Davenport, Iowa – Royals’ No. 2 prospect Kendry Chourio racked up a career-high 10 strikeouts but wound up on the losing end of his High-A debut, as the Quad Cities River Bandits (0-1, 30-34) fell to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (1-0, 35-28) 12-2 on Friday night at Modern Woodmen Park.
After a one-hour and 35-minute rain delay, the 18-year-old took the mound and began his River Bandits career with a game-opening strikeout of Josiah Ragsdale. However, Braylon Payne and Eric Bitonti followed with back-to-back singles and both came around to score on Luis Castillo’s two-run double.
Quad Cities’ bats immediately came to Chourio’s aid and tied the game 2-2 in their first at-bats against Jason Woodward. The right-hander walked three-straight Bandits to load the bases with two outs and saw Blake Mitchell and Ramon Ramirez score on Derlin Figueroa’s RBI-single and Tyriq Kemp’s sacrifice-fly respectively.
Chourio, the first 18-year-old to pitch in a High-A contest since 2021, rebounded with a perfect second inning before Wisconsin retook the lead 4-2 in the third despite the right-hander striking out the side. After Payne was hit by a pitch and pushed to second on a balk, Bitonti’s RBI-single turned into two runs when a fielding error from Erick Torres allowed him to come all the way around to score himself.
After Chourio picked up his seventh and eighth strikeouts to begin the fourth, Luiyin Alastre struck for a two-out double, moved to third on another balk, and then scored on a passed ball the very next pitch.
Chourio retook the mound in the fifth and surrendered a double to Ragsdale to begin the frame. After striking out Payne, Bitonti hit again and went the opposite way for a two-run homer and a 7-2 Rattlers’ lead. Chourio struck out Tayden Hall for his 10th and final strikeout, but was removed before getting a chance to complete the inning.
Of the seven runs Quad Cities’ starter allowed, five were earned on seven hits, no walks, and the 10 strikeouts. The effort followed David Shields’ career-high 10-punchout performance for the Bandits Thursday.
Mason Miller finished the fifth inning on the mound for Quad Cities and returned with a scoreless sixth. Wisconsin pushed further ahead against the lefty in the seventh though, as Bitonti recorded the fourth of his season-high-match five hits with an RBI-single.
Fellow southpaw Ryan Ure pitched his first perfect inning of the season, completing the eighth with help from a diving catch by center fielder Asbel Conzalez, but allowed the Rattlers’ final four runs in the ninth. Payne and Hall scored on a balk and a wild pitch respectively, while Ragsdale plated a run with an RBI-groundout and Castillo floated home an RBI-single.
While Wisconsin plated runs in all but three innings, the River Bandits did not score after the first and finished the night 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and stranded 12 men on base.
The primary reason why was Wisconsin left-hander Wande Torres, who followed Woodward’s 2.0-inning effort with 5.2-scoreless and a season-high eight strikeouts in relief.
Yerlin Rodriguez recorded the final four outs on the mound for the Timber Rattlers, striking out a pair over 1.1 frames in relief.
Torres (4-5) earned the win with his second scoreless effort of the season, while Chourio (0-1) was saddled with the loss in his first Midwest League contest.
The River Bandits return to Modern Woodmen Park for game five of their six-game series against the Timber Rattlers tomorrow and send Blake Wolters (0-5, 12.49) to the hill opposite Wisconsin’s Jayden Dubanewicz (1-0, 5.40). First pitch is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.