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MWL1 Quad Cities River Bandits

Swing drop heartbreaker

June 3, 2005 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Quad Cities River Bandits News Release


The Swing could not hold a 3-0 lead Friday night, and lost a tough one 4-3 in the tenth inning at Memorial Stadium. The Wizards scored the last four runs of the ball game as Mike Sillman blew his second consecutive save attempt.

Quad Cities (29-25) dropped the series to Fort Wayne (30-23) with the loss and failed to gain ground on Clinton or Wisconsin, who also fell Friday night.

After a rough debut, Donnie Smith was up to the task in his second start for Quad Cities despite the no-decision. The righty out of Old Dominion threw six scoreless innings, giving up three hits, three walks, and fanning two. After yielding a leadoff single in the first inning, the Wizards were held without another base knock until Sean Kazmar singled with one out in the fifth. In both the fifth and sixth innings, Smith worked out of jams to leave two baserunners stranded in each frame.

After coming up empty-handed with men on second and third and nobody out in the top of the third, Quad Cities broke through in the fourth. Joe Mather led things off with a check-swing, bloop single to right, and advanced to third two batters later on a well-executed hit and run by Jake Mullinax. Wes Swackhamer then lined a single up the middle past a diving Matt Bush, to give the Swing a 1-0 lead.

In the sixth inning, Quad Cities was back at it. Mike Ferris crushed his ninth home run of the year to right field with one out, and he was followed by a Mullinax single and a Swackhamer double. With Juan Lucena at the plate a wild pitch snuck through the legs of catcher Colt Morton, allowing Mullinax to come home and push the Swing advantage to 3-0.

But down three, the Wizards fought back with single runs in the next three innings. Kazmar doubled and scored in the seventh, Morton homered to left in the eighth, and Kazmar then tied the game with a longball leading off the ninth. Fort Wayne then loaded up the bases in that inning, but Mike Sillman struck out Morton swinging to force extra innings.

In the tenth, however, a Mullinax error allowed Ruben Mora to reach base opening the inning. He was replaced there by Lachlan Dale after a failed bunt attempt, and Dale moved up to second on a Kazmar groundout. With two away Matt Bush then ended the game by singling to right, as Dale beat Rick Ankiel's throw to the plate for the 4-3 final.

Jake Mullinax extended his season-high hitting streak to 17 games when he singled through the right side on a hit and run in the fourth inning. The third baseman went X-for-X on the night, and is now hitting .XXX during the streak that began back on May 16.

Mike Sillman blew his second straight save by allowing the Kazmar homer to lead off the bottom of the ninth, while Kevin Ool (9-1) took the loss on an unearned run in the tenth.

For the Wizards it was Matt Varner (1-2) picking up the win after throwing a scoreless tenth.

UP NEXT: The Swing head to West Michigan for the second four-game set of the roadtrip, opening up the series with the Whitecaps Saturday night. Matt Scherer (2-3, 3.89) will make the start for Quad Cities opposite Matt Righter (2-0, 2.48) for a 6:00 start, with pre-game coverage to kickoff on WKBF AM-1270 at 5:45.

NEXT HOME GAME: The Swing return home to begin a seven-game homestand on Wednesday, June 8, as they take on the Peoria Chiefs. It will be a Hooters/97 Rock night at the ballpark, as well as 70's night with the Swing! We'll have live music on the party deck from 6:00 until game time, and drink specials will continue until 8:30.

Check out the Quad Cities River Bandits Statistics



Midwest League Stories from June 3, 2005


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