5, 4.23) on the hill for Saturday against the Chiefs’ Logan Gragg (2-6, 4.97) for a 6:30 p.m. CDT first pitch at Modern Woodmen Park.