Vasquez's Two Homers Help Bandits Stop Snappers

DAVENPORT, IA - Danry Vasquez cracked two homers and drove in three and the Quad Cities River Bandits held off a late charge to outscore the Beloit Snappers, 8-7, in Midwest League action at Modern Woodman Park on Sunday evening.

The Snappers, having split the first two games of this series, now have a record of 77-61 (34-34 in the second half). The River Bandits now stand at 80-57 (42-26 in the second half).

Beloit got on the board first with an RBI double by Ryan Mathews in the top of the third, but that lead was obliterated in the bottom half of the frame. After a single, a walk and an out, Teoscar Hernandez reached on an infield single and an error on the play allowed a run to score. A Carlos Correa single tallied two more and Vasquez then (2-4, 2 HRs, 3 RBIs, 2 runs) hit his first homer of the day, over the right field wall, making the score 5-1. After two more hits sent starter Kyle Finnegan (1-1) to the showers, the final run of the inning came in on a squeeze play and the River Bandits had built a five-run lead.

The Snappers had a couple chances to get back in the game, loading the bases in the fifth and sixth, but only got one run out of those two opportunities, which came on a walk by Christopher Bostick. Each time, Patrick Christensen (1-1) got the crucial outs to prevent an uprising. In between these opportunities, Vasquez's second homer of the day and an RBI triple by Bobby Borchering pushed Quad Cities' lead to six.

In the seventh, Beloit's offense was given another opening and this time they responded. A hit batsman and a walk sparked things and Matt Olson lined a single into right for an RBI. Another run scoring single, this one by John Wooten (3-5, RBI, run) followed. That brought up Ryan Delgado (2-5, HR, 3 RBIs, run), who launched a three-run homer over the wall in left-center, his second for the Snappers, cutting the deficit to one. Later in the frame, Beloit put two on with two out, but Daniel Robertson's deep drive to right-center was run down by Jordan Scott for the inning-ending putout.

As it turned out, that seventh inning would be the last, best chance the Snappers had to tie the score. After getting Robertson to end the seventh, Andrew Walter faced the minimum in the eighth and ninth to pick up his third save.

Monday is the date for the Snappers final regular season game of 2013. They will play the River Bandits in the rubber game of this three-game series with the first pitch time at 1:00pm. The scheduled starting pitchers are RHP Deyvi Jimenez (2-5, 5.93 ERA) for Beloit and RHP Daniel Minor for Quad Cities (7-3, 3.86 ERA).