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Cubs Surrender 9th Inning Lead, Fall to River Bandits

South Bend gets walked-off on for the first time this season
(Todd Johnson)
June 15, 2022

DAVENPORT, IOWA – The Cubs started their final full six-game series of the first half of the season with a 5-4 loss in walk-off fashion to the River Bandits. Entering tonight South Bend was just 3-6 on the season against the team with the worst record in the Midwest League,

DAVENPORT, IOWA – The Cubs started their final full six-game series of the first half of the season with a 5-4 loss in walk-off fashion to the River Bandits.

Entering tonight South Bend was just 3-6 on the season against the team with the worst record in the Midwest League, and the only time the Cubs trailed Tuesday night was after the final swing of the game.

Hunter Bigge came on looking for his sixth save of the season with a 4-3 lead in the ninth. Tyler Tolbert smacked a grounder to third to start the frame, bouncing off B.J. Murray's glove and into foul territory for single. Tolbert broke for second shortly after, swiping his second base of the night and league-leading 30th of the season. Luca Tresh drew a walk and with two strikes Diego Hernandez, who earlier in the game extended his on-base streak to 23 games, dropped down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners. Lance Rymel elected to intentionally walk Kale Emshoff and face Dillan Shrum with one out and the bases loaded.

Shrum had a tough night at the plate, starting 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, all swinging, before getting plunked by a Sheldon Reed fastball in the seventh. Well, in the ninth he came through with the biggest swing of the night, a single to deep left-center field that plated a pair and ended the game.

D.J. Herz got the start for the Cubs and dealt with a whole lot of traffic in the first few innings. He stranded two baserunners in the first inning, got out of a bases loaded nobody out jam in the second, and the game remained scoreless into the third inning.

That's when the Cubs struck first. Murray, in his South Bend Cubs debut, walked on five pitches to begin the frame. With Fabian Pertuz at the plate, Murray snagged his first stolen base of the season, which immediately paid off with Pertuz singling up the middle to get the Cubs on the board first.

But in the home half of the inning Quad Cities tied the game on a two-out single up the middle from Herard Gonzalez, fittingly right after Diego Hernandez had stolen second base.

South Bend came into the game just eighth in the league in stolen bases. In the fourth however, Yeison Santana singled, stole second, and scored on a Pinango single to center. Then Pinango stole second and scored on an Owen Caissie single to right that came with Pinango in motion attempting to steal third.

The score remained 3-1 Cubs until the seventh. Reed came on after Joe Nahas tossed two perfect innings in relief of Herz. Reed faced the minimum in the sixth but allowed a leadoff homer to Juan Carlos Negret to start the seventh, just the second run the right hander from Clemson had allowed all year. The next two batters singled and a ground ball to short off the bat of Tresh tied the score. Reed escaped with the game still tied after inducing a pop-out to end the inning with the bases loaded.

Jordan Nwogu came up in the eighth with two outs and no one aboard. He singled into center, Santana singled into right, and Pinango singled on a sharp grounder through the left side of the infield to put the Cubs back on top, 4-3.

Then came the ninth.

With the loss the Cubs moved to 30-28 on the season and 8-17 on the road, Quad Cities is now 22-36.

Game two of the series is Wednesday night at 7:30 ET.