Wisconsin powers past Kane County 18-9
GENEVA, IL - The Wisconsin Timber Rattler homered five times and defeated the Kane County Cougars 18-9 Friday night at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark. Monte Harrison hit a pair of homers, including a grand slam, to lead the power display. Isan Diaz, Mitch Ghelfi, and Luis Aviles also homered as Wisconsin tied a team record for homers in a game. Drake Owenby pitched five innings of relief and struck out eleven for the win.
Wisconsin's first rally started with a runner at first and two outs in the top of the second inning. Harrison and Max McDowell would reach on infield singles to load the bases. Aviles followed with a double to right that scored two runs. Trent Clark was next and he drove in two more runs with a single. Blake Allemand kept the inning going with a single. Then, Diaz launched a three-run homer to right-center and the Rattlers (29-32) were up 7-0.
Harrison made it 8-0 in the third inning with a two-out solo homer to left off Kane County starter Justin Donatella. Harrison has hit three homers off Donatella this season.
Kane County (28-32) did not go away as they rallied for five runs with two outs in the bottom of the third against Rattlers starter Conor Harber. Trevor Mitsui knocked in the first Cougars run with a single. Grant Heyman cracked a three-run homer to right-center and the Rattlers lead was down to four runs. Joe Munoz would double and that chased Harber from the game. Jason Morozowski greeted Farina with an RBI single to make the score 8-5.
Jake Gatewood got two of those runs back for the Rattlers in the top of the fourth on a two-out, two-run double to the wall in left and the Rattlers were up 10-5.
The Cougars came back with three runs in their half of the fourth inning against Farina. Austin Byler singled with - what else - two outs to score Fernery Ozuna from third base. A walk to Farina brought Heyman back to the plate. Clark overran Heyman's high fly down the line in left and the ball dropped in for a two-run double to bring the Cougars to within 10-8.
Harrison and McDowell combined to get Wisconsin a little breathing room in the top of the fifth. A wild throw after a grounder to third allowed Harrison to make it to third base to start the frame. McDowell's deep fly to right scored Harrison for an 11-8 lead.
Owenby entered the game in the bottom of the fifth inning and kept the Cougars in check.
Ghelfi hit his second home run of the season with one out in the top of the seventh inning against Austin Mason and the Rattlers were up 12-8.
Wisconsin put the game away in the top of the eighth. Aviles started the inning with his second homer of the year. Clark would single and Allemand drove him home with a double. Diaz walked and that was the end of the line for Mason. Kirby Bellow entered the game and walked Carlos Belonis to load the bases before retiring the next two batters.
That brought Harrison back to the plate and he lifted a high fly to left on a 1-2 pitch for a grand slam. The slam was the second of the season for the Timber Rattlers.
Owenby would allow an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth on a bases loaded walk, but he closed out the game with back-to-back strikeouts. Owenby set a new single-game high for strikeouts as a pro with his performance on Friday night.
The last time the Timber Rattlers hit five homers was on July 8, 2007 in a game at Kane County.
Wisconsin hadn't scored more than ten runs in a game since August 31, 2014 when they won 13-2 at Beloit.
Every Timber Rattler in the lineup had at least one hit as they collected a season-high 17 hits in the game. Allemand had two hits in the game for his 20th multi-hit game of the season. He has 14 multi-hit games in his last 17 games.
Game two of the series - and of the ten-game road trip to end the first half - is Saturday night. Freddy Peralta (2-1, 3.29) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Alex Young (1-0, 1.88) is set to start for the Cougars. Game time is 6:30pm.
The radio broadcast is on 1280 AM, WNAM starting with the pregame show at 6:10pm. The game is also available on the internet through IHeartRadio, TuneIn, and MiLB.TV.