Wisconsin Rallies Late to Beat Fort Wayne and Snap Losing Streak

GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are back in the win column. They rallied from a 2-1 deficit with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and held on to beat the Fort Wayne TinCaps 3-2 Tuesday night at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. The win allowed the Rattlers to end their five-game losing streak.
Wisconsin (13-17) scored first with a couple of doubles in the bottom of the fifth inning. Brent Díaz doubled off the wall in left with one out. Korry Howell stepped to the plate with two outs and ripped a double down the line in left to score Díaz for the 1-0 lead.

Adam Hill, the Rattlers starting pitcher was cruising through five innings. He had allowed just one hit, a bunt single by Xavier Edwards in the fourth inning, as he retired 15 of the first 16 batters that he faced. That changed in the sixth.

Fort Wayne (13-18) got a lead-off walk from Luis Almanzar to start the sixth. Hill retired the next two batters, but allowed a single to Tucupita Marcano to extend the inning. A wild pitch with Agustin Ruiz moved both runners into scoring position. Ruiz made the Hill pay when he doubled to left to score both runners and the TinCaps were up 2-1.

The Rattlers responded in the bottom of the sixth inning to go back in front. Yeison Coca doubled with one out, but he was still at second with two outs. Chad McClanahan extended the inning when he reached on an infield single that deflected off Fort Wayne pitcher Nick Kuzia. That set up the play to put the Rattlers back in the lead.

Jesús Lujano lined a single down the line in left to score Coca easily. McClanahan eased into third without incident, but Lujano had rounded first base too far and got caught in a rundown.   Fortunately for the Rattlers, the flip back to first base was wild and that allowed McClanahan to trot home with the go-ahead run.

Hill, who walked one and struck out seven over six innings, was suddenly the pitcher of record on the plus side of the ledger as he turned the game over to the Wisconsin bullpen for the seventh inning.

Michael Mediavilla was first and he pitched around a two-out single to work a scoreless seventh.

The first two Wisconsin hitters reached base in the bottom of the seventh, but there was a delay of 21 minutes before play restarted. Plate umpire Kevin Mandzuk appeared to get a splinter from a broken bat on a single by Brice Turang in his eye and he had to leave the game. Base umpire Edwin Jimenez had to go suit up to work the remainder of the game behind the plate as the lone arbiter.
The Rattlers did move the runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt, but they were stranded and the team carried the 3-2 lead into the eighth.

Chad Whitmer, who gave up five runs without retiring a hitter in his outing prior to Tuesday night, took over for Mediavilla in the top of the eighth inning and gave up a lead-off single. But he got out of the frame. A sacrifice bunt attempt went right back to Whitmer on the mound and his throw to second was in time to cut down the runner. A force play at second and a grounder to first ended the eighth. Whitmer worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning to close out his first save of the season.
The rubber game of the series is set for Wednesday night. Logan Gillaspie (0-0, 3.31) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Gabe Mosser is set to start for the TinCaps. Game time is 6:35pm.

There are 16-ounce domestic beers available for $2 to those of legal drinking age.   Everyone may enjoy Cher-Make Hot dogs and 16-ounce Pepsi products for $1 as part of this Bang for Your Buck Night with Y100. 

Plus, one lucky fan will win the Funjet Vacations Charter airfare giveaway at this game.

If you can't make it out to the game, you can still catch all the action. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM and the TuneIn Radio app starting with the Papa John's Pizza Pregame Show at 6:15pm. MiLB.tv subscribers can watch the game over the internet.

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