Game wrap-up courtesy of the Quad Cities River Bandits
The Quad Cities River Bandits suffered their largest loss of the season on Wednesday, falling to the Fort Wayne TinCaps 12-3 at Modern Woodmen Park. Fort Wayne totaled 14 hits in the game, the most allowed by Quad Cities this season, including a pair of home runs from Nathan Martorella, who took Bandits’ starter Mason Barnett deep with a two-run shot to open the scoring in the first. Barnett would allow an RBI single to Jackson Merrill and a run on a Marcos Castanon sacrifice fly in the second to put the TinCaps up 5-0, but would toss a pair of scoreless frames to close out his 4.0-inning start. Quad Cities totaled all of its runs against Adam Mazur in the third, with RBI singles from David Hollie and Jack Pineda, plus a run-scoring groundout off the bat of Gavin Cross, but it would all the Bandits would muster against Mazur and for the rest of the game.
Upon Barnett’s exit, the TinCaps offense came back to life against Quad Cities’ bullpen, with Marlin Willis surrendering a pair on a two-run single by Carlos Luis in the fifth and Brandon Johnson allowing Martorella’s second two-run shot of the night in the sixth. Parker Harm stranded the bases loaded to keep the score 9-3 after seven, but Fort Wayne struck for three more against Luis Barroso in the eighth, as Brandon Valenzuela left the yard with a solo shot, before Kervin Pichardo and Justin Farmer collected back-to-back RBI doubles, stretching the lead to 11. Jared Kollar earned a save, wrapping up the game on the hill for the TinCaps with five strikeouts, while holding the Bandits to just one hit over the last three innings.Mazur (1-0) grabbed his first win of the season for Fort Wayne, posting a 6.0-inning, three-run quality start with four strikeouts, while Barnett (1-2) took the loss for Quad Cities, allowing a season-high five runs, four earned, on seven hits, two walks, and five strikeouts.
The River Bandits will look to pick up their first win of the series on Thursday night, as Adrian Alcantara (0-0, 2.25) will make his first home start of the season for Quad Cities, while Ryan Bergert (3-1, 1.42) will get the ball for Fort Wayne. First pitch at Modern Woodmen Park is set for 6:30 p.m.