Bandits get blown out in return to home park

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By Steve Batterson | Sunday, May 11, 2008 |

River Bandits catcher Paul Vazquez holds on to the ball after getting hit by Kane County base runner Christian Vitters during first inning action. Vitters was caught in a pickle and tagged at the plate. (John Schultz/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo

It was like déjà vu all over again Thursday night at Modern Woodmen Park, where everything had a familiar look to it.

Kane County pitcher Craig Italiano did to the Quad-Cities River Bandits what he has been doing to opposing hitters throughout the Midwest League lately. And the River Bandits continued recent struggles in nearly every phase of the game.

“We’ve tried everything, but we just haven’t been getting any results for the last 10 days. Well, it hasn’t been 10 days, but it sure seems like it has been that long,” Quad-Cities manager Steve Dillard said after watching the Cougars club his team, 11-1.

“We haven’t hit well, we haven’t pitched well and our defense, which had been pretty solid, hasn’t looked good, either.’’

That ragged combination has led to a 1-5 record since the River Bandits’ bus left for a road trip to West Michigan and Dayton one week ago.

Since that time, Quad-Cities has been outscored 54-12 and has been out-hit 63-31.

“We’ve hit a rough stretch. We’ve got a lot of guys who are pressing a bit right now,” Dillard said. “We’re playing tight, and that’s not the way to play the game. We’ve seen some good pitchers, but we’ve been way too tentative at the plate and that’s carrying over. We just need to relax and play.”

Italiano, a second-round pick of the Athletics in the 2005 draft, had allowed one earned run in his previous five starts covering 25 innings before he took the mound Thursday.

The River Bandits couldn’t touch him.

Italiano struck out seven and allowed only a fifth-inning single by Paul Vazquez in his five-inning outing.

“We helped him quite a bit, but he had a good change-up,” Dillard said. “That’s something you don’t see a lot of at this level and we were unable to figure it out. We took too many strikes and waved at a lot of balls.’’

Reliever Scott Moore took over from there, equaling Italiano’s strikeout total and surrendering just one run on one hit while working the final four innings.

Running with the pitch after reaching on a two-out walk in the eighth, D’Marcus Ingram scored the River Bandits’ lone run when he scored on a single to right by Mike Folli.

By then, Kane County already had opened an 11-0 lead.

The Cougars managed eight hits off a collection of five Quad-Cities pitchers, but catcher Matt Smith collected four of them.

Smith drove in five runs, including two with a two-out double in the first inning and two more in the seventh on Kane County’s third homer.

Greg Dowling belted a solo homer in the third inning and Walter Correa added a two-run blast during a fourth-run sixth that allowed the Cougars to blow the game open.

“Our pitchers have to do a better job of giving us a chance, keeping us in there. When you fall behind in the first or second inning every night, that makes it tough,” Dillard said.

Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com.