Nivens stays hot, Bandits drop Lugs

DAVENPORT**,* *IA* *–* Spencer Nivens both homered for the fourth straight game and made a leaping catch at the wall to rob a *Jonny Butler** drive, helping the Quad Cities River Bandits (28-23, 58-58) handed the Lansing Lugnuts (22-29, 54-62) a third straight defeat, 6-1, on Thursday night at Modern Woodmen Park.

With two outs in the third inning, Sahid Valenzuela singled off Ethan Bosacker, stole second, Butler walked, and former River Bandit Jared Dickey lined an RBI single for a 1-0 lead, the Lugnuts’ first lead of the series.

As it turned out, those were the Nuts’ only hits and only run of the night.

Lansing starter Luis Morales started the game with six strikeouts over three hitless innings, but Nivens homered to ignite a three-run fourth, giving him a Minor League Baseball-leading 11 home runs in August.

The River Bandits tacked on a fourth run in the fifth inning to knock out Morales, were blanked through 1 2/3 innings by Jack Owen and the seventh inning by Hunter Breault, then scored two runs in the eighth on a bases-loaded walk and a Justin Johnson sacrifice fly before Diego Barrera ended the rally.

The Lugnuts’ frustrations were typified in the sixth. Butler, leading off, crushed a Bosacker pitch to the wall in right-center – but Nivens jumped up at the wall to snag it.

Bosacker finished six innings having allowed only two hits, one walk and one run, though he struck out only one. Ben Hernandez then shut out the Lugnuts in the seventh and eighth innings before Ben Sears struck out two around a walk to Ryan Lasko in the ninth.

Former Iowa Hawkeye Grant Judkins gets the ball on Friday night, back in his home state, opposing Quad Cities southpaw Frank Mozzicato at 7:30 p.m. Eastern / 6:30 p.m. Central.

The Lugnuts play the Bandits through Sunday, returning to Michigan’s state capital for the final homestand of the year from August 27-September 1 against Fort Wayne. For further information, visit milb.com/lansing or call (517) 485-4500.

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