BELOIT—Torin Montgomery had let the first pitch from Quad Cities River Bandits’ reliever Ben Sears go down the middle for a called strike. He then swung and missed at the second to go down 0-2.
With the game all knotted up at three in the bottom of the 10th and runners on first and second with no outs, the Beloit Sky Carp first baseman knew what he had to do.
Battle.
Montgomery fouled off the third pitch, took the fourth on the corner for a ball and then smacked the fifth for a line-drive single into left field to score automatic runner Jake DeLeo and give the Sky Carp a 3-2 walk-off win in front of a crowd of 1,924 at a sunny and seasonably warm ABC Supply Stadium.
“(Sears) is a guy with a nasty sinker,” said a soaking wet Montgomery thanks to a celebratory dousing from his teammates. “You could tell the way they set it up, the intentional walk to (Carlos) Santiago ahead of me, they were probably going to try and get me to roll over a ground ball or put something weak in play.
“So, I’m really just looking for something in the middle of the zone that I can drive. I got a pitch in the middle and hit it hard.”
The victory gave Beloit a 4-2 series victory over the first-place River Bandits.
“This was a testament to our mindset,” Montgomery continued. “They have one of the best pitching staffs in the league, but we have the best offense in the league. With that type of confidence, we’re going to win games. And it’s also a compliment to our pitching staff, who ended up outdoing them.”
It was the Sky Carp’s pitchers who put Beloit in a spot to stay in the game after River Bandits’ starter Shane Panzini allowed just two hits, one a solo homer to Chase Luttrell, in six innings with seven strikeouts.
Alex Williams made the start for Beloit and allowed just one run, an RBI double to Jared Dickey, on five hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.
“I just wanted to attack the zone,” the righty said. “I feel like I’ve been a little passive recently working behind in counts. I know a lot of (QC’s) guys, they have pretty good zone discipline, so I wanted to fill it up from pitch one.”
Josh White was charged with a run after he loaded the bases in the seventh and Ignacio Feliz came on and allowed a runner to score on a wild pitch, erasing Luttrell’s game-tying homer.
But Feliz settled down for a scoreless eighth, working around two walks with three strikeouts.
Evan Taylor stranded two baserunners in the ninth to give the Sky Carp a chance, and the offense delivered thanks to Yiddi Cappe.
Cappe singled to begin the ninth, moved to second on a Jake Thompson ground out and to third on a wild pitch. He then scored on Josh Zamora’s sacrifice fly to center.
“Yiddi has been so good this year,” Montgomery said. “He brings that fire and passion. He's got some of the talent and that same aura as guys like Fernando Tatis. When he brings that, we're gonna have a good chance to win.”
DeLeo flew out to send it to extras and Taylor sent the River Bandits down on two fly outs and a strikeout to set up Montgomery’s winning hit.
“(Evan) is the tugboat,” Williams said. “There’s nobody we’d rather have close out a game. He fills up the zone and he’s tough to hit — he has a weird delivery. And he’s just confident in himself.”
Beloit will take Monday off before staying home for a six-game series against Peoria that begins on Tuesday at 6:05 p.m.
• FRIDAY’S RECAP: Karson Milbrandt threw six strong innings before Edgar Sanchez, Tyler Eckberg and Dale Stanavich didn’t allow a hit over the last three innings to help the Sky Carp prevail 2-1.
Milbrandt allowed just one earned run on four hits while striking out seven. Jake Thompson had an RBI single while DeLeo added an RBI forceout as Beloit took a 2-0 lead in the third.
• SATURDAY’S RECAP: Luttrell’s homer in the eighth moved the Sky Carp within 7-5 before QC added two insurance runs in the ninth in the 9-5 win.
Luttrell finished with three hits while Montgomery and Jorge Caballero each had two hits.
QC took a 5-1 lead in the top of the fifth and finished with three home runs off Beloit’s pitchers. Ike Buxton took the loss as he allowed four earned runs on five hits in 4 2-3 innings.
• SUNDAY’S LINESCORE:
SKY CARP 3, RIVER BANDITS 2
QC 100 000 100 0 — 3 7 1
Beloit 000 001 001 1 — 3 4 1
QC (ab-r-h-rbi) — Roccaforte, cf, 4-0-0-0, Jensen, dh, 3–0-1-0, Werner, 3b, 5-0-0-0, Squires, 1b, 5-1-2-0, Dickerson, ss, 4-1-1-0, Dickey, rf, 4-0-1-1, Hernandez, c, 3-0-0-0, Pineda, 2b, 3-0-1-0, Nadal, lf, 4-0-1-0. Totals: 35-2-7-1.
BELOIT (ab-r-h-rbi) — Cappe, 2b, 3-1-1-0, Thompson, dh, 4-0-0-0, Zamora, ss, 2-0-0-1, DeLeo, rf, 3-1-0-0, Santiago, lf, 3-0-0-0, Montgomery, 1b, 4-0-2-1, Barstad, c, 3-0-0-0, Marinez, 3b, 3-0-0-0, Luttrell, cf, 3-1-1-1. Totals: 27-3-4-3.
E: Dickerson, Barstad. PO: DeLeo (by Panzini), Zamora (by Panzini). DP: QC 1, Beloit 1. LOB: QC 10, Beloit 4. SB: Squires (7), Jensen (10). 2B: Dickey, Jensen. HR: Luttrell (4). SF: Zamora.
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): QC, Panzini (6.0-2-1-1-3-7), Wallace (1.2-0-0-0-0-0), Sears (L,0-1,1.1-2-2-1-1-1). Beloit, Williams (5.0-5-1-1-0-8), White (1.2-1-1-1-2-3), Feliz (1.1-0-0-0-2-4), Taylor (W,2-0,2.0-1-0-0-0-2).
WP: Sears, White, Feliz, Taylor. HBP: Roccaforte (by Taylor). T: 2:48. Att: 1.924.
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