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 Quad Cities River Bandits

QC Cannot Overcome Three-Run First Inning

May 18, 2007 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Quad Cities River Bandits News Release


The Swing of the Quad Cities battled back from a 4-0 deficit on Friday night at John O'Donnell Stadium, but could not complete the comeback in a 4-3 loss to the West Michigan Whitecaps. The loss was the third in a row by the Swing who have dropped the first two games of the series.

Quad Cities (22-18) got five shutout innings from P.J. Walters out of the bullpen and two more runs batted in from league leader Brandon Buckman to increase his total to 39. A three-run first inning by West Michigan (22-16) was too much to overcome, however, as Michael Bertram led the way for the Whitecaps with two doubles and three RBI.

The Whitecaps jumped all over Swing starter Elvis Hernandez in the first inning. Deik Scram was at third with one out when Ryan Strieby singled him home to start the scoring. Later in the frame Strieby was at second with Brennan Boesch at first when Bertram sent a double to the wall in right, scoring both runners for a 3-0 advantage.

Bertram tagged another run-scoring double in the third to push the lead to 4-0, and the Swing rallied from there.

Quad Cities got on the board in the bottom of the fifth when Mark Shorey stung a one-out double to deep center field. That put him in position to score on Jaime Landin's bouncing ball single through the right side of the infield, cutting the deficit to 4-1.

The Swing continued to creep back into the contest thanks to a pair of RBI-singles by Buckman. Willian Sandoval led off the sixth with a single, stole second, and moved to third on a fly-out before coming home on Buckman's bouncer up the middle. In the eighth inning it was Sandoval scoring from second base as Buckman's liner to right pulled Quad Cities to within 4-3.

That was where the comeback ended, though, as Jeff Gerbe tossed a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his second save of the year. Duane Below (4-1) picked up the win after holding the Swing to two runs on five hits over six innings of work.

Quad Cities got another strong outing from Walters, who held West Michigan scoreless over the final five innings of the ballgame to keep the Swing alive. He struck out six without issuing a walk and allowed just one hit. Over his last six appearances (28 innings), Walters has 30 strikeouts against just two walks to go along with a 3-0 record and a 0.64 ERA.

The loss went to Hernandez (3-3), who was tagged for four runs on six hits over three innings of work. He struck out five while walking one.


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