Heartbreak in Kane County

GENEVA, IL - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers had a 5-4 lead over the Kane County Cougars heading into the bottom of the ninth on Saturday night at Northwestern Medicine Field. But the Cougars rallied for two runs in their last at bat for a 6-5 win to collect their sixth victory in a row.

Wisconsin (50-53 overall, 19-15 second half) took the lead in the top of the first inning. Thomas Dillard lined a two-strike pitch to left with two outs for a double to score Jesús Lujano for a 1-0 lead.

Kane County (59-44, 24-10) responded in the bottom of the second inning when Blaze Alexander hit a two-run home run to left and the Cougars had a 2-1 lead.

The Rattlers took advantage of a few miscues by the Cougars to score two unearned runs in the third inning and retake the lead. Connor McVey reached on an error and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Lujano. David Fry followed with a double to left to score McVey with the tying run.

A passed ball allowed Fry to take third. Dillard cashed in Fry with a sacrifice fly to center and the Rattlers had a 3-2 lead.

The Cougars rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the third inning. Zac Almond's sacrifice fly scored Geraldo Perdomo to even the score.

Dillard gave the Rattlers a 4-3 lead with a laser beam of a home run to right-center in the sixth inning. Dillard's ball cleared the roof of the picnic pavilion and was measured at 447' with an exit velocity of 107mph. It was Dillard's second home run in as many games.

Dominic Fletcher brought Kane County back in the bottom of the sixth inning with a two-out RBI single to score Almond from third base.

Fry, who hit two homers on Friday night at Cedar Rapids, struck again in the top of the eighth inning with a towering flyball to left that cleared the scoreboard. Fry's fifteenth home run of the season put the Rattlers up 5-4.

Luis Contreras, the newest Wisconsin reliever, had entered the ball game in the seventh inning and worked around a double and a walk with a couple of strikeouts. He worked a perfect eighth after the Rattlers had taken the lead.

He looked like he had retired Blaze Alexander on a routine fly out to right-center to start the bottom of the ninth inning. However, the ball dropped between three fielders and Alexander raced into second for a lead-off double. Joey Rose was next and his soft fly to right-center dropped in as well to move Alexander to third. That would be the end of the night for Contreras.

Tyler Gillies was called on to get out of the jam and he got two quick strikes on Zack Shannon. The next pitch was in the dirt and it trickled away from Fry to allow Rose to get into scoring position with the winning run. Shannon fouled off the next pitch.   Then, Shannon lined a single down the line in left to score Alexander and Rose for the walkoff victory.

The Clinton LumberKings lost 3-0 at Cedar Rapids on Saturday night. With one game left before the halfway mark of the second-half Western Division playoff race, Kane County has opened up a three-game lead on the LumberKings and a five-game lead on the Rattlers at the top of the division. Wisconsin trails Clinton by two games in the Wild Card race.
Game two of the series is Sunday afternoon at Northwestern Medicine Field. Justin Jarvis (3-1, 3.00) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Levi Kelly (4-0, 2.09) is set to start for the Cougars. Game time is 1:00pm. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM and the TuneIn Radio app starting with the Papa John's Pizza Pregame Show at 12:40pm. MiLB.tv subscribers can watch the game over the internet.