Photo: Manuel, Mark (uploader)
After seeing their seven-game win streak snapped last night, the Quad Cities River Bandits flipped last night’s final to their advantage and topped the Beloit Snappers 4-3 at Pohlman Field.
Both the Bandits’ Noah Murdock and the Snappers’ Zach McCambley held their opposition scoreless in the first two frames before John Rave, in his second game back off of the 7-Day Injured List, led off the top of the third inning with a solo home run to right field to give Quad Cities the 1-0 lead.
However, Beloit ambushed Murdock in the bottom half and rifled-off hits on back-to-back pitches as Ynmanol Marinez and Ricky Aracena reached with no one out. Connor Scott’s single loaded the bases for Will Banfield, who worked a bases loaded walk to tie the game at 1-1.
After a mound visit, Kameron Misner took a 1-0 pitch to right field and plated Aracena and Scott to give his team the 3-1 lead. Misner would then steal third base with two outs, but Murdock would strike out Griffin Conine to end the rally.
McCambley remained in the game for Beloit and stranded four Bandits hits over the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, including a pair of no-out singles from Nick Loftin and Vinnie Pasquantino in the latter frame. But the right-hander induced a two-for-one from Jake Means and struck out Eric Cole to keep his team on top.
Will Klein and Mitch Ellis combined to relieve Murdock, who lasted just three inning, and didn’t allow a run in their four total innings, while striking out six and allowing just two hits to keep the River Bandits in the game.
In the top of the seventh, the Snappers made their first move to the bullpen and called upon Jake Walters, who got outs from two of the Bandits’ first two batters, but saw his lead cut to one when Tucker Bradley scored William Hancock on an RBI triple.
The two-out struggles continued for the right-hander as both Jeison Guzman and Loftin worked walks and set up for Pasquantino’s lead-changing two-run single that gave Quad Cities their first lead of the night with a 4-3 score.
As the third man out of Chris Widger’s bullpen, Jonah Dipoto toed the rubber in the eighth with the lead in hand and gave up a two-strike single to Troy Johnston and a walk to Conine. However, the former 35th-round pick retired the next three men in order.
After a Rave double was stranded by Remey Reed in the top of the ninth, Dipoto slammed the door on the Snappers in the bottom half and set down Beloit in order to nail down his team’s 4-3 win and his sixth save of the season.
With the series now tied at one game apiece, the River Bandits will look to Zach Haake (3-1, 4.37) tomorrow, who last time out, threw six innings of Quad Cities’ combined no-hitter against Wisconsin on June 19. Bryan Hoeing (3- 3, 5.58) gets the start for Beloit as he’ll do so against the Bandits for the third time this season. First pitch on Thursday is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. at Pohlman Field.