River Bandits steal past Lugnuts, 3-2

DAVENPORT**,* *IA* *–** In a scant one hour and 58 minutes, the Quad Cities River Bandits (27-23, 57-58) used another big game from Spencer Nivens to top the Lansing Lugnuts (22-28, 54-61), 1-0, on Wednesday night at Modern Woodmen Park.

The Lugnuts sent three soaring flyouts to the wall: a Will Simpson drive to left in the fifth, a Luke Mann fly to deepest center in the eighth, and a Jared Dickey swat to right leading off the ninth… but all three landed in River Bandits’ gloves.

That was not the case for Nivens, who followed up a two-homer, five-RBI game in the series opener with an RBI triple off Wander Guante in the third inning and a solo roundtripper snuck around the right field foul pole off Will Johnston in the sixth. Trevor Werner followed with a triple and came home on a Carson Roccaforte single to help the Bandits build a 3-0 lead. It proved just enough.

Blanked through five innings by Henry Williams, the sixth by Nate Ackenhausen in his pro debut, and the seventh by Connor Fenlong, the Lugnuts rallied against Fenlong in the eighth inning. With one out (Mann’s deep flyout to center), Nate Nankil singled and took third on a T.J. Schofield-Sam double. Cole Conn lined the very next pitch into left-center for a two-run double, slicing the Bandits’ lead to one run.

But Fenlong retired Casey Yamauchi and Danny Bautista, Jr. on, what else, flyouts to end the eighth inning, and Natanael Garabitos induced flyouts from Dickey, Ryan Lasko and Simpson in the ninth to preserve the Quad Cities victory.

In the loss, starter Guante limited the River Bandits to two hits and one run through five innings, walking two and striking out three. Johnston followed with 1 1/3 innings, fanning two while allowing three hits, three walks and two runs.
Yehizon Sanchez finished with an impressive 1 2/3 perfect innings, inducing a double-play ball from Royals No. 1 prospect Jac Caglianone to end the seventh inning before striking out a pair in a perfect eighth.

The Lugnuts send right-hander Luis Morales to the hill on Thursday, taking on Quad Cities right-hander Ethan Bosacker 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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