Wisconsin Has Just Enough Insurance to Beat Lake County

GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers made their first game as Los Cascabeles muy interesante late, but they held on to beat the Lake County Captains 5-4 on Friday night at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. The win gave the Rattlers a split in the first two games of the three-game series with Lake County.
Wisconsin (14-18) took the lead in the bottom of the third inning. Chad McClanahan started the inning with a single and Chad McVey followed with a single to put runners on first and second. Je'Von Ward drove in McClanahan with a double to left-center and the Rattlers were up 1-0.

Lake County (19-14) tied the game on an unearned run in the top of the fifth. Miguel Jerez doubled to start the inning and went to third on a ground out. Wisconsin starting pitcher Aaron Ashby got the second out with a foul pop, but a passed ball on the first pitch to the next batter allowed Jerez to score the tying run.

The Captains, who were playing in their Picante de Lake County jerseys as part Minor League Baseball's Copa de la Diversión, took the lead in the sixth. Tyler Freeman doubled with one out. Will Benson beat out a single to put runners on the corners. Mitch Reeves, who had two RBI against the Rattlers on Thursday, singled to get Freeman home and chase Benson to third.

Ashby stopped the Captains from getting more runs in the inning when he got Bo Naylor to ground into an inning-ending double play.

The Wisconsin comeback started in the bottom of the sixth when Yeison Coca was hit by a pitch with one out. David Fry followed with a double to left-center. Fry's league-leading 14^th double of the season put runners at second and third.

McClanahan hit a sinking line drive to right that dropped in for a single and Coca scored the tying run. Fry could only make third base on the play. The hit by McClanahan knocked Lake County starter Juan Mota out of the game.
Reliever Thomas Ponticelli enter the contest and got the second out of the inning on a short flyball to right. Then, the Rattlers got tricky to take the lead.

McClanahan broke for second on a pitch to Antonio Piñero and drew throw. He slammed on the brakes and stayed in the rundown long enough to Fry to score without a play to give the Rattlers a 3-2 lead.

In the bottom of the eighth, Wisconsin added two insurance runs that seemed like no big deal at the time. McClanahan hit a high chopper off the plate with the bases loaded to get a run home from third with the RBI grounder. Jesús Lujano scored from third on a wild pitch to account for the final run of the inning to put the Rattlers up by three runs.

Chad Whitmer, Wisconsin's third pitcher of the night, entered the game in the ninth and retired the first two batters he faced. Bo Naylor kept the game alive with a solo home run to left.

Jerez was next and he reached second on an error. Jesse Berardi was next and he singled to right to score Jerez and Wisconsin's comfortable lead was cut to a single run.

The Captains made the end really interesting as they loaded the bases on an infield single and another Wisconsin error. Whitmer was finally able to close out the game when he got Ruben Cardenas to pop out to first for the final out.

Ashby picked up the win as he allowed two runs - one earned - on six hits over six innings. He struck out six in the game.
The rubber game of the series is set for Saturday afternoon. Reese Olson (1-2, 4.37) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Lake County has named Raymond Burgos (2-0, 2.86) as their starter. Game time is 1:05pm.

The first 500 children ages 12 and under will receive a mini-frisbee from North Shore Bank as part of Family Day with WIXX.

Ant-Man will be life-sized for a special appearance to meet with you little Avengers at this game as part of the first Superhero Day of the season. After the game, children 12 and under may run the bases courtesy of Meijer.
If you can't make it out to the game, you can still catch all the action. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM and the TuneIn Radio app starting with the Papa John's Pizza Pregame Show at 12:45pm. MiLB.tv subscribers can watch the game over the internet.

Saturday's game is also the first television broadcast of the season. Fans in Northeastern Wisconsin may watch the game live on CW-14. Those in Southeastern Wisconsin can see the game on My-24. The TV broadcast starts at 1:00pm.