After losing just their fourth game of the season last night, the Quad Cities River Bandits rebounded for their High-A-best eleventh win on Friday, as a scoreless five-inning start from Grant Gambrell and multi-hit efforts from Eric Cole and Tyler Gentry helped Q.C. top the Peoria Chiefs 5-1 at Dozer Park.
Both starters kept their defenses busy as Gambrell and Peoria starter Nick Trogrlic-Iverson combined for just one strikeout in 10 innings of work. But it was the Chiefs defense who did the most work in the second when William Hancock opened the scoring with an RBI single to plate Nathan Eaton. Two batters later, Eric Cole struck for a two- run triple, his first of the year, that brought in Gentry and Hancock to take a 3-0 lead.
Gambrell, who struggled in his last outing, allowed his first base runner with a one-out walk in the third, but safely worked around it before Gentry provided further cushion for the righty as he took Trogrlic-Iverson deep with a solo shot for his first homer of the year and a 4-0 advantage.
After allowing a seeing-eye single to Chandler Redmond in the top of the fifth, Gambrell recorded his first and only strikeout by getting Leandro Cedeno to whiff and then causing Moises Castillo to fly out to put an end to the former Oregon State hurler’s second scoreless five-inning start of the season.
The River Bandits got an extra run in the top of the sixth when Gentry scored on an error, after reaching on a double two batters earlier, which nullified Will Klein’s only miscue of the night—an RBI single from Brendan Donovan that got the Chiefs on the board 5-1.
Despite allowing a leadoff double by Redmond in the bottom of the seventh that eventually turned into a man of third with nobody out, Klein settled in to strand the Peoria leftfielder on third with a couple of back-to-back strikeouts and a ground out to end the threat.
Klein retired the first two Chiefs batters in the eighth before Jonah Dipoto set down four of the five batters he faced in relief, including three-straight strikeouts in the bottom of the ninth to close the book on a River Bandits win.
Gambrell (2-0) became the first Bandits pitcher to two wins, while Trogrlic-Iverson (0-1) absorbed the loss after allowing four earned over five frames.
Quad Cities will have a chance to win the series on Saturday and will send LHP Angel Zerpa (0-0, 3.07) to the mound for his fourth start of the year. Peoria will counter with LHP Nathanael Heredia (0-1, 4.76) who makes his third start of the campaign at 6:35 p.m. at Dozer Park.
ABOUT THE BANDITS: The 2021 season marks the River Bandits’ first year as a new Advanced-A major league affiliate. As such, the team will be offering higher quality baseball than has ever before been played in the Quad Cities. Additionally, the Bandits will welcome a new MLB affiliate to the Quad Cities, the Kansas City Royals. The River Bandits anchor the Quad Cities sports market, which The Sports Business
Journal named the top minor league sports market in the country in 2015 and second-best minor league market in its 2017 follow-up ranking. In 2015, 2017 and again in 2019, the River Bandits earned Ballpark Digest’s award for “Best Charitable Works” in Minor League Baseball, the only club to win that coveted award three times. For more information, visit www.riverbandits.com or contact General Manager Joe Kubly at (563) 333-2768.