Cougars let one get away

DAVENPORT, Iowa — A 3-0 lead slipped away from the Kane County Cougars as the Quad Cities River Bandits battled back for a 6-5 victory on Wednesday night at Modern Woodmen Park.

Quad Cities pulled within a run in the bottom of the sixth as Gary Apelian and Jordan Walton cracked back-to-back doubles, the second of which plated Apelian. Walton scored on a groundout to second off the bat of Nick Martini. Aaron Brooks left with the lead after six innings. At one point, Brooks retired 15 consecutive batters as he yielded only 4 hits.

Andrew Triggs (1-1) replaced Brooks in the seventh and coughed up 4 runs in the final 2 innings.

Quad Cities grabbed the lead off Triggs in the seventh as Walton singled up the middle with the bases loaded, scoring Anthony Melchionda and Casey Rasmus. Apelian gave the River Bandits a 2-run cushion when he crossed the plate on a Matt Williams groundout.

Kane County (66-69, 32-33) battled back to even the score at 5-5 in the eighth as Dean Espy walked and Alex Llanos singled before an error by Melchionda at third base brought home both runners against Josh Renfro (1-0), but the River Bandits took the advantage back in the eighth.

Colin Walsh whipped a leadoff triple to left-center and scored on a relay throw error by Jack Lopez. Ricky Martinez (fourth save) pitched a scoreless ninth to close it out.