River Bandits Rally Late to Beat Wisconsin

DAVENPORT, IA - The Quad Cities River Bandits rallied from a 4-1 deficit to defeat the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 8-4 on Wednesday night at Modern Woodmen Park.
Wisconsin (21-25) scored a run in the top of the second inning by taking advantage of a bout of wildness by Bandits starting pitcher Patrick Sandoval. KJ Harrison drew a leadoff walk. Gabriel García reached on an infield single and Devin Hairston walked with one out to load the bases. Then, Sandoval uncorked a wild pitch to allow Harrison to score.

Quad Cities (25-20) put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the third inning. Wisconsin starter Christian Taugner retired the first two batters of the inning, but walked Jake Meyers to extend the inning. Jonathan Arauz followed with a triple into the right-field corner and Meyers scored the tying run.

The Rattlers went back in front in the top of the fifth. Payton Henry singled and Nick Roscetti doubled to start the inning. Then, Tristen Lutz lined a three-run homer to right with one out and the Rattlers were up 4-1. The homer was the fifth of the season for Lutz.

Taugner allowed one run over five innings and struck out five before leaving the game in the hands of the Wisconsin bullpen.

Jose Cuas walked the first batter he faced in the bottom of the sixth inning. Then, Miguelangel Sierra doubled to drive that runner home. Next, Cuas walked Jake Adams and a wild pitch on ball four allowed Sierra to take third base. The River Bandits sent Adams to steal second with Michael Papierski at the plate. The throw went through to second to get Adams, but Sierra raced home and scored without a play to cut the Wisconsin lead to one.

Cuas got the first out in the bottom of the seventh inning before giving way for reliever Cody Beckman.

Beckman gave up a single on an 0-2 pitch to the first batter he faced, walked the second batter, and gave up an infield single to the third batter to see the River Bandits load the bases.

Corey Julks, who had four hits on Tuesday for Quad Cities, sent a grounder deep in the hole at short. Devin Hairston made a diving attempt, but the ball glanced off his glove into left. Two runs scored by the time the ball was retrieved by the Rattlers defense and the River Bandits had a 5-4 lead.

Jake Adams, who hit two homers on Tuesday for the Bandits, added insurance for Quad Cities with a line drive off the wall in left-center with two outs for a two-run double and a 7-4 lead.

A misplayed flyball led to a lead-off double in the bottom of the eighth. That eventually allowed Meyers to hit an RBI triple with two outs to make the score 8-4.

Wisconsin was held scoreless by the Quad Cities bullpen after the homer by Lutz. Juan Robles pitched 3-1/3 scoreless innings to pick up the win. Carlos Sanabria pitched a scoreless ninth to close out the game.
The final game of the series at Modern Woodmen Park is Thursday evening. Alec Bettinger (3-3, 4.20) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Quad Cities will counter with Cesar Rosado (2-2, 5.02). Game time is 6:35pm.
The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino Pregame Show at 6:15pm. The broadcast is also available on the Tune In and IHeart Radio apps. Subscribers to MiLB.tv can watch the game over the internet.