Rattlers’ Late Rally Erases Hansell’s Strong Start in Bandits’ Loss

Appleton, Wisconsin – Quad Cities’ right-hander Josh Hansell struck out five over 5.0-scoreless innings Tuesday, but Wisconsin’s late-game rally lifted the Timber Rattlers over the River Bandits 7-6 at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium.

Hansell, who lowered his High-A ERA to 2.57 in the effort, faced just two over the minimum during his first career-start against the Timber Rattlers and saw his offense build up a 4-0 lead before his departure.

Callan Moss drove in his first of three RBIs with the go-ahead double in the third, before Carter Frederick extended a hit streak to six games with an RBI-single two batters later.

Wisconsin starter Anthony Flores rebounded with a scoreless fourth, but surrendered two more in the fifth, allowing a run on a wild pitch before Derlin Figueroa punctuated his three-hit River Bandits debut with an RBI-single off Yerlin Rodriguez.

The Rattlers’ bats then sprung to life against Juan Martinez in the sixth, trimming Quad Cities' lead to 4-3 with a run on error and then a two-run homer off the bat of Blake Burke.

Martinez returned to the mound in the seventh, but after allowing a leadoff bunt single to Yhoswar Garcia, picked up just one out before turning the ball to Jacob Widener. The left-hander then issued a pair of free passes to load the bases before uncorking a wild pitch that scored Garcia from third to tie the game.

A Juan Baez RBI-fielder’s choice, Jadher Areinamo’s RBI-single, and Marco Dingues’s RBI-groundout put the Timber Rattlers up 7-4 before Widener closed out the frame.

A two-out, two-run single from Callan Moss off Jesus Broca cut Wisconsin’s lead to one in the eighth, but Broca would retire the final four Quad Cities hitters of the game to nail down a save and his club’s first second-half win.

Tyler Woessner (1-0) was charged for the two runs on Moss’s knock, but earned the win with 1.2 innings out of the Wisconsin bullpen, while Widener (0-1) was charged with his first blown save and first loss of the season, allowing three runs over 0.2 innings.

Quad Cities returns to Fox Cities Stadium for game two of the six-game set on Wednesday afternoon and sends Mauricio Veliz (3-3, 4.99) to the hill opposite Wisconsin’s Manuel Rodriguez (0-1, 1.80). First pitch is set for 12:10 p.m.