(TIMBER RATTLERS) DAVENPORT, IA – The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers fought themselves and their recent history in the state of Iowa before coming through with a 4-3, ten-inning victory over the Quad Cities River Bandits Wednesday night at Modern Woodmen Park. Kay-Lan Nicasia cracked a two-run double in the top of the tenth to break a 2-2 tie and Yerlin Rodriguez held on in the tenth inning to finish off a game full of twists and turns.
The Timber Rattlers (42-49 overall, 8-18 second half) took the lead in the top of the second inning. Luis Castillo, in his first game back with the Rattlers since he was injured in a game against the River Bandits on April 13, drew a lead-off walk. Back-to-back grounders moved him around to third base. Andrick Nava came through with a two-out single to score Castillo for the 1-0 lead.
Hedbert Pérez gave Wisconsin insurance in the top of the fifth with a solo home run, his thirteenth home run of the season.
Quad Cities (53-38, 14-11) loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fifth against Ryan Birchard, the Rattlers starting pitcher. Sam Kulasingam singled in a run. Wisconsin went to the bullpen and brought in Anthony Flores.
Blake Mitchell was the first batter Flores faced. Mitchell lifted a flyball to left that appeared to be deep enough to score the tying run. However, Canyon Brown, the runner at third did not attempt to score. Flores shut down the rally by getting Daniel Vazquez to ground into a 4-6-3 double play.
In the bottom of the eighth inning against Aaron Rund, Vazquez reached on a weak ground ball up the third base line for a one-out single. Rund struck out Callan Moss for the second out, but Vazquez got into scoring position by stealing second on strike three. Derlin Figueroa singled to center a few pitches later to drive in Vazquez to tie the game 2-2.
The Rattlers held on by their fingernails in the bottom of the ninth inning to get the game to the tenth. Rodriguez, the fourth Wisconsin pitcher of the night, walked Brown to start the ninth and threw a wild pitch to get him to second. Erick Torres hit a hard grounder up the middle that was fielded by Baez for the out at first that moved Brown to third with the winning run. Kulasingam reached on catcher’s interference and Blake Mitchell was walked intentionally to load the bases for Vazquez.
The first pitch from Rodriguez to Vazquez went to the backstop. However, the ball rebounded to Nava behind the plate too quickly for Brown to try to score. Rodriguez bounced back to strike out Vazquez. He would get the final out of the ninth when Baez snagged a line drive up the middle off the bat of Moss, the league leader in RBI.
In the top of the tenth, Jadher Areinamo started the frame as the placed runner at second. The River Bandits decided to walk Pérez intentionally. Wisconsin had Daniel Guilarte enter to pinch run for Pérez. Then, the game got back to the action with Eduardo Garcia in the box facing Jesus Rios.
Garcia hit a hard line drive deep to left that Carter Frederick caught near the wall. Both Areinamo and Guilarte tagged after the catch to move into scoring position. Rattlers manager Victor Estevez had another card to play with Castillo’s spot in the order due to hit and that card was Nicasia to pinch hit.
Nicasia didn’t wait. He lined the first pitch from Rios to the wall in right for a two-run double and the Rattlers were up 4-2.
The bottom of the tenth was not easy for Rodriguez. He threw a wild pitch to move Moss, the placed runner on second, to third. Figueroa followed with an RBI single, and Wisconsin’s lead was down to one run.
Frederick was next and his line drive to left was dropped by Luiyin Alastre for an error that put the tying run on second and the winning run on first.
Rodriguez got the first out with a strikeout but walked Brown again, this time on four pitches to reload the bases and put the tying and winning runs in scoring position.
Torres got the first crack for Quad Cities and struck out on a check swing that brought howls of protest from the home dugout. Rodriguez closed out the game by striking out Kulasingam. Quad Cities ended the game 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position.
The Rattlers were 1-3 on the first four games of their current road trip with all three losses being of the walkoff variety. They had lost twice in Cedar Rapids in ten innings over the weekend. After Wednesday’s win, Wisconsin is 4-3 in extra innings.
Game three of the series is set for Thursday night at Modern Woodmen Park. Robert Gasser of the Milwaukee Brewers is scheduled to make a rehab start for the Timber Rattlers. Logan Martin (8-4, 4.01) has been named as the starting pitcher for Quad Cities. Game time is 6:30pm.
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