Hall & Hopkins heat up Rattlers

GRAND CHUTE, WI - Brooks Hall took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and Greg Hopkins provided the offense as the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers beat the South Bend Silver Hawks 9-3 Monday afternoon at Time Warner Cable Field. Hall struck out six for his fifth win of the season. Hopkins homered twice and drove in four runs to lead Wisconsin's 12-hit attack.

Hall retired the first six batters he faced. Roberto Ortiz walked to start the third, but Chris Jarrett lined into a double play. Hall set down the next 12 batters he faced.

Hopkins cracked a solo home run in the bottom of the second inning to put the Rattlers (48-46 overall, 10-14 second half) in front.

Chad Stang's solo home run in the fifth inning made the score 2-0. Later in the inning, Nick Shaw's RBI triple put the Rattlers up 3-0.

Hopkins struck in the sixth inning with an RBI single to pad the lead out to 4-0.

Hall set down the first two batters he faced in the top of the seventh. But, Zach Walters lined a double to center just out of the reach of Stang to break up the no-hitter. Yazy Arbelo followed with an RBI single to end the shutout bid and pull the Silver Hawks (43-50, 9-15) to within 4-1.

Hall went seven innings, allowed a run on two hits, walked one, and struck out six. The six strikeouts in a game matched the professional high for Hall.

The Rattlers offense went on the offense in the bottom of the seventh. Mike Walker drove in a pair of runs with a single. Jason Rogers just missed a homer as he doubled off the top of the wall in left-center to send Walker home. Then, Hopkins crushed a two-run homer to left. Hopkins became the second Timber Rattlers player this season to hit two homers in a game. This blast capped the Rattlers scoring and put them in front 9-1.

Skyler Crawford tossed a scoreless eighth, but allowed a two-run homer to Walters in the top of the ninth. Casey Medlen came on and closed out the game.

The Timber Rattlers are off on Tuesday. Wisconsin starts a road series with the Lansing Lugnuts on Wednesday.

HOME RUNS:
SB:
Zach Walters (9th, 1 on in 9th inning, off Skyler Crawford, 1 out)

WIS:
Greg Hopkins (5th, 0 on in 2nd inning, off Tyler Green, 2 out)
Chad Stang (1st, 0 on in 5th inning, off Patrick Schuster, 1 out)
Greg Hopkins (6th, 1 on in 7th inning, off Patrick Schuster, 2 out)

WP: Brooks Hall (5-2)
LP: Tyler Green (3-5)

TIME: 2:34
ATTN: 1,378