Arronde’s Strong Start Not Enough, Quad Cities Drops Series to Peoria

Davenport, Iowa – Royals No. 17 prospect Felix Arronde allowed just one run over a 5.0-inning start Saturday, but Quad Cities’ offensive struggles continued in a 6-2 loss to the Peoria Chiefs at Modern Woodmen Park.

The loss marks the River Bandits’ second-straight out of the All-Star break and their seventh in-a-row this season at the hands of Peoria.

Just as they did Friday, Peoria jumped ahead 1-0 in the opening inning and tagged Arronde for his lone run on Josh Kross’s sacrifice-fly. But after Ian Petrutz’s two-out single, the right-hander would end the frame and retire the final 13 Chiefs hitters he faced to close out the start.

Quad Cities’ defense aided in the 22-year-old’s effort, as Sam Kulasingam’s diving stop in the second and Derlin Figueroa’s diving catch in the third helped stamp out any Peoria rallies.

After failing to record a hit over Chiefs’ starter Jose Davila’s 4.0-inning start, the Bandits’ bats tied the game 1-1 in the sixth against Jawilme Ramirez on Callan Moss’s RBI-single. The knock raised the first baseman’s Midwest League-leading RBI total to 62 in just 83 games.

Dennis Colleran Jr. kept the game knotted out of the Bandits’ bullpen, tossing a scoreless sixth and seventh innings in relief of Arronde, but Ryan Campos’s RBI-single and Petrutz’s two-run double made-up Peoria’s three-run rally in the eighth against Zachary Cawyer.

Royals No. 2 prospect Blake Mitchell launched his second home run of the season, a solo shot off Tyler Bradt, to trim Quad Cities’ deficit to two in the bottom of the eighth, but Peoria atoned for it plus one with Won-Bin Cho’s RBI-double and Campos’s sacrifice-fly against Nicholas Regalado in the top of the ninth.

Mason Burns (1-0), who picked up the final out of sixth and completed a scoreless seventh, earned the win for the Chiefs, while Cawyer (2-1) was saddled with the loss for the River Bandits, surrendering three runs over one frame.

Bradt (1) allowed the home run in the eighth, but earned a six-out save upon closing out the ballgame.

Quad Cities returns to Modern Woodmen Park for game three of the weekend set tomorrow afternoon and sends Drew Beam (4-7, 3.54) to the mound opposite Braden Davis (0-0, 0.00), who makes his High-A debut for Peoria. First pitch is set for 1:00 p.m. at Modern Woodmen Park.