Cougars Claw Past Wisconsin in Ten Innings

GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and Kane County Cougars went ten innings on Wednesday night at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Both teams had surges to either tie the game or take the lead, but it was the Cougars who surged last with the most as they scored twice in the tenth to take the lead. Kane County held on for the 6-5 win.
Je'Von Ward put the Rattlers (17-19) in front with a two-run home run to the Wisconsin bullpen in the bottom of the fourth. Ward's homer was his first of the season.

Brent Díaz manufactured a run for Wisconsin in the bottom of the fifth. He singled, stole second, went to third on an error, and scored on a wild pitch to put the Rattlers up 3-0.

Logan Gillaspie, the Wisconsin starting pitcher, was cruising through five innings. He had struck out eight and allowed only four hits while walking one in those five innings. Gillaspie went back out for the sixth and gave up a lead-off single to Jose Herrera that was pulled through the shift on the right side of the infield. Buddy Kennedy followed with a deep fly to left that Ward lost in the twilight. The ball hit on the warning track and Herrera raced home while Kennedy wound up on third base. Zac Almond brought the Cougars to within a run on an RBI grounder.

Gillaspie left the game after the sixth with the lead still intact. He had allowed six hits and one walk to go along with his eight strikeouts over six innings.

Kane County (22-17) took the lead with two runs in the top of the eighth inning off reliever Chad Whitmer. Herrera started the inning with a single and Kennedy followed with a double. Almond drove in Herrera with a sacrifice fly to tie the game.

Reliever Robbie Hitt took over for Whitmer and Blaze Alexander singled through the drawn-in infield to get Kennedy home with the run to give the Cougars a 4-3 lead.

The lead was nearly extended by Kane County as they loaded the bases against Hitt, but he ended the inning on a 1-2-3 double play.

The Rattlers responded in the eighth against reliever Chester Pimentel. David Fry beat out an infield single, Ward walked, and Jesús Lujano singled to load the bases. .Pimentel struck out pinch-hitter Chad McClanahan for the first out, but walked Díaz to force in the tying run.

However, Wisconsin left the bases loaded in the eighth and the game went to the ninth inning tied 4-4.

Neither team scored in the ninth and the game went to extra innings.

Herrera was placed on second base to start the top of the tenth inning under the tie-breaker rules of minor league baseball. Kennedy sent a sharp single to left for his fourth hit of the night and to get Herrera to third base. Almond was next and he lined a single to left-center and Herrera scored while Kennedy wound up on third. Alexander added a run when his slow roller to third resulted in the only play being to first base.

In the bottom of the tenth, Ward was put on second at the start of the frame. Lujano stayed hot with a single to center to score Ward and bring the Rattlers to within a run. Lujano had four hits in the game on Wednesday.

Lujano went 10-for-14 in the three-game series with the Cougars and was 15-for-27 in the seven games he played during the eight-game homestand.

Kane County closer Blake Workman, the fifth Cougars pitcher of the game, took over after that hit and closed out the game with a force out at second and a strike-'em out, throw-'em out double play for his fifth save.

The loss snapped Wisconsin's four-game winning streak, but they went 5-3 on the homestand.
The Timber Rattlers hit the road on Thursday for the first game of a four-game series with the Burlington Bees at Community Field.   Aaron Ashby (2-1, 3.77) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Burlington has named Hector Yan (0-1, 3.81) as their starter. Game time is 6:30pm. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM and the TuneIn Radio app starting with the Papa John's Pizza Pregame Show at 6:10pm.