Felipe Tejada struck out eight over seven scoreless innings to pitch the Quad Cities River Bandits to a 4-0 victory over the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers on Wednesday night at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium.
Quad Cities (52-26 overall, 9-3 second half) nearly scored in the second inning. Michael Wielansky singled to right with runners at first and second and two out. Chad McClanahan fielded the ball and fired to the plate to get the runner trying to score to keep the River Bandits off the board.
There was nothing anyone on the defense could do to keep the River Bandits from scoring in the third inning. Austin Dennis hit a two-run home run to left and Quad Cities was up 2-0.
Quad Cities added to their lead in the sixth inning on RBI singles by David Hensley and Jonathan Lacroix. That was more than enough for the team with the best record in the Midwest League.
Wisconsin (39-43, 8-5) managed two hits in the game. McClanahan had a two-out single in the fourth inning and Gabriel García doubled to start the Rattlers seventh inning.
Tejada gave up both hits and walked three for his fourth win of the season. Scott Sunitsch was the starting pitcher for the Rattlers he struck out eight over five innings, but allowed three runs on nine hits to take the loss.
The Rattlers are 3-9 against the River Bandits this season. Wisconsin has been shutout six times this season. Quad Cities has shutout the Rattlers three of those times.
The Timber Rattlers are on the road for Independence Day with a game against the Kane County Cougars at Northwestern Medicine Field. Adam Hill (6-5, 4.06) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Kane County has named Matt Tabor (2-2, 2.62) as their starter. First pitch is 6:30pm.
