Late Peoria homer foils Rattlers comeback
PEORIA, IL - The Peoria
Chiefs have two home runs this season. Greg
Rohan has both of them. His second
long ball of the year snapped a 4-4 tie in
the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Chiefs a 5-4 win over the Wisconsin
Timber Rattlers Tuesday night at O'Brien Field.
The Rattlers rallied with three runs in the top of the eighth inning to
tie the game, but the blast from Rohan sent Wisconsin to their third straight
loss.
The Chiefs (11-8) struck first
with three runs in the bottom of the third inning.
Francisco Guzman started the inning with a bunt single.
Hak-Ju Lee doubled to put two runners in scoring position.
Logan Watkins followed with a triple to right to push both runners across
the plate. Matt Cerda was next and
his fly ball to right was deep enough to score Watkins with the third run of the
inning.
Wisconsin (7-11) got one of
those runs back in the top of the fourth inning on a two-out RBI single by Sean
Halton.
But, a two-out RBI single by
Guzman in the bottom of the fourth put the Chiefs in front 4-1.
The score stayed that way until
the Rattlers scrapped together a three-run rally in the top of the eighth
inning. Scooter Gennett walked and
Chris Dennis singled to right on a hit-and-run to put Gennett on third.
Pete Fatse sent a fly ball to the warning track in left that was dropped.
Genett scored, Dennis took second, and Fatse reached.
A sacrifice bunt moved both runners into scoring position.
Halton sent Dennis home from
third and Fatse to third with an RBI grounder.
Fatse scored the tying run on a wild pitch.
Chad Robinson got ahead of
Rohan 0-1, but the next pitch was driven over the left field wall and the Chiefs
were back in the lead.
James Leverton, who blew the
save in the top of the eighth inning, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his second win
of the season.
Game two of the series is
Wednesday night. Efrain Nieves (1-2,
6.75) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers.
Peoria sends Su-Min Jung (3-0, 0.00) to the mound.
Game time is at 6:30pm and you may hear the play-by-play action on
AM1280, WNAM. The Miller Lite
Pregame Show starts the broadcast at 6:10pm
HOME RUN:
PEO: Greg Rohan (2nd, 0 on in 8th inning, off Chad
Robinson, 0 out)
WP: James Leverton (2-0)
LP: Chad Robinson (0-1)
TIME: 2:36
ATTN: 1,004
Click
here for a complete boxscore of Tuesday's game