GENEVA, IL - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers had a 5-2 lead going to the bottom of the seventh inning against the Kane County Cougars on Saturday night at Northwestern Medicine Field as they were looking for their second straight win over the Cougars. But, Kane County rallied to tie the
GENEVA, IL - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers had a 5-2 lead going to the bottom of the seventh inning against the Kane County Cougars on Saturday night at Northwestern Medicine Field as they were looking for their second straight win over the Cougars. But, Kane County rallied to tie the game in the seventh and win the game 8-5 on a Carlos Hernandez three-run homer in the bottom of the tenth.
The Timber Rattlers (47-69 overall, 21-27 second half) took a 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the top of the first inning. Keston Hiura singled with one out. Stephen Vogt, who was playing the second game of his rehabilitation assignment from the Milwaukee Brewers as the starting catcher for Wisconsin, lined a double to the gap in left-center and Hiura scored all the way from first. Vogt would take third when the throw home was wild. Ronnie Gideon followed with a single to right to score Vogt.
Wisconsin doubled their advantage with two more runs in the top of the third. Ryan Aguilar tripled to start the inning and to extend his current hitting streak to seven games. Hiura followed with an RBI single. A wild pitch sent Hiura to second and a ground out by Vogt moved Hiura to third base. Gideon got Hiura home with a sacrifice fly to deep right for a 4-0 lead.
Kane County (65-50, 26-22) had a pair of singles against Wisconsin starting pitcher Thomas Jankins in the bottom of the third inning, but couldn't take advantage. Luis Silverio singled to start the inning, but Vogt threw him out on an attempted steal of second. Marcus Wilson singled with two outs and attempted to steal second. He was not successful as Vogt threw a strike on the bag and Wilson was out number three of the inning.
The Cougars got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth inning. Adam Walton doubled and an error on Jankins put runners on second and third with no outs. Jankins got the first out with a strikeout, but Hernandez dribbled a single through the right side of the infield to score both runners and cut the Rattlers lead to two runs.
The Rattlers added an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning with a two-out rally. Zach Clark was hit by a pitch with two outs and none on base. He stole second to get into scoring position. Aguilar followed with a single up the middle to drive in Clark and the Rattlers were up 5-2.
However, the Cougars rallied again in the seventh inning and this one tied the game. Jankins got a strikeout to start the inning and broke Stephen Smith's bat on a grounder to short, but Smith would reach on an infield single. Manny Jefferson followed with a double to left and the Cougars had runners at second and third with no outs. Alexis Olmeda singled to right to score Smith, but Demi Orimoloye came up firing and threw Jefferson out at the plate for the second out.
Walton brought the Cougars to within a run on a double to knock in Olmeda and that was all for Jankins. He turned the ball over to Daniel Brown, who walked the first two batters he faced to load the bases. Then, Brown would throw a wild pitch with Hernandez at the plate to score Walton with the tying run.
The Cougars nearly took the lead in the seventh inning. Hernandez checked his swing on a 3-2 pitch in the dirt and the ball trickled up the first base line. Hernandez was ruled to have not swung on the appeal play and headed for first base. Anfernee Grier, the runner at third broke for the plate, but Nathan Rodriguez, who had taken over for Vogt behind the plate in the bottom of the sixth, race to the plate with the ball and managed to tag Grier just before the runner touched the plate.
Wisconsin's offense went silent after the RBI single by Aguilar in the seventh. They managed one base runner on a walk, but no hits over the final 3-1/3 innings.
Brown pitched a scoreless eighth and a scoreless ninth to send the game to extra innings, but the Cougars rallied to win the game in the tenth against reliever Miguel Sanchez.
Grier started the inning with a walk. Wilson was next and he singled to put runners on first and second with no outs. Hernandez stepped in to the box and launched the first pitch he saw from Sanchez over the wall in left-center for a walk-off, three-run homer.
The final game of the series is Sunday afternoon. Drake Owenby (0-0, 1.86) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Sam McWilliams (11-5, 2.56) is set to start for the Cougars. Game time is 1:00pm. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino Pregame Show at 12:40pm. The broadcast is also available on TuneIn Radio, IHeartRadio, and MiLB.tv.
