Quad Cities survives late Rattler rally

GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers had a frustrating Thursday afternoon in a 3-1 loss to the Quad Cities River Bandits at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. The Bandits scored all the runs they needed in the fifth inning and held off a pair of late comeback attempts by the home team.

Quad Cities (23-16) scored three times in the top of the fifth inning. The first two batters reached on a walk and a single against Wisconsin starting pitcher Austin Blaski. Teoscar Hernandez was next and he bunted up the third base line for a sacrifice attempt. Blaski fielded the ball and had a play at third for the force out, but he threw wildly and the ball wound up in left field. The runner scored and the Bandits had runners on second and third with no outs by the time the ball was retrieved.

Carlos Correa made it 2-0 with an RBI grounder. Miles Hamblin singled in Hernandez for a 3-0 lead.

The Timber Rattlers (18-19) got a run in the bottom of the fifth. Orlando Arcia singled to start the inning. Tyrone Taylor doubled in Arcia to cut the Quad Cities lead to 3-1 and put a runner at second with no outs. But, the Rattlers would strand Taylor on the bases in the fifth.

Wisconsin tried to put together a rally in the seventh as Arcia and Taylor singled with one out to put runners on the corners. Then, Michael Reed hit a line drive that was ticketed for the left field corner. But, third baseman Ryan Dineen made a backhanded grab of the liner for the second out. Wisconsin would strand both Arcia and Taylor to end the inning.

In the ninth, Arcia walked with one out and Reed walked with two outs. Both walks were against Quad Cities closer John Neely. Mitch Haniger, who had three hits in the game, worked the count to 3-2 and lashed a wicked grounder to third that deflected off Dineen into short left field.

However, the ball caromed to Correa, who threw the ball back to Dineen at third base as Arcia had rounded the bag too far. Arcia tried to make it to the plate, but was out for going out of the baseline as he tried to avoid the tag and that was how the game ended.

Wisconsin outhit the River Bandits 9-7 and stranded eleven runners in the game.

The Timber Rattlers begin a 13-game, 14-day road trip with a game against the Burlington Bees at Community Field in Burlington, Iowa on Friday night. Ryan Gibbard (2-1, 2.03) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Reid Scoggins (0-1, 1.29) is set to start for the Bees. Game time is 6:30pm.

Tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:10pm.

WP: Mike Hauschild (2-0)
LP: Austin Blaski (2-1)
SAVE: John Neely (7)

TIME: 2:35
ATTN: 3,469