Bandits steal one from Rattlers
The game started after a 58 minute rain delay and both offenses were ready to go. Wisconsin scored three times in the first inning and Quad Cities scored twice.
The first four Timber Rattlers batters of the game had hits. Brandon Macias and Max Walla started the game with singles. Jason Rogers drove in Macias with a double off the wall in left for the first run. Nick Ramirez was next and his single to right sent Walla home. A sacrifice fly by Greg Hopkins knocked in Rogers for the 3-0 lead.
But, Quad Cities (22-25) rallied in the bottom of the first. Rattlers starting pitcher Chad Thompson walked the first two batters of the inning and threw a wild pitch to move them both into scoring position. Colin Walsh's sacrifice fly got the first run home. An RBI double by David Medina with two outs got the second run across the plate to make the score 3-2.
Thompson worked a 1-2-3 second and a 1-2-3 third, but ran into trouble in the bottom of the fourth. He gave up a leadoff double to Tyler Rahmatulla and a single to Medina. Then, Thompson threw a wild pitch to let Rahmatulla score the tying run and let Medina take second. But, Thompson bounced back to strikeout the side to keep Medina at second and the game tied.
Wisconsin (30-18) went back in front in the top of the fifth inning on a defensive miscue. Rogers was at second with two outs and Hopkins at the plate. Hopkins sent a grounder to short that went through the legs of Neal Pritchard. Rogers scampered home with the unearned run to make it 4-3.
Bad defense by the River Bandits let the Rattlers take the lead, but Wisconsin gave that run back and let Quad Cities tie the game in the bottom of the sixth on a play that featured two errors.
Reliever Mark Williams walked Medina to start the sixth after getting ahead of him 0-2. Williams hit Virgil Hill to put runners on first and second with no outs. Williams got the first out on a shallow flyball to left.
The next batter was Pritchard and his at bat led to chaos. Williams jammed Pritchard, who sent a low popup to short. Yadiel Rivera charged the ball and appeared to make the catch in the baseline with Medina well off second base. The play was ruled a trap. Rivera tagged Medina for the second out, but threw wildly to second to try and get Hill for the third out. Hill took off for third as the ball rolled to Walla in right field. Walla attempted to get Hill at third base, but the throw sailed on him and the ball wound up in the seats to let Hill score the tying run.
Defense let the Rattlers down in the bottom of the ninth, too. Rasmus started the inning with a single to right. Pritchard was next and he bunted out in front of the plate. The throw went down to second base, but Rasmus beat the play to get into scoring position with the winning run. Roberto Reyes was next and he was also called on to bunt. He dropped his sacrifice attempt up the third base line and Williams went over to field the ball. The Rattlers pitcher whirled and threw to third, but was wild and the ball went into left field. Rasmus raced for home and beat the throw to score and deny the Rattlers a three game sweep.
The Timber Rattlers continue their 13-game road trip with game one of a four game series at Peoria on Saturday night. David Goforth (3-3, 5.74) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Gerardo Concepcion (1-3, 7.89) is set to go for the Chiefs. Game time at O'Brien Field is 6:30pm.
Tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:10pm.
WP: Danny Miranda (3-1)
LP: Mark Williams (2-4)
TIME: 2:50 (:58 delay)
ATTN: 3,247