19 Straight Runs Over Final Three Innings Powers Cubs to Historic 25-6 Night

The Cubs hammered out 25 runs on 20 hits, drawing 15 walks along the way to blast first place Wisconsin 25-6 in game three of their series – with South Bend now taking a 2-1 series lead.

Thursday night began with a bit of a whimper for the Cubs offense – through three innings Wisconsin starter JD Thompson had faced the minimum and the Timber Rattlers shot out to an early 3-0 lead behind a 3-run double from former National Champ with LSU, Daniel Dickerson.

Cole Mathis got a run back with a sac-fly in the fourth and the Cubs tied it in the fifth with RBIs from Alex Madera and Justin Stransky.

Immediately the Rattlers took the lead back in the bottom of the inning behind a leadoff home run to center from Braylon Payne, a no doubter off the bat.

Matt Hallbach and Leonel Espinoza picked up back-to-back RBI singles in the sixth to put South Bend up for the first time. Leonel Espinoza swiped second base later in the inning and an errant throw to second from catcher David Garcia allowed Hallbach to score to make it 6-4.

An infield single with the bases loaded and two outs from Josh Adamczewski tied the game later that same inning.

With the score tied 6-6 after six innings it felt like anyone’s game. Then came an absolute avalanche from the Cubs.

South Bend sent eight to the plate in the seventh, scoring four runs. Kade Snell gave the Cubs the lead for good, grounding into a fielder’s choice to plate Kane Kepley. Hallbach then unloaded on a pitch from Jose Nova, sending a towering 3-run blast over the wall in left and deep into the Appleton night.

Nine of the first 10 batters for the Cubs reached in the eighth, with the lone out recorded being a sac-fly to the warning track off the bat of Espinoza. Kepley wrapped a grounder into right to score a run, two bases loaded walks from Quinton Low scored two more, and a wild pitch made it 14-6. After the sac-fly from Espinoza, Madera lined a double into left to score Halbach, and two batters later Christian Olivo sent everyone home with a 2-run triple deep into the alley in right-center field. Kepley picked up another RBI single to cap the inning.

In the ninth Wisconsin brought on infielder Luiyin Alastre to get the next three outs. The Cubs sent another 12 to the plated and tacked on six more runs. The biggest swing came from Stransky, a grand slam just over the wall in left to give him five RBIs on the night.

Just look at these lines….

Kepley: 4-5, 5 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 4 SB – Kepley has 7 SB in the last 2 games.

Snell: 2-5, 4 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB

Hallbach: 5-5, HR, 6 RBI, 5 R, 2 BB – on-base all 7 plate appearances

Espinoza: 2-5, 2 RBI, 2 R, BB

Madera: 2-3, 3 RBI, 2 R, 3 BB

Stransky: 1-3, 5 RBI, HR, 2 R, 2 BB

The Cubs have gone 14-for-15 stealing bases over the last two games and have now scored 41 runs in three games this week.

Friday, game three starts with first pitch at 7:40 PM ET.