Coulter goes on power trip for Rattlers

Clint Coulter's mid-April power surge began with a simple concept -- take it easy.

Coulter bashed two home runs a day after hammering a grand slam as Class A Wisconsin broke a late tie to slip past South Bend, 11-7, at Four Winds Field on Sunday.

The Brewers' No. 12 prospect is applying lessons learned from instructor Sandy Guerrero, now the hitting coach at Double-A Huntsville, and Milwaukee Minor League hitting coordinator Jeremy Reed as he begins to round into form for the Timber Rattlers.

"Sandy's always saying 'suave,' meaning 'easy,' and Jeremy's always saying 'easy power, let it come easy,'" Coulter said. "Me being a strong guy and an aggressive guy, I want to go get the ball, and that's kind of counterintuitive to what hitting is about. You've got to let it come to you, so I've just been working on staying back and letting it come to me and let my power actually work, which I think is what's been happening lately."

Wisconsin raced out to a 5-0 lead in their rubber game at South Bend, with Coulter accounting for four of his team's first five tallies. The 2012 first-round pick got started with a leadoff home run in the second and belted a three-run shot in the third -- marking his second straight four-RBI game. Saturday night, Coulter's grand slam helped propel the Timber Rattlers to a 6-4 win.

"It comes in waves," Coulter said of his recent power streak. "The pitcher's got to throw home runs. Hitters don't necessarily hit them. I've gotten some good pitches and haven't missed them. I think in the past, I've gotten pitches like that, but I've missed them or mis-hit them at least. I've been putting good swings on them and maybe gotten a little bit of luck too."

After the Silver Hawks rallied to knot the finale, 7-7, the Timber Rattlers scored four times in the top of the eighth to secure the series victory. All but one Wisconsin lineup member had at least one hit on the day with Coulter and Francisco Castillo recording two apiece.

"We've been really threatening teams and scaring them but not really getting the ducks in or around the pond," Coulter said, noting that Wisconsin left 10 men on base in Friday night's 4-3 loss. "I think once we get rolling with the bats, which hopefully that was a good start today, our pitching's been solid, so I think we're going to get it rolling."

This season is a repeat for Coulter who spent 33 games in the Midwest League a year ago. He batted .207 with 31 strikeouts in 116 at-bats.

"I feel like last year I was trying to turn things around so quick and trying to do a 180 when it's a process," he said. "You can't really control it or everyone would be hitting .300 or hitting home runs all the time. You've just got to trust your approach and trust your discipline at the plate, and good things will happen."

Tyler Linehan (1-1) allowed three runs in two innings of relief, but picked up the win.

South Bend's Ben Eckels (0-2) suffered the loss by surrendering five runs on three hits over 2 2/3 innings.