MIDLAND, MI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers defeated the Great Lakes Loons 9-1 on Thursday night at Dow Diamond. Starting pitcher Zack Brown continued his fine second half and Weston Wilson paced the offense with three hits and three RBI.
MIDLAND, MI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers defeated the Great Lakes Loons 9-1 on Thursday night at Dow Diamond. Starting pitcher Zack Brown continued his fine second half and Weston Wilson paced the offense with three hits and three RBI.
Wisconsin (35-54 overall, 9-12 second half) jumped to an early lead with two runs in the first inning. Trever Morrison walked with one out and stole second. He scored when Mario Feliciano's grounder up the middle was booted for an error. Wilson knocked in Feliciano with a double and the Rattlers were up 2-0. They also knocked starting pitcher Imani Abdullah out of the game with two outs in the inning, but could do no more damage in the inning.
Great Lakes (44-46, 8-13) got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first when Gavin Lux hit a leadoff home run to right.
The Rattlers got to the Loons bullpen in the third inning. Wilson singled and Tucker Neuhaus doubled to start the inning against Christian Stolo. Devin Hairston followed with a double to left that only scored Wilson for a 3-1 lead. Stolo got the first out of the inning with a strikeout and was replaced by Chris Mathewson from the Great Lakes pen.
Ronnie Gideon lined the first pitch from Mathewson to the gap in right-center for a double to drive in both Neuhaus and Hairston for a 5-1 lead.
The Timber Rattlers added to their lead in the seventh inning. Wilson scored from second on an infield single by Ryan Aguilar with an error on the play.
That was more than enough for Brown. He gave up the homer to Lux and walked a batter with one out in the first. Then, he retired the next sixteen batters he faced.
The Loons didn't get their second hit off Brown until a two-out bloop single to right-center by Brendon Davis.
Brown left after walking a batter with one out in the seventh. He set a new single-game high for innings as a pro with 6-1/3 and matched his single-game high for strikeouts as a pro with eight. In five appearances since the Midwest League All-Star break, Brown has allowed three earned runs and struck out 21 in 22-2/3 innings pitched. He is 1-1 with a 1.21 ERA in those five games in the second half.
Wisconsin tacked on three more runs in the eighth inning. Gilbert Lara started the inning with a double. Demi Orimoloye moved Lara to third with a grounder. Morrison knocked in Lara with a sacrifice fly for the first run. Feliciano extended the inning by drawing a two-out walk. Wilson was next and he extended the lead with a no-doubt home run to left field and the Rattlers were up 9-1.
Parker Berberet, who took over for Brown with one on and one out in the seventh inning pitched 1-2/3 scoreless, hitless innings. Andrew Vernon took over in the ninth and tossed a perfect inning to close out the Loons.
Wisconsin has won the first two games of the series with Great Lakes. The Loons have now lost seven straight games.
The final game of the series at Dow Diamond is Friday night. Josh Pennington (0-0, 2.25) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. The Loons have named AJ Alexy (2-3, 2.42) as their starter. Game time is 6:05pm CDT. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino Pregame Show at 5:45pm. The broadcast is also available on TuneIn Radio, IHeartRadio, and MiLB.tv.
