Garceau Twirls Five Scoreless, Two-Hit Innings
August 16, 2007 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Quad Cities River Bandits News Release
Antone DeJesus swatted his first professional home run and Steven Hill went deep for the fourth time in five games, as the Swing of the Quad Cities sailed to a 7-1 win over the Kane County Cougars on Thursday night at John O'Donnell Stadium.
Quad Cities (33-18, 71-49) improved to 8-1 on the homestand thanks to nine wins in their last 10 games, as the red-hot Swing have gone 17-5 since July 24. Kane County (26-25, 50-70) mustered just four hits against the Swing pitching staff, which got five shutout innings courtesy of starter Shaun Garceau.
DeJesus started off Thursday night's game with a bang, turning on a 1-2 pitch to lead off the bottom of the first inning with a solo homer to right. The longball was his first professional homer since being selected by the Cardinals in the 16th round of the 2007 draft, and with one swing the former Kentucky Wildcat gave Quad Cities a 1-0 lead.
Cougars' starter James Heuser responded by retiring the next nine batters he faced, but that streak was broken up by a Daryl Jones single in the fourth. One batter later, Steven Hill slugged a longball for the fourth time in five games, giving him 11 for the year while pushing the advantage to 3-0.
The dinger also extended Hill's hitting streak to 13, equaling the season-high set by DeJesus from July 22-August 4. Since August 3, the powerful slugger out of Stephen F. Austin is hitting .491 (26-53) with four doubles, four homers, 13 runs, and 12 RBI.
Meanwhile, Garceau (8-10) was turning in one of his best starts of the year. The 19-year-old righty rebounded from a three-loss skid to toss five shutout innings for the first time this season. He held the Cougars to just two hits while fanning four and issuing one walk.
Mike Schellinger added three innings out of the bullpen, facing the minimum after erasing a sixth inning single with a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play. Over his last 12 outings, the 24-year-old reliever has gone 4-0 with a miniscule 0.93 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 29 innings of work.
The 3-0 Swing lead doubled in the sixth thanks to four singles and a pair of defensive miscues by Kane County. The bases were loaded with one out when Tony Cruz hit a potential double play ball to the second baseman, but a run scored when Alex Valdez bobbled the ball and had to settle for one out at first base. Jaime Landin followed with a bouncer to the right side, but the pitcher was late off the mound and could not beat him down the base line. Meanwhile, the focus was at first base while two runs crossed the plate for a 6-0 advantage.
Each team added an unearned run before it was all said and done, as Kane County took advantage two errors with two outs in the top of the ninth to pull within 7-1. That prevented the Quad Cities pitching staff from picking up their 11th shutout of the season.
Heuser (10-7) took the loss for the Cougars, roughed up for six runs on eight hits over 5.2 frames.
TICKETS: Tickets for all events at John O'Donnell Stadium can be purchased by calling the Swing of the Quad Cities ticket office at (563) 328-2000, coming to the box office located at the stadium along South Gaines Street, or by logging on to www.swingbaseball.com.
UP NEXT: The Swing are in the midst of a 10-game homestand that kicks off an action-packed month of August at John O'Donnell Stadium! All Swing games feature a radio broadcast that can be heard on WKBF AM-1270 or online at www.swingbaseball.com, with the pre-game show starting 15 minutes prior to scheduled first pitch.
UPCOMING PROMOTIONS: The homestand concludes with the QC-Times Diamond Dig on a FIREWORKS Friday!!! After a pair of road games over the weekend, the Swing return to JOD with a Happy Joe's 2-for-1 Night on a Kids Eat Free Monday. On Tuesday, the first 800 fans through the gates will get a free T-shirt courtesy of Trinity Regional Health System!!!
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Midwest League Stories from August 16, 2007
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- Garceau Twirls Five Scoreless, Two-Hit Innings - Quad Cities River Bandits
- Chiefs Blown Out in Lackluster Game at Cedar Rapids - Peoria Chiefs
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- Loons Add Former Top Prospect Figueroa - Great Lakes Loons
- Jeremy Haynes to DL; Jim West joins Kernels - Cedar Rapids Kernels
- Bob L. Head To Be At JOD On August 24 - Quad Cities River Bandits
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