Photo: Manuel, Mark (uploader)
In their return to Modern Woodmen Park on Tuesday, the Quad Cities River Bandits kicked off their series against the Beloit Snappers with a 10-6 victory fueled by four home runs and 14 hits.
Starters Charlie Neuweiler and Zach King each posted zeros through the first two innings, but struggled in the third as a pair of walks and an error allowed Beloit to score the game’s first run when Neuweiler hit Will Banfield with a pitch, however, the righty struck out Troy Johnston to strand the bases loaded and keep it a 1-0 game.
The River Bandits responded in massive way in the bottom half and four pitches into the frame, found themselves tied 1-1 after Tucker Bradley launched an opposite-field solo shot to get the party started. After King got Garcia to fly out, Nathan Eaton and Michael Massey both reached on singles before John Rave’s walk loaded the bases.
The next man up, Logan Porter, then thrusted the Bandits in front 6-1 with his 12th homer of the year, a grand slam. Five pitches later, Eric Cole went back-to-back and smacked a long-ball to push the lead to six.
With Neuweiler still on the mound, Beloit mounted a rally of their own in the top of the fourth and got the help of Travis Jones’ leadoff homer before Nic Ready doubled and Ynmanol Marinez brought him home with an RBI triple. Ricky Aracena’s RBI groundout would be the final blemish on the day for Neuweiler, who departed with his team’s lead shortened to 6-4.
Despite facing a new arm in Remey Reed, the Q.C. offense stayed hot in the fourth as Bradley, for the second-straight inning, le doff the frame with a solo homer. Later in the inning, Rave’s RBI groundout pushed the River Bandits’ lead back up to 8-4.
Quad Cities scored for the third-straight frame and extended the lead to five runs in the bottom of the fifth when Maikel Garcia’s RBI single, one of his night’s four hits, brought in Bradley, who had doubled with two outs to extend the frame.
Mitch Ellis started his night of relief working a one-two-three frame in the fifth and gave up his only run in the sixth on Marinez’s second RBI three-bagger of the night to cut the Beloit deficit to 9-5. But after facing the minimum in a scoreless seventh, the Australian got the run back on Nic Ready’s error that allowed the Bandits into double digits.
The Snappers got a concession run on Kameron Misner’s RBI knock in the top of the ninth, but Garrett Davila closed out his second inning of relief work and the game and caught Johnston looking to secure the win.
Thanks to 3.0 innings of one-run bullpen work, Ellis (6-2) earned the win for the River Bandits, while King (2-9) got pegged with the loss after giving up six over 2.2 frames.
Quad Cities will look to make it four-straight victories on Wednesday as they’ll start Anthony Veneziano (3-3, 4.14) up against Beloit’s Antonio Velez (4-2, 3.47) for a 6:30 p.m. CDT first pitch at Modern Woodmen Park.