Six-Run Third Fuels Quad Cities’ Rubber Match Victory
South Bend, Indiana – The Quad Cities River Bandits plated six runs in the third inning to help defeat the South Bend Cubs 12-2 on Sunday afternoon at Four Winds Field. The rout secured Quad Cities win of the three-game weekend series. Despite the final, it was South Bend who
South Bend, Indiana – The Quad Cities River Bandits plated six runs in the third inning to help defeat the South Bend Cubs 12-2 on Sunday afternoon at Four Winds Field. The rout secured Quad Cities win of the three-game weekend series.
Despite the final, it was South Bend who jumped on the board first, as the Cubs took a 1-0 lead against Bandits’ starter Ethan Bosacker in the opening inning on Ethan Hearn’s two-out double.
Justin Johnson immediately tied the game with a sacrifice-fly in the second, but the Cubs retook the lead 2-1 in the bottom half with Jordan Nwogu’s solo homer.
That blast would wind up the final run surrendered by Bosacker, who closed out a 5.0-inning start by retiring 10 of the final 11 batters he faced, including six strikeouts.
While Cubs’ starter Grant Kipp only allowed one run over his first two innings, the Bandits broke through big in the third and brought all nine hitters to the plate. Jared Dickey tied the game 2-2 with a solo home run—his eighth of the season—before Spencer Nivens delivered a go-ahead RBI-single. Johnson and Kyle Hayes then extended the Bandits’ lead to 7-2 with a pair of two-run doubles. Hayes’ marked the catcher’s first High-A hit.
After Angel Gonzalez quieted the Bandits’ offensive surge over the next two innings, Tyler Santana saw the Cubs’ gloves commit a pair of errors in the sixth, which led to Carson Roccaforte’s three-run little league home run and a 10-2 Quad Cities’ lead.
Devis Nadal touched them all in more conventional style in the seventh, tagging Santana for a two-run shot, the utility man’s second of the season.
After Bosacker’s departure, the bullpen picked up where the right-hander left off, with Connor Fenlong, Natanael Garabitos, Chase Wallace, and Oscar Rayo all posting scoreless frames to close out the ballgame.
Bosacker’s (1-1) win marked his first-career High-A victory, while Kipp (0-2) was saddled with his second loss of the year for South Bend.
Quad Cities returns home for the start of a six-game series with the Cedar Rapids Kernels, beginning next Tuesday, July 23 at Modern Woodmen Park. First pitch for the series opener is set for 6:30 p.m.