Bandits rally for 6th straight win

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By Steve Batterson | Tuesday, April 29, 2008 9:31 AM CDT | () comments

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A crazy day ended with a crazy finish and a sixth consecutive win Monday night for the Quad-Cities River Bandits.

In game scheduled for flood-surrounded Modern Woodmen Park, the River Bandits rallied from one run down in the bottom of the ninth to claim a 4-3 Midwest League victory over Lansing.

“That ninth made about as much sense as anything else that took place today,” Quad-Cities manager Steve Dillard said.

Four straight River Bandits reached base before Justin Roberson brought pinch-runner Adron Chambers home with the winning run.

His bases-loaded single took a high hop over the outstretched arm of Lugnuts pitcher Ross Buckwalter, who was unable to recover before Roberson reached first base.

“Right place, right time, I guess,” Roberson said. “I hit a good two-seamer, and he just couldn’t get to it. It found the right spot.”

That’s how the entire ninth went for Quad-Cities.

Domnit Bolivar led off with his third single of the game and when Luis De La Cruz dropped down a sacrifice bunt, Lugnuts catcher Matt Liuzza was unable to get the ball out of his glove as he watched De La Cruz reach first.

Jose Garcia fouled off a pair of bunt attempts before driving a slow-rolling bleeder between shortstop and third base, filling the bags with River Bandits and sending Lansing reliever Cody Crowell to the showers.

D’Marcus Ingram, with one hit in his first 17 at-bats for Quad-Cities, followed by driving an 0-2 offering from Buckwalter into left to score Bolivar and bring Roberson up to the plate.

After Chambers touched home, Bandits players spilled onto the field to celebrate the team’s sixth win in its final at-bat and the end of a bizarre day.

Bandits scoreboard

Score

Quad-Cities 4, Lansing 3

On deck

Lansing vs. Quad-Cities, noon today, Alliant Energy Field, Clinton, Iowa. Probable pitchers: Lansing, Luis Perez (0-2, 9.22 ERA); Quad-Cities, Brian Broderick (0-1, 5.59)

Won by one

Quad-Cities is 5-0 in one-run games this season and has come from behind to win in 10 of its 14 victories this season.

It’s happened before

Monday wasn’t the first time that Cedar Rapids has lent a helping hand to a flooded-out Quad-Cities franchise.

Cedar Rapids general manager Jack Roeder welcomed the River Bandits to Veterans Memorial Stadium for two games in 1997 on another occasion when the Mississippi River rose out of its banks.

“We’re happy to help. It’s not a lot of additional work, and when someone in the league needs help it’s just something you do,” Roeder said.

The big chill

All of a sudden, it felt like March again at Dale and Thomas Popcorn Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The temperature was 39 degrees — with a north wind blowing at 16 mph — and the windchill was 30 degrees when the first pitch was thrown.

Loaded Lugnuts

Lansing has a talented roster, which features 10 of the top 30 prospects in the Blue Jays’ organization. That included pitcher Brad Mills, who struck out 11. Mills, a       6-foot southpaw and a fourth-round pick of Toronto in 2007, is rated by Baseball America as the 20th-best prospect in Blue Jays organization.

Box score

Lansing ab r h bi Quad-Cities ab r h bi

Tolisano 2b 4 1 3 0 Ingram cf  5 0 1 1

Ahrens 3b 3 1 1 0 Roberson rf 4 1 2 1

Mastroianni dh 3 1 1 0 Kozma ss  3 0 1 1

Liuzza c 2 0 0 1 Brown 1b  2 0 0 0

Barron ss 3 0 0 1 Arburr lf  4 0 0 0

Chavez lf 4 0 1 0 Morales dh 4 1 1 0

Calderone cf 4 0 0 0 Bolivar 3b  4 1 3 0

McDade 1b 4 0 0 0 DeLaCruz c 3 0 1 0

Sierra rf 3 0 1 0 Chambers pr 0 1 0 0

     Garcia 2b  4 0 1 0

Totals 30 3 7 2 Totals  33 4 9 3

Lansing 300 000 000 — 3

Quad-Cities 001 100 002 — 4

No outs when winning run scored. E — Liuzza; Sanchez. LOB — Lansing 5; Quad-Cities 10. 2B — Tolisano, Chavez; Roberson. 3B — Kozma. SB — Mastroianni (6). S — De La Cruz. SF — Liuzza, Barron.

Lansing IP H R ER BB SO

Mills 42/3 4 2 2 3 11

Pettway 21/3 1 0 0 0 0

Crowell (L, 0-1) 1 2 2 1 1 2

Buckwalter 0 2 0 0 0 0

Quad-Cities

Sanchez 22/3 3 3 2 2 3

Spade 11/3 0 0 0 0 3

Eager (W, 1-1) 5 4 0 0 1 4

Crowell pitched to three batters in the ninth. Buckwalter pitched to two batters in the ninth. WP — Mills. PB — De La Cruz. U — Joe Hannigan, Tony Gutierrez. T — 2:34.

Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.