Owen Shines as Bandits Blank Beloit

Beloit, Wisconsin – The Quad Cities River Bandits completed their fourth shutout win of the season on Tuesday, as they defeated the Beloit Sky Carp 6-0 at ABC Supply Stadium in game one of their six-game series.

Royals No. 22 prospect Hunter Owen set the tone for Quad Cities’ pitching staff, recording his second career quality start and collecting six strikeouts over 6.0 scoreless innings. The left-hander concluded his outing by retiring the final 10 batters he faced and lowered his season’s earned run average to 1.96—now the fourth-best mark in the Midwest League.

Chase Wallace and Chazz Martinez handled the final three innings out of the bullpen, with Wallace striking out a season-high four over 2.0 frames and Martinez shutting the door in the ninth.

In total, the Sky Carp totaled just six base runners over the contest and were held to just two hits.

Over the first six innings of the ballgame, all of Quad Cities’ runs through the bat of Kale Emshoff, who gave the Bandits their initial 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the third and then, in the fifth, made it a 3-0 advantage with a two-run double, his third of the season. Both hits were delivered with two outs.

In the seventh, Quad Cities pulled away with power, as Trevor Werner and Brett Squires launched the Bandits’ first set of back-to-back homers this year with a two-run and a solo shot off Beloit reliever Holt Jones. The consecutive long balls were the Bandits’ first since Shervyen Newton and Jack Pineda on May 2, 2023 against Great Lakes.

While Owen (3-0) earned his third win of the season, Sky Carp starter Jacob Miller (0-1) was saddled with the loss despite allowing just one run with four strikeouts over a 4.0-inning start.

Winners of three-straight, Quad Cities will continue its six-game set on Wednesday, with an 11:10 a.m. game at ABC Supply Stadium. Midwest League ERA leader Ben Kudrna (2-1, 1.37) gets the start for the Bandits opposite Beloit’s Emmett Olson, who makes his Sky Carp and High-A debut.