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Two-Run Ninth Gives Rattlers Walkoff Victory

Winning run scores on a balk for 2-1 win over the Kernels
Alexander Cornielle allowed three hits and struck out nine over seven scoreless innings as the starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers on September 8, 2023. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers)
By Chris Mehring
September 9, 2023

GRAND CHUTE, WI – The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers have had walkoff wins on grand slam home runs, wild pitches, bases-loaded hit batsmen, and numerous other plays since 1995. Friday night’s 2-1 walkoff win over the Cedar Rapids Kernels at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium was the Rattlers first-ever

GRAND CHUTE, WI – The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers have had walkoff wins on grand slam home runs, wild pitches, bases-loaded hit batsmen, and numerous other plays since 1995. Friday night’s 2-1 walkoff win over the Cedar Rapids Kernels at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium was the Rattlers first-ever walkoff balk as Eric Brown Jr trotted home from third with the winning run to cap a two-run rally for the home team in their last at bat.

Click here for the boxscore

Click here for the postgame podcast

The win made sure the Timber Rattlers (60-68 overall, 34-30 second half) didn’t waste Alexander Cornielle’s excellent start in his final outing of the season.

Cornielle was great. He struck out nine and allowed three hits with one walk over seven innings while keeping the Kernels off the scoreboard.

The Kernels (82-48, 42-22) used three pitchers to cover seven innings and they held Wisconsin scoreless on four hits.

Cedar Rapids took the lead in the eighth inning with an unearned run. Justin King walked Jeferson Morales to start the inning. Morales stole second with one out. King rebounded to get a strikeout for the second out. Then, Noah Miller sent a ball to the gap in right-center. Right fielder Hendry Mendez got back to the ball in time to make the catch. However, the ball didn’t stay in his glove and the two-base error let Morales score the first run of the game.

Wisconsin had a great opportunity to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth inning against Ricardo Velez, who hit Luis Lara and Brock Wilken on consecutive pitches with one out. Then, Velez committed a balk before delivering a pitch to Mendez. A shaken Velez walked Mendez to load the base before recovering to get a strikeout and a force out at third to end the inning.

Shane Smith entered the game from the Wisconsin bullpen for the top of the ninth inning and struck out the side on twelve pitches.

In the bottom of the ninth, Ben Metzinger started the rally with a one-out walk and he was replaced by pinch-runner Eduarqui Fernández, who would steal second to get into scoring position. Velez got the second out of the inning on a strikeout and that set the stage for Brown.

Brown, the first round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2022 draft, nearly tied the game with a fly ball down the line in left. However, the ball dropped in foul territory and the crowd of 5,594 had to regroup along with Brown.

Velez had Brown down to his last strike and on a 1-2 pitch, Brown hit a bloop to shallow right and the ball landed just out of the reach of first baseman Keoni Cavaco, who raced back but could not make the catch. The single let Fernández score the tying run.

Brown drew two pickoff throws from Velez before taking off and stealing second, his thirty-sixth stolen base of the season. A throwing error by Morales on the play let Brown take third base as the potential winning run.

The potential turned into reality as Velez balked to let Brown jog home to celebrate Wisconsin’s fifth walkoff win of the season.

Wilken singled in the sixth inning and was 1-for-2 with a walk and a hit batsman to extend his current hitting streak to thirteen games. He has matched the longest hitting streak by a Timber Rattler this season.

Game five of the series is Saturday night. Tyler Woessner (6-7, 5.83) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. John Klein will make his Midwest League debut as the starting pitcher for the Kernels. Game time is 6:40pm.

Bratoberfest is here! The Timber Rattlers invite fans to the ballpark to celebrate. Be one of the first 1,000 fans through the gates for this game to receive a Bobblehead featuring Tim Dillard shooting the Bratzooka! courtesy of Cher-Make. Family Night with 101.1 WIXX and Stacey Hennesey Century 21 Affiliate means a postgame fireworks display. Kids aged twelve and under may run the bases courtesy of Meijer after the fireworks.

Players and coaches will put on the amazing Wisconsin Brats uniforms for the game. The jerseys will be up for bid in auctions at this link starting September 5. Half of the jerseys are available in an auction that ends on September 10 at 6:30pm CDT with the other half of the jerseys in an auction that ends on September 10 at 7:00pm CDT.

If you can’t make it out to the ballpark, the radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Community Blood Center Pregame show at 6:20pm. Fans can listen on the radio, on the First Pitch app, or at this link.

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