Mozzicato Shines in Quad Cities’ Loss to Beloit

Davenport, Iowa – Frank Mozzicato matched his season-high with eight strikeouts over 4.0-scoreless innings Friday, but the Quad Cities River dropped their second-straight game to the Beloit Sky Carp, falling 2-1 at Modern Woodmen Park.

After rattling off 4.0-shutout frames in his previous start, Mozzicato struck out seven of the first nine Sky Carp batters he faced. The southpaw scattered singles in the third and fourth, but did not allow a walk for the second-straight start.

While Beloit struggled against Quad Cities’ starter, the Bandits had their own issues against Jake Brooks, who struck out six and completed 5.0-scoreless in his High-A debut. Carson Roccaforte and Omar Hernandez tagged the right-hander for a pair of singles, but Quad Cities failed to record another its third and final hit until the seventh inning and finished the night 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

Ben Hernandez helped keep the game scoreless through six, working out of the Bandits bullpen, but in his third frame of work, allowed the Sky Carp to take a 2-0 lead on a Brock Vradenburg RBI-single and Tony Bullard’s RBI-double.

Quad Cities cut the deficit to one in the bottom half, as Blake Mitchell scored on a Yiddi Cappe error, but it wound up the only run against reliever Holt Jones, who worked 2.0 innings in relief of Brooks.

Natanael Garabitos and Andrew Morones each worked a scoreless inning to close out the night for the Bandits’ pitching staff, but the Bandits twice stranded the tying run on base against Jack Sellinger, who closed out the win for Beloit and a six-out save.

Jones (2-2) did not record a strikeout in his winning effort, while Hernandez (1-1) was saddled with the loss.

Quad Cities continues its six-game set with the Sky Carp tomorrow night at Modern Woodmen Park and sends Hunter Owen (6-7, 4.36) to the mound against Will Schomberg (2-3, 5.01). First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.