Beloit, Wisconsin – Trevor Werner launched his seventh home run of the season Sunday, but the Quad Cities River Bandits (45-47, 15-14) dropped the series finale and their fourth-straight to the Beloit Sky Carp (47-48, 20-10) 10-8 at ABC Supply Stadium.
Werners’ home run marked the 25th of his River Bandits’ career, tying Sam Ashford and Joseph Henderson for the ninth-most in franchise history.
Beloit plated nine of its afternoon’s 10 runs within the first three innings and jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first against Quad Cities’ starter Emmanuel Reyes on Abrahan Ramirez’s sacrifice-fly.
The Bandits tied the game and took the lead on Diego Guzman’s RBI-single that plated an additional run on a Jesus Hernandez error in the top of the second, but Starlyn Caba’s RBI-groundout tied the game 2-2 in the bottom half.
An 11-run third inning saw both starters leave the game, as Quad Cities bolted back in front on RBI-singles from Blake Mitchell and Jose Cerice. The latter ricocheted off Sky Carp starter Julio Mendez’s, who was forced to exit.
Former River Bandit Jesus Rios took over on the mound for the left-hander and surrendered the two-run homer to his old teammate Werner.
Now working with a 6-2 Quad Cities’ lead, Reyes allowed the first four of Beloit’s eight consecutive one-out base runners in the bottom of the third. After giving up an RBI-single to Chase Jaworsky, Reyes walked Cam Clayton to load the bases and was removed in favor of Mason Miller, who surrendered a go-ahead grand slam to Wilson Weber.
An RBI-double from Caba and a run on a balk capped-off a seven-run Sky Carp frame, with the Bandits trailing 9-6.
Weber struck again in the fourth and took Miller deep for a second time, a solo shot to straightaway center that extended Beloit’s lead to four.
Following Miller’s departure ahead of the fifth inning, Bandits’ relievers Nick Conte (1.2 IP), Kamden Edge (1.1 IP), and Yimi Presinal (1.0 IP) combined to hold Beloit scoreless and to just three total base runners over the remainder of the game.
Quad Cities cut its deficit to 10-8 in the seventh, plating runs against Jaydenn Estanista with Mitchell’s sacrifice fly and a ball, but failed to record a hit after Werners’ home run in the third.
Riscon Gonzalez drew a leadoff walk against Sky Carp southpaw Justin Storm in the top of the ninth to bring the game-tying run to the plate, but Strom got Torres to bounce into a double player before Asbel Gonzalez grounded out to end the game.
Rios (5-5) surrendered the home run, but earned the win in 2.1 innings of relief, while Miller (1-2) was tagged with the loss, allowing four runs on five hits and three walks over 1.2 innings. Beloit’s Michael Perez (4) earned a hold with a scoreless eighth before Storm (7) earned a save in the ninth.
Following a 4-5 road trip through America's Dairyland, Quad Cities returns to Davenport to begin a six-game series against the Dayton Dragons on Tuesday, July 28 with first pitch for the series-opener scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Modern Woodmen Park.