In his first start of the season, Drew Parrish’s perfect four-inning start highlighted the Quad Cities River Bandits series finale against the Peoria Chiefs, as his team came away with a 5-2 win on Sunday at Dozer Park.
The former Florida State Seminole was dominant from the get-go and retired the first five Chiefs batters of the game on strikes, before the River Bandits took the lead on Jimmy Govern’s bases-clearing double, off of Jack Ralston, that plated Tyler Gentry, Logan Porter, and a 2-0 advantage.
Now working with the lead, Parrish comfortably worked through the third and fourth innings and punched out four of the last six batters he’d face prior to passing the reigns to 2020 fourth-round pick, Christian Chamberlain for the fifth.
Having been activated just prior to first pitch, Chamberlain, the Colorado native, conceded Peoria’s first base runner of the night on a two-out single by Hernandez, but would then set down the next four men he would faced to complete his scoreless two-inning debut.
Both teams stranded doubles from Govern, his second of the day, and Pedro Pages in the seventh, before Jeison Guzman and Vinnie Pasquantino took Freddy Pacheco deep for their first and seventh homers of the year to extend Quad Cities’ lead to 5-0.
Peoria managed to get on the board in the eighth thanks to a long-ball from Matt Chamberlain, but the two runs was all they would get as Yohanse Morel and Jordan Dipoto worked to close out the remainder of the eighth and ninth innings with the lefty Dipoto striking out the side to secure the victory in the final frame.
Chamberlain (1-0) got the win for the Bandits in his professional debut as Dipoto (2) earned his second save of the season. Ralston (0-2), the Chiefs’starter, ended up with the loss after allowing two earned over his four frames.
Quad Cities will begin their first and only series against a High-A Central Eastern Division foe on Tuesday, as LHP Asa Lacy (1-1, 5.00) will take the hill against Dayton’s RHP Graham Ashcraft (1-1, 3.21) at 6:05 p.m. CDT.