Moss Completes Late-Game Rally, Bandits Walk-Off Chiefs

Davenport, Iowa – Callan Moss’s ninth-inning RBI-single capped off Quad Cities’ eighth walk-off win of the season, as the River Bandits defeated the Peoria Chiefs 4-3 on Sunday afternoon at Modern Woodmen Park.

Peoria’s first three batters reached base safely to open the game against Bandits’ starter Drew Beam, who was seeking his first victory since May 23. But Zach Levenson pushed across the game’s first runs with a two-RBI single, and the Chiefs drew first blood for the third-straight game with a 2-0 lead.

While Quad Cities would not record its first hit until the fourth inning, miscues from Peoria starter Braden Davis led to a golden opportunity in the third. The right-hander plunked Bryan Gonzalez and walked Diego Guzman to open the inning, but a pair of strikeouts against Sam Kulasingam and Blake Mitchell kept the Bandits off the board.

The fourth inning didn’t look promising for Quad Cities, but Carson Roccaforte singled into right-center field to tally the Bandits’ first hit of the game with two outs. The next batter, Trevor Werner, followed with a rocket over the head of center fielder Levenson for an RBI-double to slice Quad Cities’ deficit in half, 2-1.

Beam put his first inning struggles behind him and completed the final four frames of his 5.0-inning start scorelessly. Davis also produced a successful outing for Peoria, striking out eight batters and allowing just one run over his 5.0-inning High-A debut.

Upon Beam’s departure, Quad Cities received consecutive scoreless frames from Jacob Widener (1.0 IP) and L.P. Langevin (1.0 IP)—who struck out the side in his first inning as a River Bandit—but Peoria jumped back into the run column against Tyler Davis in the eighth.

After Travis Honeyman and Ian Petrutz led off the frame with back-to-back singles, Ryan Campos ripped an RBI-double into center to extend Peoria’s lead to 3-1. The edge could have been 4-1, but Quad Cities executed a perfect relay to gun down Petrutz at the plate to end the inning and keep the deficit at two.

The River Bandits then responded with the bats in the bottom of the frame against Benjamin Arias. Mitchell walked to lead off the frame and Moss pushed him into scoring position with a single. Arias put the rally in jeopardy by retiring the next two batters, but Werner came through with another two-out hit, a two-run single, to tie the game 3-3.

Peoria had a chance to reclaim its lead in the ninth against right-hander Jesus Rios, but the go-ahead run was stranded 90 feet away when Michael Curialle harmlessly flied out to end the inning.

In the bottom half, Quad Cities wasted little time generating more traffic against Arias. After the Chiefs’ reliever retired Erick Torres to open the inning, Sam Kulasingam and Blake Mitchell both reached with singles. With men at the corners and one out, Moss delivered the game-winner with a line drive into left-center field, securing Quad Cities’ 4-3 victory.

Rios’s (5-2) ninth-inning escape was enough to earn the win for the Bandits, while Arias (1-1) was charged with the loss for the Chiefs after blowing his second save of the season.

Quad Cities returns to Modern Woodmen Park to continue its nine-game homestand against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and opens a six-game set against the Milwaukee Brewers High-A affiliate Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m.