The Quad Cities River Bandits erased an early 2-0 Wisconsin Timber Rattlers lead on their way to a 4-2 victory at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium on Tuesday night in the first game of a two-game series.
Chad McClanahan drove in the first run of the game with a two-out RBI double in the bottom of the first inning for a 1-0 lead.
Brice Turang made it 2-0 in favor of the Rattlers (39-42 overall, 8-4 second half) in the bottom of the third. Turang single with one out and stole second. A wild throw to second allowed Turang to head to third. Then, an errant throw to third let Turang score.
Quad Cities (51-26, 8-3) came back to tie the game in the fourth and to take the lead in the fifth. Austin Dennis and Cesar Salazar singled to start the fourth inning and put runners on the corners. Alex McKenna singled to score Dennis and send Salazar to third. David Hensley hit a sacrifice fly to get Salazar home with the tying run.
In the sixth,. Michael Wielansky reached on a weakly-hit infield single. Freudis Nova doubled to left to score Wielansky. Dennis followed with an RBI single and the River Bandits were up 4-2.
Jose Alberto Rivera, the Quad Cities starting pitcher, gave up a one-out single to Gabriel García in the fourth inning before retiring the final eleven Rattlers he faced. Rivera walked none and struck out five over seven innings for his fourth win of the season.
Freisis Adames pitched four scoreless innings of relief for the Timber Rattlers. He gave up no hits and struck out four as he kept the Rattlers within striking distance.
The Rattlers put the tying runs on base in the ninth inning when McVey and David Fry drew walks to start the inning against Hunter Martin. But, Martin worked through the jam to get the final three outs for his first save.
Wisconsin is now 3-8 in eleven games against the River Bandits, the team with the best record in the Midwest League.
The final game of the brief, two-game series is Wednesday evening. Scott Sunitsch (6-7, 3.74) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Felipe Tejada (3-0, 3.38) is set to start for Quad Cities. Game time is 6:35pm.
Enjoy Cher-Make hotdogs and 16-ounce Pepsi products for $1 as part of a Y100 Bang for Your Buck Night. There are also 16-ounce domestic beers available for $2 to those of legal drinking age. Stick around after the game for pre-Independence Day Fireworks display.
