Rattlers win on walkoff walk to finish Sunday's suspended game
PEORIA, IL - It was worth the wait. The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers defeated the Peoria Chiefs 2-1 in eleven innings in a game the started on Sunday in Wisconsin and ended Thursday at Dozer Park. Dustin DeMuth drew the third walk of the eleventh inning to force in the winning run for the Rattlers.
In action on Sunday afternoon at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium, Cesar Valera hit a slow dribbler to short with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the fourth. Valera just beat the throw for an infield single to allow Justin Ringo to score to put the Chiefs (60-54, 23-22) up 1-0.
The Timber Rattlers (62-52 overall, 26-19 second half) tied the game in the bottom of the sixth inning on a two-out, RBI single by David Denson that scored Taylor Brennan.
The game remained tied through the end of the ninth inning. Then, a torrential downpour halted play and the game could not be resumed until Thursday in Peoria.
Wisconsin reliever Harvey Martin pitched around a pair of singles in the top of the tenth with help from a caught stealing and a strikeout. Peoria reliever Jhonny Polanco gave up a one out single to Steve Halcomb in the tenth. Angel Ortega was next and drove a pitch to the wall in left, but it was caught on the track for the second out. Polanco got the game to the eleventh with a strikeout for the third out.
Martin worked a 1-2-3 top of the eleventh inning and that set the stage for Wisconsin's eighth "walkoff" win of the season.
Omar Garcia started the game winning rally with a single to right on an 0-2 pitch. The first out of the inning was recorded on a sacrifice bunt that was popped up back to Polanco. From there, Polanco lost the strike zone. He would walk Clint Coulter on four pitches and miss with the first two to Denson before walking him on a 3-2 pitch.
That brought DeMuth, the 5th round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2014 draft to the plate. Polanco missed with the first two pitches, but came back with two strikes to even the count. DeMuth fouled off the next two pitches and took another for a ball to run the count full. The Rattlers designated hitter fouled off two more pitches before taking ball four well wide of the strike zone to force in Garcia with the winning run.
The win, their eighth "walkoff" win of the season, moved Wisconsin's record in extra-inning games to 6-4.
The regularly scheduled game is set to start at 7:00pm with Preston Gainey (3-7, 4.36) set to start for the Timber Rattlers against Luis Perdomo (2-2, 3.97) scheduled to start for the Chiefs.
WP: Harvey Martin (4-5)
LP: Jhonny Polanco (3-1)
TIME: 2:55 (:39 delay)
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