Quad City River Bandits at Beloit Snappers


April 8th, 2004

Bandits
Name POS AB R H RBI
Denard Span CF 4 1 1 0
Scott Whitrock RF 4 1 0 0
Matt Moses 3B 4 2 2 0
Brock Peterson 1B 4 2 2 3
Kyle Phillips C 4 0 1 1
Ben Pattee PR
Josh Johnson C
Dusty Gomon DH 4 0 1 1
Justin Arneson LF 4 0 0 0
Sam Taylor SS 3 0 0 0
Paul Rutgers 2B 3 0 0 0
Alex Garcia PH 1 0 0 0
Snappers
Name POS AB R H RBI
Terry Trofholz RF 3 3 1 0
Steve Moss CF 5 0 0 0
Drew Anderson LF 4 1 1 0
Lou Palmisano C 3 1 1 2
Vinny Rottino DH 3 0 1 2
Adam Heether 3B 2 0 0 0
Manuel Ramirez 1B 3 0 0 1
Josh Murray SS 4 1 0 0
Guilder Rodriguez 2B 3 2 0 0





Quad City 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 2 0 6 7 4
Beloit 0 1 3 2 0 0 0 1 X 7 5 3

E-Span, Moses 2, Johnson, Eveland, Ramirez 2, LOB QC-4, BEL-8, 2B-Peterson 2, Moses 2, Phillips, SB-Palmisano, Rodriguez, Murray, Trofholz, CS-Span, SACF-Ramirez

Bandits
Name IP H R ER BB SO Decison
Chris Schutt 2.1 1 4 2 4 4 ND
Jon Uhl 1.1 1 2 2 3 2 ND
Ricky Barrett 1.1 1 0 0 0 3 ND
Nick Blackburn 3 2 1 0 0 5 L (0-1)

Snappers
Name IP H R ER BB SO Decison
Dana Eveland 4 3 4 1 1 4 ND
Greg Moreira 3.2 4 2 2 0 3 ND
Ty Taubenheim 1.1 0 0 0 0 2 W (1-0)

HB-Trofholz (Uhl), WP-Schutt, Blakcburn, PB-Phillips, SO-Rottino, Moss 3, Anderson 2, Heether, Whitrock, Rodriguez, BB-Heether 2, Trofholz, Anderson, Rottino, Span, Phillips, Rodriguez, Palmisano
U-Tim Daub, Darren Budahn
T-2:56, A-1,517

How They Scored
Snappers 2nd
Lou Palmisano reached second on fielding error by Denard Span in center. Vinny Rottino struck out. Palmisano stole second. Adam Heether walked. Palmisano scored. heether took second on a sacrifice fly to right by Manuel Ramirez.

Snappers 3rd
Guilder Rodriguez reached on a fielding error by Matt Moses at third, stole second. Terry Trofholz walked. Steve Moss struck out. Drew Anderson walked loading the bases. Palmisano singled to right, scoring Rodriguez and Trofholz, advancing Anderson to third. Rottino walked. Anderson scored on a wild pitch. Jon Uhl walked Heether, loading the bases. Ramirez flew out to left. Murray grounded out to third.

Bandits 4th
Span walked, took second when Scott Whitrock reached on a throwing error by pitcher Dana Eveland. Scored on a double error by Ramirez at first that moved Whitrock to third. Moses to second. Brock Peterson doubled to right center, scoring Whitrock and Moses. Kyle Phillips struck out. Dusty Gomon singled to right, scoring Peterson. Justin Arneson popped out to second. Sam Taylor grounded out to third.

Snappers 4th
Rodriguez walked, took second when Trofholz was hit by a pitch, both advanced on a passed ball. Moss struck out, Anderson struck out. Palmaisano walked. Rodriguez and Trofholz scored, Palmisano took second on an infield single by Rottino. Heether struck out.

Bandits 8th
Span grounded out to third, Whitrock struck out. Moses doubled to right, scored when Peterson doubled to center. Phillips doubled to center, scoring Peterson. Gomon popped out to second.

Snappers 8th
Rodriguez struck out. Trofholz reach on an infield single, stole second, took third on Josh Johnson's throwing error, scored on a wild pitch. Moss struck out, Anderson struck out.

Quad City Times
by Steve Batterson

A come from behind victory proved to be as hard to grasp as the curveball that got away from Nick Blackburn in the eighth inning of the Quad City River Bandits season opening loss at Beloit.

The Snappers Terry Trofholz scored the deciding run of a 7-6 contest on a one out wild pitch Thursday night in a game that looked like what it was, the Midwest League opener for both teams.

A crowd of 1,517 at Pohlman Field watched the teams combine for seven errors, and while Beloit managed to get just one of it's five hits beyond the back lip of the infield, the Snappers took advantage of seven walks allowed by Quad City in the game's first 3 1/3 innings to force the Bandtis to play from behind.

Quad City did that well erasing a 4-0 beloit lead with a four run fourth and strining together three straight two out doubles in the eighth to tie the game at 6-6 before Trofholz touched home for the third time.

The Snappers' right fielder reached when the dribbled a one out grounder toward Matt Moses at third, who opted not to attempt a futile throw to first.

Trofholz tested the arm of catcher Josh Johnson two pitches later and when Johnson's throw saided past second base, Trofholz raced to third on the Bandits final error.

Blackburn's wild pitch then scored Beloit's winning run as it scooted under the glove of Johnson.

"It was a disapponting way to lose, especially the way we battled back." Blackburn said, "I thought I had a good grip on it, but the curveball got away from me. That hurt."

Blackburn finished off an otherwise solid relief effort by striking out the final two batted he faced.

The righthander teamed with Ricky Barrett to limit Beloit to three hits over the final 3 1/3 innings, not walking a batter and recording eight of the 14 strikeouts Bandits pitchers pit in the books.

We kicked the ball around a but too much and early, our pitchers had a hard time throwing strikes, but I did see soem things to build on." manager Kevin Boles said.

"Blackburn competed very well and offenively, we battled. i liked the way we came back twice. Now we have to figure out how to finish it off, but we showed some fight and that's a good sign for us."

Two errors in the game's first three innings, one each by the clubs two first round draft picks, Denard Span and Moses, allowed Beloit to build a 4-0 lead that Quad City erased when Beloit committed all three of it's errors in the fourth.

First baseman Brock Peterson's two run double and a run scoring single by Dusty Gomon helped tie the game, but the Bandits had to rally again when two runs crossed on an infield single by Vinny Rottino in the bottom of the fourth.

Snappers reliever Greg Moreiera had retired eight straight Quad City batters before Moses, Peterson and Kyle Phillips strung together two out doubles in the eighth to temporarily tie the score at 6-6.

"We showed that we were able to bounce back, but we made a couple of mistakes as a team that cost us." Peterson said. "It looked and felt like a first game and we'll only get better."

Game article by Batterson

One base wasn't enought Thursday night for the Bandits. Demostrating the power potentional that manager Kevin Boles sees in his team, five of the Bandits' seven hits in the their 7-6 loss to Beloit were doubles.

"I sensed some nerves early but I thought our guys settled down as the game went along." he said. "It's all part of an opener. We hit the ball well in (batting practice) and I think our guys will settle in."

Brock Peterson and Matt Moses each recorded a pair of doubles for the Quad City Bandits, with Kyle Phillips contributing the fifth.

"Offensively it was big for us to be able to bounce back and have that mind set especiall after we got down early." Peterson said.

"We got a lot of guys on this team that can hit the ball and I think that's going to be a strength for us this year. We're confident that the bats will be there and that we're going to score some runs. We just have to clean up the other end of our game."

The five doubles equaled a season best for the 2003 Quad City team, set in a May 23 win over Fort Wayne.

Snapping the Snappers
The 14 strikeouts recorded by a group of Quad City pitchers topped last year's season high. Last season on April 9th, the Bandits struck out 13 Beloit batters at John O'Donnell Stadium.

Boles liked the strikout total but the inability of startin pitcher Chris Schutt and the Bandits first reliever Jon Uhl to get fastballs over the plate led to some early struggles and seven walks.

"Tha led then to rely a little too much on their off speed pitches and that gave us some problems." Boles said. "I'm sure they'll learn a lot from this, but that's what the first time is about."

Down under up here
The Bandit's Peter Tautor got a chance to renew acquaintances with Beloit' Simon Beresford. The two pitchers are both natives of Austrailia, and they trained during the off season at the same facility in their native country. Tautor is a Melborne native, while Beresford is from Glen Waverly.

Just Visiting
Joe Vavra, the Twins minor league field cordinator, joined the Bandits and will be with the team for several days at the start of the season as part of his roving duties in Minnesota's minor league system.

Destination Qud City
The only player on the Bandits roster who isn't with the team in Beloit is pitcher Scott Tyler. One of 10 returning players on the Quad City roster. Tyler remains in Florida at the Twins extended spring training where is working on healing a strained right shoulder. Tyler is expected to join the team in another week to 10 days.

Presidential Visit
Midwest League president George Spelius begining his 17th season as the league's top administrator was in attendence. The league maintains its business office in Beloit.

On Deck
Bandits at Beloit Snappers 6:30pm today. Pohlman Field, Beloit, Wisconsin. Probable pitchers Quad City, Evan Meek vs Beloit's Brian Montalbo