BELOIT — The Beloit Sky Carp offense had been stumbling as of late and were looking for a turnaround performance from the plate on Wednesday night.
Quad Cities River Bandits’ starter Henry Williams is the opposite of the ideal candidate to get back on track against, and the righty threw five strong innings of three-hit ball to help his squad down the Sky Carp 4-3 in front of a crowd of 1,194 toughing out a steady sprinkle at ABC Supply Stadium.
“(Henry) did a good job of mixing his pitches,” Beloit catcher Ryan Ignoffo said. “He had a good fastball up in the zone and was able to land his off-speed for strikes, keeping them a strike as long as possible and landing them at the bottom of the zone for swing and miss. He just kept us off balance.”
The Sky Carp’s lineup is hitting just .211 in its past 23 games, the second-worst average in the Midwest League. Their 74 RBIs in the same span also ranks 11th.
“We’re being a little too ambitious in early counts,” Ignoffo said. “We're trying to do a little bit too much instead of just getting the pitch and working the at bat. We talked about it as a team, and we know what we have to do to improve. We need to work deeper into counts and get the starter out quicker.”
Williams was strong early as he only allowed just two baserunners through his first four innings. He didn’t issue any walks and struck out two.
“We have to figure out a way to score more runs,” manager Billy Garnder Jr. said. “We had pretty good approaches for the most part, but we really didn't create many opportunities tonight.”
Beloit struck out just five times but had trouble getting multiple runners on base at a time as it only got six total batters into scoring position.
The Sky Carp finally struck in the fifth, the lone inning where they were able to get more than one player on the basepaths. Down 2-0, Wilfredo Lara hit a one-out single into right field and Jay Beshears was hit by a pitch. Brett Roberts moved Lara to third and replaced Beshears after hitting into a force out, and Colby Shade hit a chopper to the shortstop, using his speed to beat out the throw to first.
“He hustled down the line and got that first run across which was huge for us,” Gardner said. “He's a guy that could set the tone for us.”
Williams got Gage Miller to ground out in the next at-bat to end his night with just one earned run.
Beloit starter Noble Meyer pitched around trouble in his 3 2-3 innings, finishing with five hits and three walks but only allowing two earned runs. He struck out a pair.
“Noble's been one of those guys that can go out there and just dominate with his stuff,” Ignoffo said. “He's been spraying it a little bit, but he knows how to bounce back and get back in the zone and attack guys.”
An RBI single by Omar Hernandez in the second and a one-run single by Lizandro Rodriguez in the fourth helped the River Bandits build the two-run lead.
Quad Cities attacked Beloit reliever Yeuris Jimenez in the sixth with Sam Kulasingam hitting an RBI groundout to short and Dustin Dickerson sending a one-run single off the glove of a ranging Lara at second and into left field.
Miller, a fourth-round pick in this summer’s MLB draft making his High-A debut, singled into right with one out in the eighth for his first hit as a Sky Carp. Ignoffo then sent a 2-1 pitch over the left-field wall for a two-run homer that put Beloit behind just 4-3.
“It’s great to get the first one out of the way,” the catcher said. “I pride myself on just hitting line drives and working at bats. Connor Fenlong's a good guy that has great stuff. I was just working the count and trying to get something over the plate. I got a cutter that he's been throwing pretty well all game and didn't miss it.”
Brock Vradenburg led off the bottom of the ninth with a single but Natanael Garabitos sent the next three Beloit batters down for a five-out save.
The Sky Carp fall 2-0 in the series and are just 4-10 in their last three series, but Ignoffo is confident that Beloit can get back on track.
Especially once a fairly fresh lineup, which featured just three batters who were here on Aug. 1 before Beloit made a flurry of roster moves that saw several offensive players cut and new ones promoted or traded in amidst a hitting slump, finds its groove.
“It’s been a huge adjustment period for us,” said Ignoffo, who was part of the call-ups after spending the season in Low-A Jupiter as Miami’s 20th-round pick in 2023. “We're starting to bond a little bit more. And as we get to play more games and practice more and be together, it's going to be a good group.”
• BOXSCORE:
QUAD CITIES 4, BELOIT 3
QC…..010 102 000 — 4 9 0
Beloit..000 010 020 — 3 6 0
QUAD CITIES (ab-r-h-rbi) — Dickerson, ss, 5-0-1-1; Nivens, lf, 4-0-2-0; Cagliano, 1b, 3-0-0-0; Werner, 3b, 5-0-1-0; Roccaforte, cf, 4-1-1-0; Johnson, dh, 3-2-1-0; Hernandez, c, 3-1-2-1; Kulasing, rf, 3-0-0-1; Rodriguez, 2b, 4-0-1-1. Totals: 34-4-9-4.
BELOIT (ab-r-h-rbi) — Shade, cf, 3-0-1-1; Miller, 3b, 4-1-1-0; Ignoffo, c, 4-1-2-2; Alderman, rf, 4-0-0-0; Coley, lf, 3-0-0-0; Vradenburg, 1b, 4-0-1-0; Lara, 2b, 4-1-1-0; Beshears, ss, 3-0-0-0; Roberts, dh, 3-0-0-0; Bullard, ph, 1-0-0-0. Totals: 33-3-6-3.
E: none. LOB: QC 10, Bel. 6. 2B: Nivens, Ignoffo. HR: Ignoffo (1). Sac: Hernandez. SB: Roccaforte (32), Rodriguez (1), Werner (15), Johnson (14), Hernandez (14). CS: Hernandez.
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): QC, Williams (W,4-4) 5.0-3-1-1-0-2; Fenlong 2.1-2-2-2-1-3; Garabitos (S,1) 1.2-1-0-0-0-0. Bel, Meyer (L,0-5) 3.2-5-2-2-3-2; Jimenez 2.0-3-2-2-0-3; Taylor 1.1-0-0-0-1-2; Ekness 2.0-1-0-0-1-2.
WP: Meyer. Balk: Williams. HBP: Johnson by Jimenez; Shade by Williams; Beshears by Williams.
T: 2:44. Att: 1,194.
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