Eaton's Four-RBI Night Leads Bandits in Win

Cedar Rapids, Iowa – After being walked-off on Thursday, the Quad Cities River Bandits responded with a 9-3 victory over the Cedar Rapids Kernels on Friday night at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

In his Kernels debut, Sean Mooney retired the Bandits nine-up, nine-down over the first three innings, while Charlie Neuweiler stranded a pair of walks in the first. But after working a clean second, the righty gave up a leadoff home run to Daniel Ozoria who sent a solo homer to left for a 1-0 Cedar Rapids lead.

Quad Cities responded in the top of the fourth however, and with Tucker Bradley and Eric Cole reaching to start the frame, Nick Loftin’s 19th double of the season plated Bradley, while a throwing also allowed Cole to score on the play and put the Bandits up 2-1.

Two batters later, Nathan Eaton picked up a two-bagger of his own and brought home Loftin for a two-run lead.

Mooney again ran into trouble in the top of the fifth and saw Gavin Stupienski and Rubendy Jaquez string a pair of leadoff hits, with Jaquez’s double chasing the righty from the ballgame.

Osiris German took over for Cedar Rapids and after throwing a wild pitch that scored Stupienski from third, Cole reached on a fielder’s choice and plated Jaquez in the process. Three batters later, Eaton blew the game open with a three-run blast, his sixth of the year, that extended the Q.C. lead to 8-1.

In the bottom half, Neuweiler was replaced after allowing a pair of base runners to start the inning. With Patrick Smith now on the bump, Ozoria picked up another RBI with a run-scoring grounder that notched the Kernels’ second run of the game. However, Quad Cities got it right back in the sixth when Stupienski and Jaquez smacked back-to-back doubles off of Andrew Cabezas.

Trailing 9-2, the Kernels got a leadoff triple from Seth Gray in bottom of the seventh and on the very next pitch, Jeferson Morales tagged Smith for his only run allowed with an RBI single.

Caden Monke made his River Bandits and High-A debut in the bottom of the eighth and worked a one-two-three frame with a strikeout, but the lefty was replaced by Kasey Kalich who gave up four hits in the bottom of the ninth, including RBI singles from Morales and Julien, before striking out Wallner to end the ballgame.

After Neuweiler gave the Bandits 4.0 innings of two-run ball, Smith (1-0) got the win for Quad Cities after giving up a single tally in three innings of relief. Mooney (0-1) got the loss for Cedar Rapids, surrendering five runs, four earned, in four innings.

With the series now tied 2-2, the Bandits will look to secure at least a split of the set tomorrow as they’ll call upon Anthony Veneziano (6-4, 3.83) who toes the rubber against Aaron Rozek (0-1, 6.14) for a 6:30 p.m. CDT first pitch on Saturday at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium.