Burlington Bees at Quad City River Bandits
April 29th, 2004
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E-Keim, LOB BUR-6, QC-8, 2B-Maier, Rutgers, SB-Maier, Span
WP-Harben, SO-Whitrock, Maier
U-Bob Davidson, Chris Bakke
T-2:22, A-4,813
Note:1st game at renovated John O'Donnell Stadium
Burlington HawkEye
by Susan Denk
It was a grand night for the Quad Cities River Bandits
The team opened it's newly remodeled John O'Donnell Stadium. It was finally home after 2,690 miles to begin in the season. And the forecasted rain stayed away.
To top it all off, the Bandits won their inaugural game in the stadium, a 1-0 Midwest League victory over the Burlington Bees Thursday.
It was the sixth shutout of the season for the Bees, who drop to 8-12.
The Bandits move to .500 at 10-10. Once again Burlington pitching was excellent. Starter Dusty Hughes, who brought a 0.43 ERA into the game, scattered four hits over five innings. He struck out four and walked one. Despite picking up his first loss of the season, Hughes ERA dropped to 0.35 since the one Quad Cities run was unearned.
In the fourth inning with the bases loaded and two outs, second baseman Adam Keim got ahead of himself on a ground ball. Running in, he scooped the ball but then pulled his glove up before the ball was securely inside. The ball continued rolling on the infield grass while Keim came up with a glovefull of air. Brock Peterson hustled home for what turned out to be the winning run.
Dusty Dossett worked the final two innings in relief, allowing just a pair of hits.
The Bees inability to execute with runners on base hurt them yet again. In the sixth inning, Chris Lubanski and Angel Sanchez led off with singles. But Mitch Maier struck out and Bryan Graham hit into a double play to end the scoring threat.
"We weren't good situationwise fundamentally, getting sac bunts down." Burlington manager Jim Gabella said. "That's part of why we didn't score any runs. We get those sac bunts down, we've got men in scoring position and it might be a different story."
Bandits starter Adam Harben struck out 10 Bees batters in earning his first win of the season.
The performance gave the crowd of 4,813 much to cheer about on the night of first for the Bandits and their fans.
Chris Lubanski was the first batter, taking the first pitch for a ball at 7:08 pm
Bandit, Scott Whitrock collected the first hit, grounding a single up the middle to lead off the third inning.
Keim committed the first error in the fourth inning.
Peterson crossed the plate with the first run in the same inning
While it was not a great night for the Bees, it was a chance to be part of an historical opening in a great new stadium.
"It's a nice stadium", said Gabella. "The stadium's beautiful. It's nice to play in front of a big crowd."
How They Scored
Quad Cities 4th
Phillips fouled out to third. Peterson singled to right. Taylor reached on a fielder's choice, Peterson to second. Gomon singled up the middle. Taylor to second and Peterson to third. Whitrock struck out. Arneson reached on an error by second baseman. Gomon advanced to second. Taylor advanced to third, Peterson scored. Rutgers ground out to third.
Quad City Times
by Steve Batterson
Adam Harben tried to ignore it, but he couldn't
You try not to think about it too much, you're not supposed to think about it, but every time I walked off the field after an inning I found myseld looking up into the stands." the Bandits pitcher said.
"Seeing and hearing all of those fans cheering, there wasn't any way we could disappoint them tonight."
Harben and the Bandits delievered.
With an opening night crown of 4,813 cheering them on at the inaugural game at renovated John O'Donnell Stadium, Harben combined with reliever Julio DePaula on a five hit, 1-0 victory over Burlington that had a familar look to manager Kevin Boles.
"It wouldn't the a Bandits ball game unless it was a one run game." said Boles, whose 10-10 team has played 13 games decided by a single run in the opening weeks of the 2004 Midwest League season.
"Right now, I'm just relieved. Thank goodness we won our home opener. This was a good one to win for the people in the Quad Cities."
On a night when the Bees might have expected to dodge a few raindrops that never arrived, Burlington found itself trying to fight off a combination of fastballs and sliders that left Harben in total control.
The Bandits right hander scattered four hits while striking out 10 and walking just one batter in 6 2/3 innings to claim his first win in three decisions this year.
"It's always good to get the first one, and hopefully there are a lot more to come." Harben said. "I relied a little more on my fastball tonight and my slider was working pretty well. It helped me set up the fastball."
A double play ball off the bat of Bryan Graham in the sixth allowed Harben to work out of his only jam of the game.
DePaula followed by allowing just one Bees hit over the final 2 1/2 innings, striking out three on his way to his second save.
"Harben and DePaula did a great job. They exposed a few holes and they made the hitters look a little uncomfortable at the plate." Boles said.
The 10 strikeout performance was the second straight for Harben, who game up three runs on six hits over five innings in a 4-0 loss at Dayton on Friday.
"He's shown his potential in each of his last two starts. I'm encouraged with that." Boles said.
The Bandits provided Harben with the only run he needed in the bottom of the fourth when Brock Peterson scored as Justin Arneson reached on a bases loaded fielding error by the Bees' Adam Keim.
"Another run or two to work with would have been nice, but the defenese did an awesome job behind me, and the big thing tonight was just trying to get a win anyway I could." Harben said.
Six hits was all Quad Cities could muster off a pair of Burlington pitchers including four off Dusty Hughes, whose 3-1 record includes a no hitter this season.
"I sensed a few nerves tonight." Boles said. "We made a couple of errors on the bases, specifically with a couple of slides, that we'll correct. On one, we could have scored, but we got the win and we'll go on from there."