Wisconsin Closes Out Regular Season Campaign with a Win
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers tuned up for a playoff run with a 10-3 victory over the Cedar Rapids Kernels on Sunday afternoon at Rise 2 Greatness Field in the regular season finale for both teams. Wisconsin hit three homers and stole five bases in the game.
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers tuned up for a playoff run with a 10-3 victory over the Cedar Rapids Kernels on Sunday afternoon at Rise 2 Greatness Field in the regular season finale for both teams. Wisconsin hit three homers and stole five bases in the game.
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Cooper Pratt gave the Rattlers (77-54 overall, 35-30 second half) the lead with a line drive homer to left with one out in the top of the first inning. Matt Wood drew a two-out walk later in the first and Eduardo Garcia followed with a towering fly ball to left that carried out for a two-run homer.
Cooper Pratt drills a LASER for his seventh homer of the year!@Brewers | @TimberRattlers | @BrewersPD pic.twitter.com/cJauW72lSb
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) September 8, 2024
Cedar Rapids (67-63, 30-36) got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second inning with a lead-off home run from Kevin Maitan.
Wisconsin started to pull away in the fourth. Hedbert Pérez and Victor Torres had consecutive RBI doubles. Jheremy Vargas drove in Torres with a sacrifice fly for a 6-1 lead.
Torres made his second start as a catcher this season. He was 0-for-7 on the season at the plate and had appeared in Saturday’s game as a pitcher in the bottom of the eighth inning. On Sunday, Torres was 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored much to the delight of his teammates.
Luis Lara cracked a lead-off home run in the top of the fifth for a 7-1 advantage.
Vargas walked, stole second, and stole third in the seventh inning. Eduarqui Fernandez drove in Vargas to make it 8-1.
Wisconsin used five pitchers in the game. Stiven Cruz started and worked a scoreless first. Dikember Sánchez gave up the homer to Maitan but nothing else in his inning of work. Harrison Durow, who joined the Rattlers from Carolina on Friday, made his Rattlers debut with two scoreless innings and three strikeouts to be credited with the win. Aiden Maldonado pitched around an error in the fifth and another in the sixth to hold the Kernels off the scoreboard. Yerlin Rodriguez had the first two runners reach against him in the seventh inning before he escaped the inning on a flyout and two strikeouts.
In the bottom of the eighth, Rodriguez struck out the first two batters but gave up a triple to Misael Urbina. Bayden Root took over for Rodriguez and allowed an RBI single to Tyler Dearden before getting the final out.
The Rattlers took advantage of two Cedar Rapids errors to score two unearned runs in the top of the ninth. Fernandez had the bases loaded and drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly. An error on a grounder to shortstop allowed Vargas to score Wisconsin’s tenth run of the game.
The Kernels got a two-out, RBI double from Rixon Wingrove in the bottom of the ninth before Root struck out Maitan looking to end the game.
Several players who started the game were lifted for rest. Vargas pinch hit for Jadher Areinamo in the fourth inning after Areinamo started the game 0-for-2. Areinamo finished the season with a .301 batting average. Fernandez replaced Lara on defense in the bottom of the sixth. Lara was 1-for-3 with a walk, a homer, and a stolen base. Lara ended the season with 45 stolen bases. Jesus Chirinos pinch-hit for Wood in the top of the seventh. Wood was 0-for-2 with a walk on Sunday.
The 77 wins this season are the second-most by a Timber Rattlers team since the 2012 team won 78 games. This year’s Wisconsin team tied with the 1996 Rattlers for the third most regular season wins. The 2001 Rattlers won 84 games. The 2012 and 2000 Rattlers had 78 wins. The 2024 Rattlers matched the 1996 team with their 77 victories.
Five stolen bases on Sunday pushed Wisconsin’s season total to 244. This year’s team fell just short of the franchise record of 245 that was set by the 2001 Rattlers.
The Timber Rattlers are off on Monday in preparation for Game One of their best-of-three series with the Quad Cities River Bandits. Wisconsin will open on the road at Modern Woodmen Park on Tuesday night. Alexander Cornielle has been announced as the starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Quad Cities will counter with Ryan Ramsey. Game time is 6:30pm CDT. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM with the Community Blood Center Pregame Show set to start at 6:10pm. The game is also available on the internet and the Bally Live App.
Fans will be able to see Tuesday’s game during a Watch Party at Neuroscience Group Field. The team will hold its annual Pick-A-Seat Event at the stadium beginning at 4:00pm. There will be concessions, free inflatables and slides, and the Leinie Lodge will be open, too. The game from Davenport, Iowa will be shown on the videoboard and the televisions in the stadium. More details about the event are available here.
Game Two of the series will be at Neuroscience Group Field on Thursday at 6:40pm. If Game Three is necessary, that game is also scheduled to start at 6:40pm. The 2024 Timber Rattlers Playoff games are presented by Sure-Dry.