The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers couldn’t cash in on their early opportunity against the Quad Cities River Bandits on Saturday night at Modern Woodmen Park and the Bandits made Wisconsin pay for it several times over on the evening. Quad Cities went on to beat Wisconsin 12-0.

 

Wisconsin (47-54) almost took the early lead as Joey Wiemer was hit by a pitch and Felix Valerio followed with a double to put runners on second and third with no outs in the first. River Bandits starting pitcher Anthony Veneziano retired the next three batters and stranded both runners. He would go on to retire eleven in a row.

The River Bandits (67-33) had a 2-0 lead three batters into the bottom of the first on a two-run homer by Nick Loftin.

They added to their advantage with four two-out runs in the bottom of the second. The River Bandits had runners at the corners with two outs when Wisconsin starting pitcher TJ Shook stumbled on the mound in his windup with Loftin at the plate and was called for a balk to let in the first run of the inning and putt another runner into scoring position. Loftin lined the next pitch to the outfield for an RBI single. Then, John Rave hit a two-run homer.

Shook walked the first two batters he faced in the third inning before leaving with the trainer.

Cristían Sierra entered the game and allowed a run to score on a sacrifice fly by Eric Cole.

The Bandits got to Sierra in the fifth inning on Maikel Garcia’s two-out, three-run triple and that made the score 10-0.

Veneziano allowed just two hits, walked none, and struck out four over five scoreless innings. That put him in line for his sixth win of the season.

Quad Cities kept the pressure on with two more runs off Brady Schanuel in the sixth inning. Nathan Eaton had an RBI single and Cole added another sacrifice fly for an even dozen runs.

Wisconsin infielder Chad McClanahan pitched the bottom of the eighth inning.

Zavier Warren had two of Wisconsin’s four hits. The Rattlers designated hitter had a single and a double. Fredy Zamora also had a double for the Rattlers.

The final game of the series – and of the Rattlers two-week road trip to Iowa – is Sunday. Wisconsin has named Victor Castañeda (4-7, 4.71) as their scheduled starting pitcher. Quad Cities has named AJ Block (3-4, 3.99) as their starting pitcher. Game time is 1:00pm.