Offense Rolls in Bandits' Series-Tying Win

Davenport, Iowa – After scoring in five consecutive innings, the Quad Cities River Bandits evened their series against Beloit with an 8-5 win on Friday night at Modern Woodmen Park.

Despite entering the contest having not allowed a run in his previous ten innings, Angel Zerpa struggled through the opening frame and surrendered a two-run double to Troy Johnston that got Beloit out in front first with a 2-0 lead.

After retiring Quad Cities in order through his first two innings, including three strikeouts, Alberto Guerrero was met by resistance from the bottom of the River Bandits’ order in the third and gave up a double to Gage Hughes before Tucker Bradley launched his first home run of the year to tie the game at 2-2.

Zerpa navigated through a pair of Snappers’ doubles in the second and third, but saw Beloit retake the lead in the top of the fourth on Kameron Misner’s RBI-double that plated Dustin Skelton and a 3-2 score.

However, Quad Cities quickly responded on a run-scoring single from William Hancock in the fourth and a seeing-eye RBI-single from Gentry and an RBI-triple from Vinnie Pasquantino in the fifth.

Now in line for the win after bouncing back to allow just the three runs over five innings, Zerpa handed the ball to Christian Cosby who worked a perfect sixth inning in his River Bandits debut and got some insurance on Tucker Bradley’s plating of Hughes via RBI single to make the game 7-3 heading into the seventh.

Cosby allowed a pair of runs on Misner’s two-run homer, but again got support from the offense when Pasquantino blasted his High-A Central leading tenth jack of the year to gain one run back and the 8-5 River Bandits’ advantage.

A scoreless eighth from Cosby and Antonio Velez set up for Bandits’ closer Jonah Dipoto, who struck out the side to earn his fourth Q.C. save and his club’s 17th win on the season.

Another five-inning, seven strikeout performance yielded Zerpa (3-0) his third-straight win for the Bandits, while Guerrero (1-2) took the loss for Beloit after giving up six runs on six hits over five frames.

The series lead will again be up for grabs tomorrow when Quad Cities’ and starter Asa Lacy (1-2, 6.75) host Zach McCambley (1-2, 3.46) at 6:30 p.m. at Modern Woodmen Park.