For the first time in 2021, the Quad Cities River Bandits found themselves losers of a series as they dropped the final game of a six-game set against the Dayton Dragons 10-3 on Sunday at Day Air Ballpark.
After allowing just one run over his last nine innings coming into the day, Bandits’ starter Asa Lacy allowed double that amount in just three batters, as an aggressive Dayton squad got on the board first with a leadoff walk from Jacob Hurtubise, who came around to score moments later on Michael Siani’s RBI double. Then, after a steal of third, Juan Martinez drove a sac-fly to center that plated Martinez and a 2-0 Dragon’s lead.
Quad Cities nearly answered against Graham Ashcraft in the top of the second, but Hurtubise gunned down Michael Massey who tried to score from second on a Jimmy Govern single.
A pair of doubles from Quincy McAffe and Francisco Urbaez that sandwiched an Alex McGarry single, pushed the game to 4-0. Dayton got its fifth when Urbaez scored on a Lacy wild pitch marking the last run Asa would be on the mound for, as he handed the ball to Garrett Davila who was needed to help record the final out of the frame.
Neither team scored in the third and fourth where Davila and Ashcraft both scattered singles and the latter struck out three of his four total on the day.
Tucker Bradley and Eric Cole put together seven-plus pitch at bats in the top of the fifth, but along with Nick Loftin, were ultimately set down in order before the Dragons tacked on their sixth run on Eric Yang’s RBI double in the bottom half.
Having entered an inning earlier, Dante Biasi was on the hill for Quad Cities when Dayton blew the game open with a four spot in the sixth. Hurtubise continued to punish the Bandits’ pitching staff with an RBI single and then would eventually come across to score as his team’s tenth run of the day.
The River Bandits avoided the shutout in the seventh and drove in a run on a Nathan Eaton sac-fly and even flashed some power in the eighth when Vinnie Pasquantino launched his league-leading ninth homer over the fence to make it 10-3.
Eaton recorded a second RBI on a groundout in the ninth, but it was too little too late for the Bandits who were closed out by Matt Gill in final frame.
Having surrendered five earned over just 1.2 innings, Lacy (1-2) took his second loss of the season, while Ashcraft’s (2-1) shutout five-inning performance yielded the win.
Quad Cities will take the holiday off on Monday before returning home to host the Beloit Snappers on Tuesday for the first of another six-game set at 6:30 p.m. CDT.