Davenport, Iowa – The Quad Cities River Bandits (46-47, 16-14) erased a five-run deficit and scored a dozen unanswered runs including Tyriq Kemp’s first professional grand slam in a 12-5 win over the Dayton Dragons (53-42, 14-15) on Tuesday night at Modern Woodmen Park.
After working scorelessly over his first two frames, River Bandits’ starer Jordan Woods ran into trouble in the third allowing all four of Dayton’s hits. Julio Carreras put the Dragons in front with an RBI-double two batters before John Michael Faile launched a grand slam of his own put the Bandits in a five-run hole.
River Bandits’ reliever Aiden Jimenez took over for Woods after the home run and finish off the third before tossing a perfect fourth.
Jose Cerice, who extended his career-best on-base streak to 21 games with a walk in the second, got Quad Cities into the run column in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI-single.
After Jimenez fired off a perfect top of the fifth, Angel Acosta’s RBI-groundout and an Alfredo Alcantara error got the Bandits within three against Dayton starter J.P. Ortiz.
Jimenez concluded his 3.2-scoreless innings in the sixth with help from a leaping catch from Kemp that robbed Jacob Friend of a base hit.
Jacob Edwards, who helped Ortiz complete the fifth, returned to the mound for the sixth. The left-hander walked Blake Mitchell and gave up singles to Cerice and Erick Torres to load the bases for Kemp, who capped off an eight-pitch at-bat with Quad Cities’ third grand slam of the season and a 7-5 Bandits’ lead. Asbel Gonzalez made it a five-run frame with an RBI-single off Stephen Quigley four batters later.
Relievers Tommy Molsky (1.0) and LP Langevin (2.0 IP) picked up right where Jimenez left off, combining with the right-hander to hold Dayton without a hit over the final two thirds of the game while racking up 12 strikeouts, including a career-high six for Langevin.
The Bandits’ bats added four more in the eighth against Drew Peska, plating tallies on RBI-singles from Nolan Sailors and Chris Brtio, an RBI-groundout from Gonzalez, and a sacrifice-fly courtesy of Mitchell.
Jimenez (2-3) earned the win out of Quad Cities’ bullpen, while Edwards (1-3) was saddled with the loss for Dayton after allowing the grand slam. Molsky (1) and Langevin (1) earned their first hold and save of the season respectively.
Quad Cities returns to Modern Woodmen Park for game two of the six-game series tomorrow night and sends Tanner Jones (3-5, 5.18) to the mound opposite Dayton’s Luke Hayden (2-1, 4.55). First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.