Davis steals opener from River Bandits with walk-off homer in 10th

South Bend, IN: The South Bend Cubs franchise went without a walk-off home run for all of the 2018 season and into 2019 thus far, until Saturday night. In the bottom of the 10^th, Brennen Davis came to the plate with the tying run at second base and himself representing the winning run. On one swing, the Cubs went from trailing, to winning the game 4-3. 

Davis' long shot over the right field wall skyrocketed off of his bat against reliever Hunter Martin. As he rounded third with the sight of a sold-out crowd of 6,582 standing and cheering, he high-fived Manager Buddy Bailey and then jumped into a pit of his celebrating teammates. For Davis, his fifth home run in the Midwest League was a special one. 
The night began with another quality start from right-hander Cam Sanders. With five innings of one run baseball, Sanders set the tone for the big Cubs win. Sanders struck out three and walked just one. In his past two starts, he has combined for 10 innings with only one run allowed, one walk, and eight strikeouts. 
South Bend jumped in front early and scored on a balk by Quad Cities starter Lupe Chavez. The River Bandits quickly tied it in the 4^th on a solo home run by Oscar Campos. This was the only run charged to Sanders. 
In the 5^th, South Bend grabbed the lead when the eventual hero Davis grounded a ball into right field with Quad Cities having the shift on. Andy Weber hustled from first to third, and the right fielder Jonathan Lacroix threw the ball away past third base. Weber scored and the Cubs led 2-1. 
The game went to the top of the 9^th. Closer Brian Glowicki already worked one scoreless inning, and tried to finish off the save. Down to their last strike and the tying run at third base, Alex Holderbach drove in the tying run and the game went to extras. 
In the 10^th, Quad Cities produced another run off of South Bend pitching and took their first lead of the night in a 3-2 game. From that point, the bright lights came on for Davis and it was winning time. 
Davis got a high and hanging breaking ball and smashed it over the right field wall. The walk-off homer brought the Cubs to a 49-41 overall record, along with a 12-10 mark in the second half. They will get back to it tomorrow afternoon in game two at 2:05 PM. Right-hander Riley Thompson will take the ball for the Cubs.