Rattlers Hang On To Beat Kane County

GENEVA, IL - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers earned their first victory of the 2018 season over the Kane County Cougars with a 4-3 decision on Memorial Day afternoon at Northwestern Medicine Field.   The Rattler had to rally twice and hold on at the end to salvage a win in the final game of the four-game series.
 
Kane County (25-22) took an almost immediate lead. Gabriel Maciel dropped a bunt single on the first pitch of the bottom of the first. Jasrado Chisholm doubled on a 1-0 pitch and the Cougars had runners at second and third with no outs. Yoel Yanqui was next and drove a pitch to center. Both runners tagged after Zach Clark made the catch. Maciel scored easily as the throw went into third. However, the throw was wild and wound up out of play and Chisholm scored for a 2-0 lead.

The Timber Rattlers (23-28) had an almost immediate answer to tie the game. KJ Harrison drew a walk and Pat McInerney reached on an error to start the top of the second. Gilbert Lara cracked a bad-hop single to left to score Harrison and send McInerney to third base. Later in the inning, Brent Diaz evened the score with a sacrifice fly to score McInerney.

The Cougars went back in front in the bottom of the second inning. Eduardo Diaz doubled to start the inning, was sacrificed to third, and scored when he beat the throw home on a grounder off Rattlers starting pitcher Christian Taugner.
 
Wisconsin charged back to the lead in the fourth inning on a two-out, two-run single by Joantgel Segovia. That was it for the scoring.

Taugner settled in after the second inning. He allowed two hits over his final five innings of work and left the game with a 4-3 lead. Monday was the first time Taugner had pitching seven innings as a professional and it was his fourth quality start in his last five starts.

It was up to lefty Cody Beckman to close out the game as he entered in the eighth. Beckman walked the lead-off batter, but picked him off first before retiring the next two batters.

In the ninth, Beckman retired the first two batters before a single, an error, and a wild pitch put they tying run on third and the winning run on first. Beckman finished the game with a flourish by striking out Rose to end the game.
 
The Timber Rattlers continue their road trip with the first game of a three-game series against the Cedar Rapids Kernels at Perfect Game Field on Tuesday night. Alec Bettinger (4-3, 3.86) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. The Kernels have named Bailey Ober (1-1, 7.84) as their starter. Game time is 6:35pm.

The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino Pregame Show at 6:15pm. The broadcast is also available on the Tune In and IHeart Radio apps. Subscribers to MiLB.tv can watch the game over the internet.