Warren and Wiemer Lead the Way in Wisconsin’s Rout of Great Lakes

MIDLAND, MI – A couple of Michigan natives had great nights for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in their 13-2 win over the Great Lakes Loons at Dow Diamond on Friday night. Zavier Warren had four hits, including a homer and two doubles,. and five RBI while Joey Wiemer hit two homers and scored four runs for the Timber Rattlers.

Click here to see the boxscore of this game

Wisconsin (57-60) loaded the basses with one out in the top of the second inning. Warren, who is from Southfield, Michigan and attended nearby Central Michigan University, doubled before walks to Freddy Zamora and Nick Kahle. Warren scored on a wild pitch by Loons starting pitcher Alec Gamboa to put the Rattlers up 1-0.

Joey Wiemer, who hails from, Temperance, Michigan, added to the Wisconsin lead with a long solo homer to left-center in the top of the third. Wiemer has thirteen homers in 32 games as a Rattlers.

Great Lakes (63-55) threatened in their half of the third inning as they loaded the bases with two outs. Rattlers starting pitcher Justin Jarvis escaped with a strikeout.

The Loons took advantage of two walks and an error in the bottom of the fourth to get on the scoreboard. They had runners at second and third and one out. Jarvis got the second out on a popup. Brady Schanuel took over and got the final out of the inning on a flyout to the track in left.

Wisconsin got a chance to take advantage of an error by the Loons to add to their lead in the fifth. Carlos Rodríguez singled to start the inning. Wiemer sent a deep fly to center for what should have been the second out but the ball was dropped. Warren stepped to the plate after a ground out and cracked a three-homer over the wall in center and Wisconsin was up 5-1.

Great Lakes loaded the bases with two outs against Schanuel in the fifth but left all three stranded.

The Timber Rattlers pulled away in the sixth inning with four more runs. Antonio Piñero scored on a wild pitch to start the scoring in the frame. Joe Gray Jr. singled in the second run. Warren got a chance to hit with runners on base again and lined a double to right-center to drive them both home for a 9-1 lead.

Unbelievably, the Loons loaded the bases against Harold Chirino with one out in the bottom of the sixth. Chirino escaped the inning by getting Jorbit Vivas to ground into a 1-2-3 double play.

Warren singled, his fourth hit of the night, in the eighth inning. He scored the tenth run of the game later in the inning on a wild throw to the plate allowed him to score.

Wiemer crushed his second homer of the game in the ninth inning. This was a two-run blast. Wiemer has hit 27 home runs this season between the Carolina Mudcats in the Low-A East and the Rattlers.

Zamora hit a solo homer with two outs in the ninth to account for the final Wisconsin run. It was his first homer as a Rattler. Wisconsin matched its season-high for hits in a game (18) and homers in a game (4).

The Loons scraped a run across the plate in the bottom of the ninth on a two-out, RBI single by Ryan January. Great Lakes left fourteen runners on base and went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position in the game.

The Timber Rattlers and Loons continue their series on Saturday night at Dow Diamond. Nick Bennett (3-4, 4.21) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Gavin Stone (1-0, 3.86) is set to start for the Loons. Game time is 6:05pm CDT. The radio broadcast is on AM 1280, WNAM and on internet audio with the pregame show at 5:45pm. The game is also available on MiLB.tv.